CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE SEALS 



jaws, and, indeed, great muscular power in every part of 

 tlieir body. A farmer near the coast here, seeing several 

 basking on the sand-banks, and not being possessed of a 

 gun, hit upon what seemed to him the capital plan of set- 

 ting a strong bulldog at them, hoping that the dog would 

 hold one of them till he could get up and kill it with his 

 spade. The dog reached the seals before they could get in- 

 to the water, and attacked one of the largest. The seal, how- 

 ever, with a single bite completely smashed the head of the 

 dog, and flinging him to one side, scuffled away into the 

 water, leaving the farmer not much inclined to attempt seal- 

 hunting again. 



My man, one day while we were waiting in our ambus- 

 cade for the seals, gave me an account of a curious advent- 

 ure he had with one near the same spot a few years back. 



He was lying at daybreakensconced close to the water's 

 edge, waiting in vain for a shot at some grey geese that fre- 

 quented the place at the time, when he saw a prodigiously 

 large seal floating quietly along with the tide, not thirty 

 yards from the shore. Donald did not disturb the animal, 

 but went home early in the day, and, having cast some bul- 

 lets for his gun and made other preparations, retired to 

 rest. The next morning he was again at the shore, well con- 

 cealed, and expecting to see the seal pass with the flowing 

 tide; nor was he disappointed. About the same period of 

 the rise of the tide, the monster appeared again. Donald 

 cocked his gun, and crouched down behind his ambuscade 

 of seaweed and shingle, ready for the animal's head to ap- 

 pear within shot. This soon happened, but instead of swim- 

 ming on with the tide, the seal came straight to the shore, 

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