CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE SEALS 



lad, who whiles took a shot along the shore" — in other 

 words, who poached more hares than he made shoes. 



After they had remained in this uncomfortable position 

 for a long time, till Donald's hands had become perfectly 

 cramped andstiff.the seal suddenlyseemed to recoverhim- 

 self, and turning round to see what was holding him, looked 

 the man full in the face, with a bewildered air of astonish- 

 ment; then seeing what kind of enemy he had to deal with, 

 he gave a tremendous shake, casting Donald offlike a "bit 

 rag," as he expressed it, and leaving him prostrate in the 

 pool of blood that had come out of the bullet-hole, moved 

 slowly into the water, and quietly went down to the bot- 

 tom. Donald, in utter disgust and wretchedness at losing 

 his prize, walked straight home, and went to bed to sleep 

 off his disappointment. The next morning, however, on 

 considering over the matter, he came to the conclusion that 

 the seal must be dead, and would probably, as the tide 

 ebbed, be grounded on one of the adjacent sand-banks; so 

 he returned to the bay at low- water, and the first thing he 

 saw was his seal lying dead on a sand-bank, and looking 

 like a coble keel uppermost. And a perfect argosy did it 

 turnout, producing more pints of oil and a larger skin than 

 ever seal produced before or since. 



I have seen these animals caught by placing a strono- 

 net, made for the purpose, across a deep and narrow chan- 

 nel through which they escaped when frightened off a 

 sand-bank, where they were in the habit of resting at low- 

 water. We quietly laid the net down, fixing it at each end 

 with an anchor; we then rowed round to the bank, and a- 

 way went the seals, splattering over the wet sands into the 

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