270 HIGHLAND SPORT 



row from island to island, and, accompanied by a couple of 

 wiry-haired Skye terriers, visits can be paid to every holt. 

 The dogs should be put into some hole well above the one 

 opening into the sea, while it is not necessary to spend much 

 time at each earth, for if the otter is at home the dogs will 

 be certain to give tongue at once, so a few minutes' silence 

 is a nearly sure indication that the amphibious one is not there. 

 The moment the dogs enter the holt the hunter must stand 

 prepared for a snap shot, while as he is rarely more than twenty 

 yards distant from the bolted otter, but few should escape. For 

 this work I used No. 3 shot, and in one season got sixteen otters. 



Now as to the seals I must confess they fairly beat me,' for 

 from being a good deal "looked after," they seldom rested on 

 the shore of the mainland, preferring the greater safety of the 

 points of the small islands, while as they can see, hear and 

 smell better than any deer, it was nearly impossible to stalk 

 them, and thus I never got but two, and those as much by 

 good luck as anything else, for they were the results of snap 

 shots made at about a hundred yards : on each occasion the 

 Express bullet literally laid their heads open, and killing them 

 stone dead, we were able to row up in time to get the spear 

 into them before they sank. It must be stated these two shots 

 were the only " bullseyes " in many essays, but a seal's head is 

 not a large mark when bobbing about in the water a hundred 

 yards off; also the boat is moving, while the shot has to be 

 taken from the shoulder. 



As for the porpoises, at times they appeared in vast shoals, 

 on which occasions they paid no heed to our craft, often rolling 

 up within a few yards of our boat when anchored for whiting 

 fishing, but after having more than once snapped bullets clean 

 through them, finding they could not be killed stone dead, I 

 gave up the attempt. The natives at times tried to harpoon 

 them, but their weapons were of such a primitive character that 

 the porpoise always wrenched himself free, and not one capture 

 was witnessed by this method. With a well-made harpoon, 



