NOV. DECREASE OF SEALS. 51 



these great creatures swim up within a few yards 

 of the ambuscade which I had erected close to the 

 narrow entrance where the tide came in to fill the 

 bay. At thirty or forty yards distance I found it 

 impossible to shoot a seal swimming if he had seen 

 me and was watching my movements : my best 

 chance always was when the animal, having turned 

 away, presented the broad back of his head as a 

 mark to my rifle. If I arrived at the place in time 

 to do so, I put up some small object at a distance 

 off, on the side of the inlet opposite to where I was 

 concealed. This had the effect of distracting the 

 attention of the animal from his real danger. 



A flock of seals playing and fighting on a sand- 

 bank is one of the drollest sights which I know in 

 this country. Their uncouth cries and movements 

 are unlike anything else. In the Dornoch Firth and 

 near Tain there are still great numbers of them, 

 and every fine day they are in large flocks on the 

 sandbanks ; but near this part of the country they 

 have been very much thinned off, and scarcely any 

 are killed excepting by myself. My keeper tells 

 me that when he was a boy their number was very 

 great, and that the inhabitants of the place could 

 always kill as many as they wanted for oil, and for 

 their skins, picking out the largest of the herds 

 and sparing the smaller ones ; but, alas ! cheap 



