SEALS. 329 



every year by keepers, and newspaper paragraphs 

 announcing the destruction of otters in various parts 

 of Ireland are of frequent occurrence. I have known 

 Otter hunters in Ireland who have spent their lives 

 trapping these animals for the sake of their skins, 

 and who believed in the existence of a very large 

 species called by them the " King of Otters," or 

 " Master Otter." But a fine otter might measure 

 2ft. 6in. from tip of nose to end of tail, and weigh, 

 say 25lbs. There is a white Otter in the Belfast 

 Museum which was shot at Islay in April, 1850. 



SEALS, both the common (vitulina) and grey 

 (gryp/ms), are common on many parts of the Irish 

 coast, more especially on the west and south-west. 



On the coast of Kerry the country people take 

 their annual crop of Seals, as they do of potatoes 

 or turf. They swim into the caves and club the 

 young as they rest on the shelving ledges of sand 

 or rocks. Smith, in his " History of Kerry," 1756, 

 writes, " Seals are taken in caverns, particularly the 

 young, on moonlight nights. The old ones fight 

 and bite furiously. They never let go their hold 

 till they hear whatever they fasten on crash between 

 their teeth. For this reason the seal-catchers have 



v 



bags fixed on their limbs with charcoal quilted in 

 them." This was a common practice among Seal- 

 takers within recent years. Seals, on being struck 

 by a bullet, always sink when wounded, and not 

 invariably, as is commonly supposed, when killed. 

 I have shot Seals through the brain, and found, 

 whenever so killed, if fat (as are the females or 

 young), they never fail to float fully four minutes 

 ere sinking, but an old bull goes down at once. 



