222 Alexander Goodman More. [i869 



seals, but got shots at only two, of which he killed one 

 " a very shy and lively Rone-Beg." On Monday he set 

 out on a long-projected excursion. " Started at 10.40, one 

 hour before high water, for the rocks called Carrig-na- 

 niackan, to look for big seals." He had heard much of the 

 fame of these rocks, which lie out, far from land, in the 

 Atlantic, as a haunt of the Halichserus. After five hours 

 at sea he " landed, through dangerous surf, on Carrig-na- 

 Mackan/'tofind " Beta maritimaof gigantic size," and a few 

 other common maritime plants. " Only these eight species," 

 he says, noting their names as methodically as if he had 

 gone there to find them. On Tuesday, after visiting the 

 local school in the forenoon, and noting that he had " found 

 the reading and writing good," he adds : " Next tried for 

 an hour for a shot at the dome-headed old Bull, sitting in 

 a chink of a rock up to my middle in water. At last fired 

 at 150 yards at his swimming head a very near shave." 

 A few other shots were obtained the same day, but no 

 seals were bagged. On Wednesday he had no better 

 success, though eight seals were stalked or shot at; and 

 on Thursday he notes : " Seals very wild in the bay." 

 " Shot at a head at 100 yards: a fair shot, but the head 

 ducked as the bullet left the rifle. This was fired from 

 boat. Then a shot from a rock, after an unsuccessful 

 stalk." 



His arrangements had now all been made to start for 

 Aran on the following morning. He had been a week at 

 Kilkieran, and the only success obtained had been in the 

 dredging, among whose most recent results he was pleased 

 to find at last the rare shell, Tellina balaustina, scarcely 

 expected at Kilkieran, which had disappointed him by 

 not turning up in Bertraghbuy Bay, its reputed locality. 



So on Friday, August 2oth, he started for Aran, carry- 

 ing with him the happiest memories of his life on the 

 Connemara shore, where he had formed many friendships. 

 It was disappointing, nevertheless, that all his carefully 

 laid plans for securing the Great Grey Seal had been so 

 completely bafHed by the, animal's wary nature; for this 

 was his farewell to the haunts of Rone-More, except, 

 indeed, for one (as it may have seemed) " forlorn hope." 



