THE ANIMALS OF THE CLIFFS 131 



length of some of these tunnels is truly length the thought struck the fisher- 

 astonishing. The well-known seal hole man that the bold visitor could be 

 between Boscastle and Cambeak Head, none other than the mother of the baby 

 for instance, penetrates not less than seal that shared his home. Touched 

 three hundred yards into the land, yet by the daring of her maternal affection 

 is so narrow here and there that care he restored the captive, fond though 

 and skill are needed to prevent the he had grown of it, and the visits of 

 boat from being dashed against the the parent seal at once ceased, 

 walls and in places against the de- Seals meet their death not only at 

 scending roof by the ground-swell which the hand of man, but, hard as it is to 

 always rages in these confined and believe, also by the action of the 

 resounding recesses. The difficulties elements in which they live. This 

 of the raiders are increased by the happens when sudden storms surprise 

 foulness of the air, which often makes them in the caves and beat their life 

 it almost impossible to keep the torches out before they can escape ; con- 

 alight : at times the attack is aban- sequently they abandon the cliff-haunts 

 doned on this account. If all goes at the approach of bad weather and 

 well and the seals are reached, a savage keep to the offing, 

 fray ensues in which one or more of Their attachment to the wind-and- 

 the creatures may fall victims, though wave-beaten north coast is not a little 

 not infrequently all escape. strange, but the reason for the limita- 

 The relations between man and tion of their habitat is probably to be 

 amphibian exhibit however at times an found in the seclusion of that coast, 

 aspect as humane as the raid is bar- the inaccessibility of the caves, and 

 barous. On one of these expeditions perhaps partly to the presence in the 

 a young seal was captured and taken adjacent waters of the herring on 

 home by a Boscastle fisherman. It which the seal largely feeds during the 

 was his intention to rear and make a winter months. We have a few records 

 pet of it. The following day, to every- which go to prove that the creature 

 body's surprise, a seal was observed has long frequented this particular 

 to come into the little harbour and shore. Borlase, vicar of Pendeen in 

 remain there until the ebb of the tide the eighteenth century, tells of its 

 compelled it to withdraw. It came being there in his time ; so does Ray, 

 the next day and the, day after, and at who calls it, as it is commonly called to 



