38 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



Inn, to whom, under pledge of secrecy, I had confided 

 our discovery, that they had been to Pentargon Cove to 

 visit our young friend, and found that he had been 

 removed (probably by his mother) back to the exact 

 spot where we had found him. They also stated that 

 his presence there had become known in the village, and 

 that the conviction had been expressed that " the boys " 

 would certainly go and stone him to death ! I had 

 already reproached myself for going elsewhere that day 

 instead of to Pentargon Cove to look after my young 

 seal, and now I hastily left my dinner, procured in the 

 village two men and a potato sack, and hurried to 

 Pentargon Cove. As we approached the edge of the 

 cliff the sun was setting, and the cove was very still and 

 suffused with a red glow. Then a weird sound rent the 

 air, like that made by one in the agonies of sea-sickness. 

 It was the little seal calling for his mother ! It is the 

 habit of the females of this species to leave the shore 

 during the day when they go in search of the fish on 

 which they feed, and to return to their young in the 

 evening, in order to suckle them. I could see, from above, 

 my baby friend — a little white figure all -alone in the 

 deepening gloom of the great cliffs — raising his head 

 and, by his cries, helplessly inviting his enemies to come 

 and destroy him. In a few minutes we were down by 

 his side, had placed him in the potato sack, and brought 

 him to the upper air. On the way to the inn I pur- 

 chased a large-sized baby's bottle with a fine indiarubber 

 teat. We placed the little seal on straw in a large open 

 packing-case in the stables, whilst the kitchen-maid 

 warmed some milk and filled the feeding-bottle. Then 

 I brought it to him, looking down on his broad, white- 

 furred head, with its wonderful eyes, set so as to throw 

 their appealing gaze upwards. I touched his nose with 

 the milky indiarubber teat. With unerring precision 



