342 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



snapped the eel's vertebra in a number of places and 

 swallowed it whole ! 



On rare occasions a seal swims and drifts into this neigh- 

 bourhood, and has a very restless time of it, being shot at 

 by gunners, startled off the beach by pedestrians when 

 bunched up on the sands for a nap, and anathematised by 

 sea-anglers. One day in November, 1891, a seal made its 

 appearance in the vicinity of the jetty. An angler had 

 just hooked a codling, when something that a young urchin 

 likened unto a " corpse " seized the fish and swam boldly 

 away with it. To the fisherman's surprise he immediately 

 hooked the seal when endeavouring to pull the fish away 

 from it, and at once essayed to land it. To this end he 

 played the animal and gradually drew it near the shore, 

 whilst eager spectators, lining the beach below, waited to 

 give it a warm reception. But the seal took fright as it 

 came into the breakers, and making a sudden dash, broke 

 the line, taking a hook with it. It was subsequently seen 

 in the neighbourhood of Scroby sands, and probably got 

 safely away, a sadder and a wiser animal. 



I well remember a grey seal being shot with a punt-gun 

 on Breydon in November, 1882. More than one old 

 Breydoner, who witnessed the massacre of the poor brute 

 as it struggled to escape over the flats, have graphically 

 pictured to me the " rumpus " and the " outpour of blood that 

 reddened the drain." Poor beast ! A pound of shot sent 

 into its head at close quarters would make a ghastly gaping 

 wound. I am glad I was absent at the time. 



A RABBIT YARN 



Some twenty or thirty years ago a certain lighthouse 



keeper, recently come to W lighthouse a few miles north 



of Yarmouth, on getting settled, thought it would be advan- 

 tageous to him to turn a bit of the sandy warren attached 

 to the premises into a vegetable garden. Accordingly he set 

 to work, and having delved it into the semblance of a garden 

 patch, proceeded to plant it. For the first few days the 

 young vegetables promised to flourish in their new quarters, 

 and the " bunnies " on the adjacent warren had not yet got 



