THE HERDS OF PROTEUS 81 



bushes, and kill your seal so dead that he never 

 hears the shot that struck him, is sport indeed 

 worthy of the name. The places, however, where 

 seals can be got in this manner are few and far 

 between. They usually choose secluded rocks 

 unapproachable from land, and, sleepy as they 

 look, are off like lightning at the slightest sound 

 of oars or footsteps. I used, however, to know at 

 least two places where at a low spring-tide seals 

 were almost certain to be found reposing on a 

 sunny day, and where I have had several success- 

 ful expeditions. One was off the mainland, just 

 below the spot where the rugged cairns of Benan 

 tower above Loch Craignish, where a flat rock, 

 only dry at low water, afforded a favourite resting- 

 place for these amphibious creatures, so graceful 

 in the water, so awkward and clumsy-looking on 

 shore. There I have frequently watched, and at 

 least once stalked and secured them ; but, until 

 the island opposite was inhabited and the farm- 

 house occupied, a more sure find was a cluster of 

 long rocks about a hundred yards outside it, 

 which at a suitable tide was almost certain to 

 have quite a colony of amphibious tenants. In 

 that farmhouse nearly a century ago a certain 

 Miss Minnie, a distant connection of the house of 

 Malcolm, had lived and flourished, monarch, not 

 of all she surveyed, for the prospect was some- 

 what extensive, but at least supreme in her island 

 kingdom. A solitary place, not suited for lovers 



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