CHAPTER VI 1 

 A DAY WITH A SEAL 



IT is no part of my intention, speaking without 

 authority and with little experience, to discuss 

 seriously the ethics of seal-shooting. In spite 

 of every natural advantage with which a careful 

 Providence has supplied them, the numbers of 

 these animals in most localities are rapidly dimin- 

 ishing, and a logical encouragement of their 

 destruction could serve no good purpose what- 

 ever; while, having fairly won as good a trophy 

 as that which adorns the room in which I am 

 writing, I feel it is unlikely that I shall join in the 

 persecution of seals on any future occasion. 



I have been carefully brought up to believe in 

 the rough classification of the objects of sport 

 under two heads animals useful for food or other 

 purposes when dead, and animals which do mis- 

 chief when alive ; and I am ready to admit that 

 it would be sophistical to include seals nowadays 

 under either category, for the useful blubber is 



1 This chapter is by my son Geoffrey. I have included it in this 

 volume because it describes the sport of seal stalking in another 

 locality, and from a somewhat different point of view. 



