88 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLLSHIRE 



seldom saved by the natives whose perquisite it 

 becomes ; and where seals are mischievous, they 

 have already been proportionately exterminated, 

 while, though I have eaten the meat, and should 

 have no objection whatever to doing so again, I 

 hardly think that the practice is sufficiently 

 general to admit of the classification of Phoca 

 vitulina as a table delicacy. 



But when we look further afield and see that 

 those animals which offer the most irresistible 

 attractions to the sporting instinct, such, for 

 example, as the ibex or the chamois, would 

 arouse neither the enthusiasm of the epicure nor 

 the enmity of the gamekeeper, we may surely 

 confess that there may be exceptions to a gener- 

 ally useful rule, and that the difficulties and 

 discomforts incidental to the stalking of certain 

 creatures may serve alone as the sportsman's 

 excuse for coveting their -trophies. If, therefore, 

 in accurately describing a day on an island (which 

 shall be nameless) where seals are in no danger 

 of extinction, I can show these qualifications to 

 have existed, I hope I shall at least escape a 

 hasty classification as an extremely pernicious 

 variety of the degraded genus " gull-plugger." 



It is a fine September morning. Not a breath 

 of wind moves the tops of the trees which shelter 

 the house ; everything promises a thoroughly 

 broiling day. I come down to breakfast ani- 

 mated by a hope that no stern parental fiat will 



