92 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



what grimly original point of view, "It's just 

 spoilin' the place for wrecks ! " Yet to the eye 

 of an ordinary landsman the shore is plentifully 

 strewn with masts, spars, and broken timbers, 

 while long bamboo canes and fragments of larger 

 trees than the islands produce testify to the 

 proximity of the Gulf Stream. A small farmhouse 

 partially concealed by intervening dunes com- 

 pletes the picture. 



But to-day this picture is all that greets the 

 eye, and the telescope reveals no shining backs 

 or wriggling hind-flippers on that piece of the 

 reef which is visible from our present point of 

 view. Accordingly, we move on to the dunes 

 themselves till we reach a place whence a more 

 likely part of the low, weed-covered rocks can 

 be spied, and here, unless I am very much mis- 

 taken, we must find our game. And so it turns 

 out, for after one or two sweeps the movement 

 of the glass is arrested by a dark object waving 

 above a rock against the bright background of 

 sea beyond. A second glance confirms what 

 experience has told me, that what I saw was the 

 tail and hind-flippers of a" seal, and in another 

 moment I have counted five, lying on a small 

 rock whose weed-covered top is only just clear of 

 the calm water. It will mean a swim for the 

 body, if the shot is successful, for the little island 

 is at some distance from the main reef, but a 

 thorough wetting is the inevitable accompaniment 



