A DAY WITH A SEAL 101 



but the weather has changed, it is bitterly cold, 

 the transparence of yesterday's sea is broken by 

 wind and rain, and though the bottom is searched 

 at various points, that seal, my boot, and the 

 farmer's ropes are never seen again ! 



However, perseverance is eventually rewarded, 

 and, in the evening of the Saturday following the 

 disaster, a short stalk earned me a successful shot 

 at a good seal, whose body, carried with difficulty 

 to a safe place, 1 was, owing to various mistakes 

 and misunderstandings, compelled to leave for the 

 night. The next day being Sunday, to ask for 

 native assistance in Sabbatarian Scotland was, of 

 course, as out of the question as to leave the body 

 to the mercy of rats and gulls. Accordingly, in 

 the afternoon I and my brother might have been 

 seen on the road to Ardskinish, both of us attired 

 in our oldest clothes, whilst an unusual protuber- 

 ance of my coat in the region of my chest testified 

 to the presence of a sack beneath it. Arrived at 

 the spot we carried the body aside, and although 

 a seal is not so easy to flay as most animals, as 

 the skin will not come away from the blubber 

 without the constant use of a knife, in course 

 of time the deed was done, and we returned home 

 with the skin in a sack, oily, but triumphant. 

 Indirectly we were the gainers, for the natives 

 almost always cut the flippers off, whereas we 

 skinned them conscientiously, and thus even the 

 claws were preserved. And now as I write, the 



