DREDGING FOB SHELLS. 233 



But the body thus easily propelled while afloat, I could 

 not move a foot when once it had touched the ground ; 

 and all my efforts proving of no avail, I at once hurried 

 into my clothes, and set off at the top of my speed, to 

 the nearest point where a boat was to be found ; this 

 was a distance of about two miles. However, I 

 fortunately obtained four stout men, who speedily 

 pulled me back to the promontory, where to my 

 delight the seal was still lying, the tide having only 

 altered its position by a very few feet. She was a very 

 large beast, being nearly eight feet long, and from her 

 weight our united efforts were insufficient to get the 

 body into the boat. But she was soon made fast by a 

 stout line, and in this way we towed her to the harbour 

 in triumph. In a few days her fat had become oil, and 

 her skin had been cut up into " spleuchans," the best 

 kind of pouch with which I am acquainted for pre- 

 serving tobacco. 



The next day I got the same boat and crew and 

 started with a nice breeze to dredge oysters and 

 anything else I might find, rifle in attendance, as 

 before. 



Oysters proved very scarce ; but I obtained some 

 good specimens of other shells, which pleased me more 

 than equally well, conchology being a failing of mine. 

 Amongst others I got several specimens of the Apor- 

 rhais pes pelicani; several Pectens ; the pretty little 

 Pecten similis, and a very good Pecten maximus ; one 

 very fine Cyprina islandica ; several of the Buccinum 

 and Fusus ; some of the Trochus, and numbers of the 

 Echinus, some of them of an immense size. I also 

 got with some difficulty for they burrow to a great 

 depth some living specimens of the Mya truncata. 

 After spending some hours very pleasantly in this way, 



