64 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



rigorously prohibited. I myself never fired a shot at 

 either species during the whole time I was there, and 

 it was only very rarely and for special reasons that any 

 member of my family or guest availed himself of the 

 opportunity of stalking seals. We never came up to 

 our limit or even approached it, and the few specimens 

 that were sacrificed in the interests of science or sport 

 were fairly stalked on the rocks, and seldom heard the 

 shot that killed them. In the water, owing to the 

 immunity they enjoyed, they were extraordinarily 

 tame, and would approach a boat with a curiosity and 

 fearlessness which contrasted forcibly with the be- 

 haviour of the more persecuted denizens of the lochs 

 which intersect the mainland in the neighbourhood of 

 Crinan. Where every boat may have a rifle on board 

 in the hands of some enthusiastic tripper to whom a 

 seal in the water is an irresistible temptation, the dog- 

 like head that disappears as you round a corner re- 

 appears at such a distance as to be only visible when 

 the waves are still and unruffled. Off Colonsay 

 curiosity kept them close, any unaccustomed sight 

 seeming to attract them when in the water. Old 

 Pennant relates in his Arctic Zoology that " if a 

 Greenlander sees a seal lying near its hole upon the 

 ice, he slides along upon his belly towards it, wags his 

 head, and grunts like a seal ; and the poor seal think- 

 ing 'tis one of its innocent companions, lets him come 

 near enough to pierce it with his long dart." I do not 

 think this primitive method of seal-hunting would be 

 much good in Colonsay. There I always found that 

 seals when out of the water were suspicious and vigilant, 

 mounted their sentinels, and made off at once on the 

 approach of any strange object. 



