SEALS GREAT AND SMALL 71 



wet seal. A dry one is at all times a showy object and, in his 

 yellow summer coat particularly, is as easy for the eye to pick up 

 as a sheep in a field of grass, but the black body of a seal just out 

 of the water is by no means so easy to find. 



When once dry he hardly ever resumes this curved position, 

 except for a momentary stretch, until the rising tide once more 

 begins to submerge them. Then, if he be too lazy to move away, 

 you may see his head gradually rising higher and higher, and with 

 it the other end rising by way of balance, till his back is covered 

 and only his head and hind flippers are visible ; finally there comes 

 a wavelet which washes in his face. This is too much for him, 

 and with a wriggle of disgust he slips off into deep water. 



Once there what a change comes over him ! Seals on a rock 

 are but ill-conditioned brutes at the best. They come up to get 

 dry and to bask, and if any other seals threaten a disturbance even 

 by clambering past them, they are not slow to show their resent- 

 ment, swearing and spitting like angry cats. I have seen a little 

 yearling seal snap repeatedly at the face (always the face) of 

 another old enough to be his grandfather, that happened to roll too 

 near his resting-place. But in the water all that is forgotten. 

 The ungainly surly brutes become all at once the most graceful 

 sportive creatures imaginable, racing, diving, romping ; sometimes, 

 especially when they feel the tide, leaping like great salmon out of 

 the water and falling back with a splash and a glitter of spray. 

 With what an air of luxury too will an old bull boom out his call 

 across the water, raise his nose into the air, and slowly, slowly 

 draw himself under ! 



In the water moreover his attitude towards man changes alto- 

 gether. No one whose object is anything but mere destruction 

 should ever shoot a seal except on land. There he is a really sport- 

 ing animal, with finely-developed senses of hearing and smell ; and 

 eyesight, according to my experience, far better than is possessed 

 by most of the larger mammalia. In the water his sense of danger 

 (I am speaking of course only of our island seals) is entirely sub- 

 ordinated to his curiosity. If he does see a suspicious object his 

 instinct is to lift himself out breast high to obtain a better look. 

 I have known seals to approach within twenty yards of me when I 

 was within full view of them, and it was only when I began tossing 

 stones at them that they splashed under water and disappeared. 



It is difficult to estimate with accuracy the diving power of a 



