SEALS GREAT AND SMALL 75 



Collection at Cromwell Road were but poor specimens, 

 as was only to be expected when allowance is made 

 for the difficulties of the taxidermist who probably 

 had nothing better than a dried skin to relax and 

 stuff long after death. In a good cause I considered 

 it perfectly legitimate to sacrifice a seal, and I made 

 the offer, which was gratefully accepted, that I would 

 send up a first-rate specimen in the best condition, and 

 undertake that it should arrive at Rowland Ward's 

 within forty- eight hours of the time when it had 

 been basking on its native rocks. Had I been bound 

 for any other part of the British Isles it would 

 perhaps have been rash to have made more than a 

 conditional promise, but as I had watched these inter- 

 esting mammals in their hundreds only a year before, 

 I felt no doubt that I should be able to carry out 

 my undertaking. 



I waited for some time before I took steps to 

 carry out my project. I knew that September would 

 be the best month to be sure of securing a mottled 

 skin in the best condition, and I had also to choose 

 a day warm and still, with a favourable tide and a 

 bright sun. Besides all this, it was necessary that the 

 day should immediately precede one upon which the 

 bi-weekly steamer called at the little harbour on its 

 way to Glasgow, railways and civilisation. At last 

 the hour arrived. The man was already chosen in 

 the person of my eldest son Geoffrey, whom I could 

 rely upon as a steady and accurate shot, arid a skilled 

 and careful stalker. 



The best time for stalking seals on the rocks off 

 shore is at about half tide ; at dead low water they 

 no doubt are there, but the reef is such a confused 



