SEALS GREAT AND SMALL 81 



I was not conscious of showing any visible tokens 

 of excitement, but Ben certainly knew that the psy- 

 chological moment was at hand, for his whole body 

 was trembling, and his stump agitated at the rate 

 of 150 strokes a minute. I pressed my left hand 

 on his head as a gentle hint to keep quiet, and then 

 once more focussed the glass upon the group of seals. 

 I had just settled in my own mind that the third 

 one from the left was the finest, and therefore the 

 one most likely to be selected, when I noticed a 

 slight, hardly perceptible, sinking of its head, and 

 its fifteen companions splash into the water with 

 every sign of haste and terror. Before I heard the 

 shot which almost immediately awakened the echoes, 

 I knew that the stalk had been successful, and that 

 the slight drooping of the head of the seal, which 

 still rested upon the rock, was its last movement. 



The interesting martyr in the cause of science 

 had certainly had a swift and merciful end, as he 

 certainly never could have heard the shot that killed 

 him. The next moment all was hurry and excitement ! 

 The stalker deposited his rifle on the sand behind him, 

 took off his coat and prepared for a plunge. Ben, 

 released from his lead, was already bounding along the 

 shore towards him, and another figure became visible 

 for the first time, that of Campbell the keeper, who 

 had been told to bring the buckboard to the nearest 

 point on the farm road and then advance to the sand 

 dunes and await events, with strict injunctions to 

 keep carefully out of sight until he heard the shot. 

 No doubt like myself he had watched the stalk from 

 beginning to end ; he was the second on the scene of 

 action ; the dog was first, I a bad third. By the time 



