SEALS GREAT AND SMALL 83 



weighing in full thirteen stone, very slippery, and 

 singularly inconveniently constructed for purposes 

 of transport, more than three-quarters of a mile ; 

 first over wet sand and rock covered with tangle and 

 bladder- weed, then up and down hill over loose sand 

 in which the foot sinks deep at every step ; lastly 

 up the brae face to the spot where the buckboard 

 waited for us where the track crossed the moor. First 

 Campbell and I each grasped one of the fore-flappers 

 at the thinnest point, and half lifted, half dragged, the 

 seal along between us, but the handhold proved very 

 unsatisfactory, and we soon had to press the third 

 party into the service, and take it by turns to lift and 

 carry the hind flippers. As far as mere weight was 

 concerned the keeper, a stout West Highlander, could 

 have managed the whole job by himself, but we could 

 not contrive any satisfactory method of adjusting the 

 beast on his back, as there were no hind and fore legs 

 of convenient shape to tie together round the neck so 

 that the weight of the body might rest just below the 

 shoulders. At last we found a good large piece of 

 drift-wood, which had once formed part of a spar or 

 oar there were no trees on that part of the island 

 from which we could cut a pole and suspending our 

 burden midway between us, bore it along somewhat 

 after the fashion adopted, according to old engravings, 

 by the spies bearing clusters of the grapes of Eshcol 

 from the promised land. 



In this manner, taking turns as bearers and 

 chief mourner in the procession, we at last con- 

 veyed our burden to the buckboard. Here a 

 new difficulty presented itself how was it to be 

 stowed? Eventually we managed to rest the head 



