THE COMMON SEAL; 



241 



Agility and vigilance of the seals. 



summer they will leave tlie water, to bask or 

 sleep in the sun on the large stones or fragments 

 of rocks; and this is the opportunity that our 

 countrymen take of shooting them. If they have 

 the good fortune to escape, they hasten to the 

 water, flinging stones and dirt hehind them as 

 they scramble along; at the same time expres* 

 sing their fears by mournful cries. But when 

 overtaken, they make a vigorous defence with 

 their feet and teeth. 



They are remarkably agile in their proper 

 depth of water; dive like a shot, and suddenly 

 rise at the distance of forty or fifty yards. A 

 few years ago, one of them was seen on the coast 

 of Cornwall, in pursuit of a mullet. The seal 

 turned it to and fro, in deep water, as a grey 

 hound does a hare* The mullet, at last, found it 

 had no way to escape but by running into shoal 

 water: the seal pursued; and the former, to get 

 more securely out of danger, threw itself on its 

 side, by which means it darted into shallower 

 water than it could otherwise have swam in, and 

 thus escaped. 



In the act of swimming, seals always keep their 

 head above water; and when basking on the 

 rocks, they are extremely watchful, seldom sleep- 

 ing longer than a minute without moving ; they 

 then raise their heads, and if nothing be seen or 

 heard more than ordinary, again lie down, and 

 so on, alternately raising and inclining their 

 heads at intervals of about a minute. 



NO. VI. 



2 H 



