SHOOTING A SEAL 



with our faces. The very look of the bloated thing 

 took our appetites away. The voting was unanimous 

 and pressing. " Overboard with it," so I regretfully 

 cast it to the sharks, and watched it dance upon the 

 waves, as it had often danced for big Julius when he 

 had a seal. 



But I must get back to Jerry's boat. Our 

 particular seal hunt on that November morning was 

 partly an accidental one. I was sitting in the stern 

 of the boat, watching the rocks and the water. It 

 was a new thing to me, this scum of ice that the 

 waves were flinging up ; and the spray from the oars 

 was freezing as the wind whipped it over the side of 

 the boat. 



I could see the kajaks further out, paddling about 

 in an aimless sort of way ; but I was mostly watching 

 the line of glistening boulders at the foot of the rocks, 

 with the oily-looking sea swilling over them, and 

 the sunshine gleaming on the crust of ice which 

 the waves were leaving on them. The man with the 

 sculling-pole, who was standing beside me in the 

 stern, suddenly whispered "Puije" (a seal) and his 

 face grew tense and eager. The oarsmen stopped 

 and turned to look, while Jerry, the owner of the 

 boat, hurriedly crammed a cartridge into his rifle. 



This was all very mysterious to me. I was looking 

 all round for a head above the water, or for any 

 bubbles or disturbance that might mean a seal ; but 

 everything seemed as usual; the dots of kajaks went 

 paddling on, and the sea swilled over the stones. 



Jerry seemed to aim at the line of boulders below 

 the rocks, and my eyes followed the line of his barrel ; 

 but I saw nothing until the bang started a splodge of 



red on one of the stones. The red seemed to slide into 



209 o 



