70 MAMMALS. 



Halichaerus gryphus (Fabr.). Grey Seal. 

 Qrc.=Selkie. 



It has now been pretty well decided that all the notices of 

 P. barbata should really be referred to this species, and this is 

 the course we have here adopted. 



Pitcairn, in his Retrospective View of the Scotch Fisheries^ 

 1787, makes mention of the great abundance of the seals at 

 Stack and Skerry 1 "as the author has seen from 500 to 1000 

 Seals caught in little more than forty-eight hours' time, from a 

 rock that lies about eight leagues to the westward of Hoymouth 

 in Orkney, where there are great numbers of them, and in many 

 other places thereabout." Vide p. 37. 



At p. 436, vol. xvi. of the old Statistical Account, 1795, there 

 is mention made of a seal-fishery at Soulisgeir. A large sloop 

 used to go there once a year about Martinmas, but since a fatal 

 accident, which took place in November 1786, it had been given 

 up. In 1792 thirty-six sealskins were sold at Stromness at 

 2s. 6d. each. 



The Grey Seal certainly is not common in the more 

 sheltered firths about the Mainland, Rousay, Gairsay, and 

 Shapinsay, as, during the time we were in Rousay (and we 

 were constantly cruising about in a small boat, seeing plenty of 

 the Common Seal), we could only identify the present species on 

 two occasions. One of these occasions was at the west end of 

 Viera, where a Grey Seal kept its head out of the water and its 

 nose straight in the air for two or three minutes at a time 

 between each submersion, and always appearing in the same spot. 



It is probable that the Grey Seal breeds in Sanday, as Mr. 

 Harvey tells us that young seals with long shaggy whitish 

 hair have been frequently found alive along the shores of that 

 island, and that they are about 4 feet in length. Mr. Irvine- 

 Fortescue was informed that a large seal is seen swimming into 

 the caves round Stronsay, and he remarks that a few are usually 

 to be seen about the South Isles also. 



Speaking of seals generally in Sanday, Mr. Harvey writes 



1 Rocks lying about forty miles north-west of Hoy Head, much frequented 

 by seals, and already described, vid. pp. 45-48. 



