224 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. xxix. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Seals Destruction to Fish and Nets Shooting Seal in River and Sea 

 Habits of Seals Anecdotes Seal and Dog Seal and Keeper Catching 

 Seals ^Anecdotes. 



SEALS, which a few years ago abounded along this coast, are 

 now comparatively rare, and before long will be entirely banished 

 to the undisturbed and unfrequented rocks of the more northern 

 islands. The salmon -fishers on the coast wage a constant war 

 against them, in consequence of the great damage they do to 

 their stake-nets, which are constantly torn and injured by these 

 powerful animals. Nor is the loss they occasion to the salmon- 

 fishers confined to the fish which they actually consume or to the 

 nets that they destroy, for a seal hunting along the coast in the 

 neighbourhood of the stake-nets keeps the salmon in a constantly 

 disturbed state, and drives the shoals of fish into the deep water, 

 where they are secure from the nets. There is consequently a 

 constant and deadly feud between the fishermen and the seals, 

 which has almost totally expelled the latter from this part of the 

 coast. An old seal has been known to frequent a particular 

 range of stake-nets for many years, escaping all attacks against 

 him, and becoming both so cunning and so impudent that he 

 will actually take the salmon out of the nets (every turn of which 

 he becomes thoroughly intimate with) before the face of the 

 fishermen, and retiring with his ill-gotten booty, adds insult to 

 injury by coolly devouring it on some adjoining point of rock or 

 shoal, taking good care, however, to keep out of reach of rifle- 

 ball or slug. Sometimes, however, he becomes entangled in the 

 nets, and is drowned, but this seldom happens to a full-grown 

 seal, who easily breaks through the strongest t\\ iue if he can find 

 no outlet. From the shore opposite Cromarty I one day saw a 

 large seal swim into the stake-nets and take out a salmon, with 

 which he retired to a small rock above the water, and there 

 devoured it entirely in a very short space of time. 



