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



face, with a bewildered air of astonishment ; tl.en seeing what 

 kind of enemy he had to deal with, he gave a tremendous shake, 

 casting Donald off like a " bit rag," as he expressed it, and 

 leaving him prostrate in the pool of blood that had come out of 

 the bullet-hole, moved slowly into the water, and quietly went 

 down to the bottom. Donald, in utter disgust and wretchedness 

 at losing his prize, walked straight home, and went to bed to 

 sleep off his disappointment. The next morning, however, on 

 considering over the matter, he came to the conclusion that the 

 seal must be dead, and would probably, as the tide ebbed, be 

 grounded on one of the adjacent sand-banks ; so lie returned to 

 the bay at low-water, and the first thing he saw was his seal 

 lying dead on a sand-bank, and looking like a coble keel upper- 

 most. And a perfect argosy did it turn out, producing more 

 pints of oil and a larger skin than ever seal produced before or 

 since. 



I have seen these animals caught by placing a strong net, 

 made for the purpose, across a deep and narrow channel through 

 which they escaped when frightened off a sand-bank, where 

 they were in the habit of resting at low-water. We quietly laid 

 the net down, fixing it at each end with an anchor; we then 

 rowed round to the bank, and away went the seals, splattering 

 over the wet sands into the channel ; we came after them as hard 

 as we could row. At first, when they struck the net, some 

 turned back, but frightened on by our shouts, they made a rush 

 at the net. We got to one end of it, cetached the anchor, and 

 began to haul it round, so as to enclose the seals ; then began a 

 noise and clamour which sui passed anything of the kind I ever 

 heard the seals splashing and snorting like drowning horses, 

 while we were all straining every nerve to row round the boat, 

 with the weight and struggles of seventeen seals, large and small, 

 against us ; my crew of six Highlanders, shouting, cursing and 

 swearing, and encouraging each other in Gaelic presently a 

 more furious shout from the leader of the crew announced that 

 something unexpected had happened, and looking round, we saw 

 that thirteen of the seals had escaped, partly by jumping over the 

 net, and partly by breaking through a weak part of it. One 

 very large seal, who we afterwards found had left her young one 

 within the net, returned in her maternal fondness to rescue it ; 



