THE SEAL. 299 



no more of the impossible or the ridiculous, than many 

 things, that are now of every day occurrence, would 

 have involved, if mentioned only fifty years ago. 



The female seal generally produces two at a birth, 

 and the time of their production is about Midsummer. 

 She is an affectionate mother, and battles keenly for 

 her young, if she be there when any one goes to annoy 

 them. Her nursery is generally in a cave : and in the 

 large caves, such as those upon the north coast of Scot- 

 land, there is often a number in the same. The people 

 frequently enter with torches and clubs, for the purpose 

 of dispatching them, and they are killed by a compara- 

 tively slight blow on the nose ; but when there are 

 many old ones in the cave, they often upset the intru- 

 ders in the scuffle, and thus the scene becomes ludicrous 

 if not dangerous. Seals are often caught in rather a 

 cruel manner: iron hooks are placed in the front of 

 the rock or bank on which they are basking, or in a 

 beam of timber placed against it ; a person then steals 

 near to the place where they lie, fires a musket, or 

 makes any other loud and sudden noise, at which they 

 take alarm, and, forgetting their usual caution in avoid- 

 ing dangers, plunge headlong toward the water, and are 

 caught and suspended upon the hooks. 



As seals approach more nearly to the nature and 

 character of land animals than any other inhabitants of 

 the water, which are not very well fitted for loco-motion 

 upon land, so they are, like these, subject to epidemical 

 diseases, which often affect them to a very great extent. 

 There have been instances in which the beaches every 

 where on the north coast of Scotland, and the islands of 

 Orkney and Shetland, have been covered with the 



