SEALS AND SEAL-HUNTING. 117 



towed him towards the shore. Passing the rock on 

 which I stood in his way to the beach, he turned his 

 eyes upwards for the praise and encouragement I was 

 not, it may well be believed, backward to lavish on him. 

 Such a look it was ! I shall never forget it, instinct 

 with the brightest intelligence, joy, pride, triumph. In- 

 deed, I don't know whether he or his master was 

 proudest and happiest that day. Alas, that our noble 

 " humble friends " should be so short-lived ! 



I have not shot a great many seals. They are not 

 now, nor were they in my younger and sporting days, 

 so numerous as they were fifty or sixty years ago, 

 when but a very few persons here and there owned a 

 gun, which with scarcely an exception was only the 

 old regulation flint-lock musket. But since the inven- 

 tion of percussion locks, and of the splendid rifles and 

 breech-loaders of the present day, and still more since 

 steamers and sailing-vessels have been constantly plying 

 amongst the islands, where formerly they never were 

 seen, the seals have not had so peaceful a time of it ; 

 slaughter and persecution, and the inroads of modern 

 civilisation in general, have greatly diminished their 

 numbers ; at least they are not now so frequently met 

 with in their old haunts, from which it is probable 

 most of them have retired, to more inaccessible and 

 therefore safer quarters. These remarks apply only 

 to the common seal. The Great seal was never very 

 numerous anywhere, and there is not much chance of 

 his wild retreats being disturbed except by an occasional 

 hunter. 



