66 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



This may be called the luxury of sport, but it is not the pleas- 

 ure of it, for certainly our best pleasures must all be worked 

 for and earned : at all events, these lazy and luxurious modes of 

 deer and salmon murder were never contemplated by the Celt 

 who, in granting his diploma to a mountain hunter, deemed a 

 single head of the famous four quite sufficient to entitle him to it. 



Preserving, the chief means of bringing down to the level 

 of almost any aspirant two of the four exploits required for a 

 hunting degree, has, by driving it into remote fastnesses, made 

 a third viz., the death of an eagle tolerably difficult to 

 compass. As to the last on the list, let any one try to bag a 

 seal under the most favourable auspices, and he may find the 

 task less easy than it appears. I say " bag one " in place of 

 shoot one, for most parties who have made the attempt with 

 their rifles assure you they have been the death of many seals. 

 On pressing the point, you are informed that they all sank on 

 receiving the fatal bullet, and that the defunct monsters are 

 rotting under the waves. 



Tor my own part except of those struck through the body 

 on land I have little faith in the death of seals thus suddenly 

 submerged. When hit on land, if the shot is not a header, 

 they are very likely to flounder into the sea and sink in deep 

 water before you can possibly get hold of or trace them. But 

 all swimming seals, if hit at all, are shot through the head, 

 and immediately spread out on the surface, giving ample time 

 to row up and seize a flipper. When the shooter has no boat, 

 and does not possess the assistance of a large retriever dog, he 

 should never fire at seals unless in places where, if killed, they 

 can be recovered when the tide ebbs. 



The sight of seals is not quick, but their other senses of 

 scent and hearing are most acute. In stalking, either from 

 land or water, they are more difficult of approach than deer ; 

 and in a calm day the creak or splash of an oar instantly puts 

 the basking shoal on their guard, when they roll helter-skelter 

 into the brine. As they can wind you at a mile's distance, 



