68 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



One fine September day, when walking with a friend on 

 the south shore of Loch-na-Gaul, fourteen Arctic seals came 

 racing past close to land. They jumped and gambolled over 

 each other like boys at leap-frog, making a splash in the sea 

 that gave notice of their advent a good way off. After cours- 

 ing some distance in this boisterous style they settled on a 

 rock, and by stalking we got within rifle-range ; but not hav- 

 ing a rifle, we were fain to content ourselves with a survey 

 through the telescope the first and last sight I ever had of 

 these rare visitors from the Polar seas. 



Even a quick eye requires practice ere it becomes expert at 

 distinguishing basking seals on the rocks. They are so like 

 tufts of sea-ware or detached stones both in shape and colour, 

 that the uninitiated may have a dozen ranged at no great 

 distance, yet never perceive one. The smallest suspicious 

 object, however, at once arrests the attention of an experienced 

 seal-shooter, and he instantly fixes the glass to watch for a 

 curve of the tail or a bend of the head. Like wild-fowl and 

 deer, when you detect the prey before you are yourself perceived, 

 success is half attained ; but this far sight and keenness of 

 eye can only be arrived at by long use, and is one of the 

 brightest feathers of the hunter's cap. 



A reef of rocks near the head of Loch-na-Gaul, although 

 completely submerged at high tide, begins to show itself at 

 quarter ebb, and at low water it expands into considerable 

 islets. This group is the favourite drying-ground of seals in 

 summer, and the nursery where they rear their young. Every 

 calm, hot day, when the islets are left bare and quiet, the 

 large heads of the female seals, each followed by a little head, 

 oftener by a pair no bigger than cricket-balls, float about the 

 tiny bays, while the old males sun themselves luxuriously on 

 the shelving rocks. Whenever this dry sunny weather pre- 

 vented salmon-fishing in Loch Baa, the coble was carted from 

 the fresh- to the salt-water loch, and seals substituted for 

 salmon. 



