24 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



larger sandbank, where we had counted on a perfect 

 exhibition and considerable sport, we were both to 

 experience a grevious disappointment, for on the pre- 

 sent occasion there was not a single seal upon it. 



Previous, however, to this discovery, and while we 

 were both engaged in loud and listless conversation, 

 some five-and-thirty yards behind us suddenly uprose 

 the head and shoulders (if I may so term them) of a 

 tremendous seal. Like Arethusa 



" Prospiciens, summa flavum caput extulit unda." 



My gun was lying upon the stern-sheets ready 

 cocked, and loaded with green cartridge; but with 

 a sort of feeling that a specimen marked with the 

 blemish of a single ball would be more acceptable than 

 a trophy that was riddled with shot, I raised my rifle 

 and fired ; but the lurching and rolling of the boat 

 made it most difficult to take a steady aim, and (shall 

 I confess it ?) I missed it. 



With a terrible consternation of the element, as it 

 took its leave of the upper air, and a few moments 

 of private remorse, all things resumed their original 

 serenity. 



Tt was getting late in the afternoon, and as the 

 flood-tide had now commenced to run, we pat the helm 

 a-port and started upon our voyage home. I feel 

 certain that I was extremely foolish, on the present 

 occasion, to make such constant use of the rifle, since 



