A NATIVE NATURALIST 253 



rocks where the seals have their home, when a loud 

 barking cry or roar made him jump in his boat, and 

 looking round he caught sight of a seal thrusting his 

 head and half his body out of the water with a conger 

 about seven to eight feet long fastened to his ear. 

 The blood was streaming from the seal's head and he 

 was trying to shake his enemy off and at the same 

 time turning round and round in his efforts to bite 

 the conger ; but the black serpentine body wriggled 

 and floated out of his reach, and in a very few 

 moments they went down. Again and again they 

 rose, the seal coming out each time with the same 

 savage cry, shaking himself and biting, the conger 

 still holding on with bull-dog tenacity. But on the 

 last occasion there was no cry and commotion ; the 

 conger had lost his hold and the seal had him by 

 the middle of the body in his jaws. On coming up 

 he swam quietly to the sloping rock close by, and 

 half in, half out of the water began tearing up 

 and devouring his victim, the blood still running from 

 his own head. 



He had another seal story which interested me even 

 more than the last, since the chief actor and conqueror 

 in this instance was the nobler animal man, the seal 

 being the victim. 



In the early autumn of 1907 there were mighty 

 winds on this coast, with tremendous seas and very 

 high tides, which made it impossible to use the ferry ; 

 but when the weather moderated and the ferry- 

 man took to his boat once more he came upon a 

 young seal, which had, no doubt, taken refuge in the 





