OCT. SEALS. 31 



bottom. A strong courageous retriever sometimes 

 succeeds in towing a dead seal ashore, if he can 

 reach him before he sinks, and has the good luck or 

 judgment to take hold of one of the animal's feet, 

 or " flippers," the only part which the dog can get 

 into his mouth. 



A seal has a very acute scent, and can never be 

 approached from the windward. I conceive that 

 their eyesight is less perfect ; at any rate they are 

 endowed with a certain dangerous curiosity which 

 makes them anxious to approach and reconnoitre 

 any object which they may have seen at a little dis- 

 tance, and do not quite understand. I have seen a 

 seal swim up to within twenty yards of a dog on the 

 shore, for the purpose apparently of examining him, 

 as some unknown animal. Music, too, or any un- 

 common or loud noise attracts them ; and they will 

 follow for a considerable distance the course of a 

 boat in which any loud musical instrument is played, 

 putting up their heads, and listening with great 

 eagerness to the unknown strains. I have even seen 

 them approach boldly to the shore, where a bagpiper 

 was playing, and continue to swim off and on at a 

 hundred yards' distance. 



Notwithstanding their wariness and the difl3culty 

 of capturing them, seals are gradually diminishing 

 in number, and will soon disappear from our coasts. 



