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OBSERVATIONS ON THE GREY SEAL. 
EDMUND SELOUS, 
OcT. LITH, 1914.—Yesterday, in company with my friend, 
Dr. Heatherley (to whom as its originator, the credit of the 
expedition, with all that came of it, wholly belongs), I arrived 
at St. Mary’s, the pleasant little capital of the Scilly Isles, and, 
this evening, we set sail in a small, open yacht, with the view 
of making, through the medium of observation and photo- 
graphy, some addition to the present knowledge of the Grey 
Seal (Halicherus grypus, as I understand). Mr. King, who 
resides in the town, and whose sea-bird and seascape photo- 
graphy is well-known, came with us, as also his son. It being 
now the childing time, young Seals of this species (for the Com- 
mon Seal, oddly enough, is not found here) were to be expected 
on some or other of the more promising outlying islets. On 
the first of these that a long course of slaughterous experience 
(now happily over) suggested to our skipper, we found two 
lying on the rocks, but the difficulty, in the event of the sea 
rising, both of getting a boat in and getting into it from the 
rocks, was decisive against our being left here. After a good 
deal of coasting to no purpose, we were again successful with 
another small fragment of territory, formed, for the most part, 
of more or less rounded masses of granite, varying in size from 
pebbles to blocks of titanic magnitude, and alternately rising 
into pinnacles and sinking into beaches or, more frequently, 
rocky foreshores. 
Here again we found two quite young Seals, each in its 
own bay or cove, and—a point to be remembered—entirely 
cut off from each other. As the conditions for landing and 
return were more generally favourable here, the tent was put 
up (leaving the shed for to-morrow) and, about five, my friends 
put off to the yacht. 
Only a few minutes after I had been left alone—probably 
before the boat had reached the yacht—a female Seal (as was 
soon made evident) came close into the shore, and, in another 
few, began to ascend the rocky pathway—by which I mean the 
least steep or least resistance-offering, or most direct line— 
towards her calf, who, ever since our landing (between I and 2 
perhaps—it was now about 5 p.m.), had lain in the same place, 
almost without moving. He* now began to move, to meet his 
dam, each of them pausing, at intervals, to rest from the exer- 
tion of jerking themselves along. At a certain point—half- 
way, perhaps, between the sea and her young one—the old 
* J never knew the sex of any of these young Seals, and only use the 
personal pronoun when wishing to avoid the ‘ it.’ 
1915 July 2. 
