2x8 Selous: Observations on the Grey Seal. 
Seal halted more definitely, and, stretching herself luxuriously 
on her side, waited whilst it continued its little forced marches 
towards her, evidently (the calf I mean) in a state of antici- 
pation. The exigences of the rocks however, prevented his 
getting quite comfortably at her dugs, and in this she had to help 
him by sundry large motions and shiftings of position. I saw 
the whole expanse of her conspicuously marked belly, which, as 
I had before remarked in the Shetlands, can present a most hand- 
some appearance in the water. The calf sucked first one and 
then another of her two tits (after observation showed that there 
were no more, though at first, I thought four was the number), 
situated one on either side of the median line, in about the same 
relative position as those of a dog or cat, but with a broader 
space between them, answering to the portly size of the great 
belly. Whilst the calf was engaged with the under one, I 
could often see the milk exude from the one above it, and 
trickle down past his muzzle. At intervals he butted the udder, 
with his nose, as a lamb does, but not so quickly, nor, as it 
struck me, so violently. The repast seemed to me (for I had 
no watch) to last five minutes, but it may have been ten, after 
which time, the mother, before the calf had finished, jerked 
herself away and retreated into the water. The young one 
followed her, but I did not see it enter the sea, as, just at its 
edge, a rock was in the way. After waiting some little while, 
and seeing no more of either of them, I concluded that both had 
swum away together. At any rate, the incident which I have 
narrated was now closed, so crawling out of the tent, over the 
rocky ridge of the island, immediately behind it, I walked, under 
cover, to a niche in the rocks commanding an unseen view of 
where another, a full-grown Seal had for some while been lying 
—this, too, a female and mother. She was still there, and 
motionless as ever except when the tide, which was now coming 
in, just touched her nose, at intervals, through a larger wave, on 
which she threw up her head protestingly, for a moment, like 
a heavy sleeper informed that breakfast is ready. After 
awhile, and before she was in any immediate danger of being 
floated off, she aroused herself, but instead of entering the sea 
as I had expected, began to climb further up the rock. This 
she continued steadily to do, in spite of the roughness and 
difficulty of the ascent, till, all at once, a young Seal, till now 
hidden, came into sight, shuffling down the rock to meet its 
mother. But although the two-were soon almost together, 
the difficulties for the calf were so great that it had to ascend 
a different rock from the one she was on, thus travelling away 
from her, on which she jerked herself quite round, and at the 
same time up this one, tail foremost, and on her side, as it 
seemed to me, all the time, and so presented her dugs to the 
calf in the same way that the other had done. Doubtless all 
Naturalist, 
