358 Animal Life 
‘the plate I got cramp in my left leg with being stretched on the ground for so 
long. I moved my leg too quickly. The seals saw me, and with loud splashes they 
dived into the sea and were gone. I got up to stretch myself, when I suddenly 
discovered that the tide was coming in very fast. I fairly raced over the rock and 
plunged into the sea to regain the opposite bank. I got deeper and deeper as I 
waded in, walking over the uncertain, slippery seaweed. The water in the middle of the 
channel had reached about to my armpits, and I was beginning to feel afraid I should 
be obliged to swim for it and so ruin all my work by wetting the camera, when I 
began to go up hill again and soon reached terra firma. I was over only just in 
time, for a minute after the stream through the channel became so strong that it must 
of necessity have taken me off my legs and perhaps, heavily weighted as I was with 
camera, glass, and shooting-coat, have drowned me. Still, to get so close to seals in 
their native haunts, and to watch them all unconscious of your near approach is worth 
some risk attending it, especially when one takes away with one, as a lasting trophy, a 
picture of the memorable scene. 
The oil of these seals is much valued by the natives, who consider it more 
beneficial even than cod-liver oil for drinking purposes. The skins make excellent 
leggings or cartridge-bags; still, when one has shot a specimen or two for trophies, 
they may well be left in peace to add colour to and beautify the west coast scenery. 
ON THE WEST COAST, 
