THE COMMON SEAL. 37 



rapidity. It seldom attempts to bite ; and I have not observed it snarl in the 

 unpleasant manner uniformly practised by all the Halichoeri I have seen in cap- 

 tivity. It has a singular and effective mode of progression, accomplished by 

 convulsive starting jumps as it lies on its side, with its fore-paws off its breast, 

 and its hind ones closely pressed together. Its ordinary motion, a sort of gallop, 

 is tolerably rapid, and the power of continuing it is considerable, as was evidenced 

 by its having passed over rough ground, to a distance of at least a mile and a 

 half, on escaphig one night from the place in which it was confined. This ani- 

 mal refused food for twenty-two days after its original capture, but has since 

 fed freely on whiting* (Gadus Merlangus), which is swallowed whole, the head 

 merely being first a little bruised. It knows the keeper, and can distinguish at 

 a distance whether he has fish Mitli him or not. Its attention seems always alive 

 to passing objects, and when a bird alights in its cage the attempt to capture it 

 is quite laughable : the seal commences by fixing its eyes on it with all the ap- 

 parent earnestness of a pointer dog, then makes a plunge head foremost, and, on 

 the bird escaping, exhibits very evidently its disappointment. A specimen 

 similar to that just described was killed with small shot in the river Litiey, not far 

 from the Custom-house, by one of the Coast Guard Service, on the 23rd of 

 October last. In its stomach were some half-digested fish, which appeared to be 

 the sand-launce {Ammodi/tes Lancea). I have been informed that seals are not 

 unfrequent in this river, whither they are supposed to follow herrings." 



Seals have been becoming- gradually more scarce of late years in Bel- 

 fast Bay, where a portion of the coast on which doubtless they were once 

 numerous bears the name of Craig-a-vad, — i. e. the Seal's Rock. 



In parts of the neighbouring Strangford Lough and also at Carlingford 

 they are still abundant. 



The Rev. George M. Black, in a letter which I received from him, 

 dated 24th October, '49, says ; — " I am sometimes interested and amused, 

 when occasionally sailing along the coast in summer in a small pleasure 

 boat, by a seal noiselessly putting its head out of the water, perhaps with- 

 in ten yards of me, and looking at me with its glazy eyes — then as sud- 

 denly disappearing. A small island at the entrance of Carlingford 

 Lough is a favourite haunt of theirs. They are frequently fired at, but 

 unless ' killed dead,^ as we say in Ireland, are seldom got, as they are rarely 

 many yards from the water, which they make theLr way into as quickly as 

 possible." 



When visiting the neighbourhood of Carlingford on 9th Sept. 1836, I 

 was informed that the abundance of seals there was owing chieHy to a 

 prejudice amongst the fishermen that it is inilur/ii/ to kill them. One of this 

 craft who rowed our party across the bay stated, that a man once killed a 

 seal which was entangled in his hei'ring-net, and that he never caught so 

 much as " a maze" of herrings afterwards! (See Edmonston's remarks in 

 Wernerian ^Memoirs, vol. viii. jiart 1.) 



In June, 1832, during a visit to Horn Head (County Donegal), I was 

 told that seals are killed there by night Avith the aid of torch-light. They 

 are found in dry caves and desjjatched with clubs. Many years ago 

 — perhaps forty, prior to the last-mentioned date — the servants of j\lr. 

 Stewart of the Horn are said to have killed forty in this manner on one 

 night. At all events the number M'as so great that a song was composed 

 in commemoi'ation of the fate of the seals. The gamekeeper informed 

 me that he had known four men to kill twenty-four seals here, Avithin two 

 hours, in the caves at low water. 



This mode of killing seals is similar to that adojjtcd on the coast of 



* It-is allowed 6 lbs. of i'lshper diem, but would eat much morCv 



