174 COMMON SEAL. Class I. 



^ June, and Julij. They are of different sizes ; 

 ' some as large as a cow, and from that down- 



* wards to a small calf. They feed on most sorts 

 ' of fish which they can master, and are seen 

 ' searching for their prey near shore, wiiere the 



* whistling fish, wrav* s, and polacks resort. 



* They are very swift in their proper depth of 

 ' water, dive like a shot, and in a trice rise at 



* fifty yards distance; so that weaker fishes 

 ' cannot avoid their tyranny, except in shallow 



* water. A person of the parish of Senncin, 



* saw not long since a seal in pursuit of a mullet 



* (that strong and swift fish) ; the seal turned it 

 ' to and fro' in deep water, as a gre-hound does 



* a hare ; the mullet at last found it had no v;'ay 



* to escape, but by running into shoal water; 

 ^ the seal pursued, and the former, to get more 

 " surely out of danger, threw itself on its side, 



* by which means it darted into shoaler water 

 " than it could have swam in vrith the depth of 

 ^ its paunch and fins, and so escaped. 



' The seal brings her young about the be- 

 ^ ginnino; of autumn ; our fishermen have seen 

 ' two sucking their dam at the same time, as 

 ^ she stood in the sea in a perpendicular posi- 

 ^ tion. 



^ Their head in svv'imming is always above 

 '^ water, more so than that of a dog. They 



