32 SEALS OF THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



or variety, the leading ideas in them being these, — that the 

 Great Seal is a human soul or a fallen angel in metempsy- 

 chosis, and that to him who is remarkable for hostility to 

 the Phocal race some fatal retribution will ensue. I can 

 easily conceive the feeling of awe with which a fisherman 

 would be impressed when, in the sombre magnificence of 

 some]rocky solitude, a Great Seal suddenly presented himself 

 — for an interview of this kind once occurred to myself. I 

 was lying one calm summer day on a rock a little elevated 

 above the water, watching the approach of seals in a small 

 creek, formed by frowning precipices several hundred feet 

 high, near the north point of the Shetland Islands. I 

 had patiently waited for two hours, and the scene and the 

 sunshine had thrown me into a kind of reverie, when my 

 companion, who was more awake, arrested my attention. A 

 full-sized female Haff-fish was swimming slowly past within 

 eight yards of my feet, her head askance, and her eyes fixed 

 upon me ; the gun charged with two balls was immediately 

 pointed ; I followed her with the aim for some distance, 

 when she dived without my firing. I resolved that this 

 omission should not recur, if she afforded me another oppor- 

 tunity of a shot, which I hardly hoped for, but which ac- 

 tually in a few moments took place. Still I did not fire un- 

 til, when at a considerable distance, she was on the eve of 

 diving, and she eluded the shot by springing to a side. 

 Here was really a species of fascination. The wild scene, 

 the near presence and commanding aspect of the splendid 

 animal before me, produced a spell-bound impression which 

 in my sporting experience I never before felt. On reflec- 

 tion I was delighted that she escaped. 



The younger seals are the more easy to tame, but the 

 more difficult to rear ; under a month old they must be fed, 

 and, especially the barbata, almost entirely on milk, and that 



