40 SEALS OF THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



case, it is not uncommon to set a net across the entrance of 

 a cave, fastening it by one extremity to the rock, and leav- 

 ing it for some time, and this mode is often successful. 

 Usually one only is taken at a time, unless more simulta- 

 neously enter the net, for the first that strikes displaces it, 

 and procures a safe passage for the rest. 



This net-hunting is a procedure truly like that which killed 

 the goose that laid the golden eggs. Our ancestors of the 

 good olden times managed matters better : they only took 

 the goslings, and now and then a fated goose or gander, 

 but as every season would not permit even this, the num- 

 bers were kept up at pretty much the ordinary census. Since, 

 however, the positive and preventive checks to population, 

 in the shapes of the net and the gun, have been so unspar- 

 ingly applied, caves in which, forty years ago, fifteen or twen- 

 ty young ones were annually brought forth, are now unten- 

 anted, and proprietor-sportsmen have found it necessary, in 

 order to preserve the animal from extinction, to taboo the 

 hunting of them, particularly during the breeding season, 

 and their numbers are again in consequence increasing. 



In shooting these seals, intimate knowledge of their ha- 

 bits, and most accurate guns, are absolutely essential. The 

 rifle might here be supposed to be invaluable. We have 

 tried the best specimens of American, English, German, and 

 Norwegian rifles of all sizes, but experience has taught us 

 that this sort of gun will not answer. Formerly when the 

 seals were more numerous and easy of access, the kind of 

 piece was of less importance. Large Dutch muskets, 12 or 

 14 balls to the pound, were chiefly used. The favourite 

 charge was a cylinder of lead fitted to the caliber, about an 

 inch long, above a- ball : such a shot was demolishing and 

 deadly. In animals so tenacious of life as seals are, and 

 with bones rather spongy than splintery, a ball of a size ca- 



