92 _BEASTS AND MEN. 
cautiously up to the sleeping-ground, and set long nets along 
one side of it. While this is being done a second party of men 
go round in boats to. the other side of the sand-bank, and there 
await the signal that all is ready. As soon as the signal is 
given, this second party make for the sleeping seals with loud 
shouts and gesticulations. The terrified animals rush precipi- 
tately towards the sea and soon become entangled in the nets. 
Without delay net bags are thrown over the young individuals 
to prevent their escaping. These creatures have very sharp 
teeth, and it is advisable for the hunters to wear stout 
Wellington boots when engaged in this occupation. I have 
known as many as thirty caught in this way in a single drive. 
Twenty of these were adults and soon died, but the rest were 
young and thrived well in captivity. 
Not the easiest part of the business is the transport of the 
animals to Europe in the sealing ships. The young seals are 
kept in great water tanks, and it is sometimes difficult to get 
them out when they have to be disembarked. Seals have to 
come to the surface of the water every few minutes for the 
purpose of breathing, and one of these intervals is chosen as 
an opportune moment to catch it either in a large landing net 
or with a noose. As so often happens among wild animals, 
the older individuals are very morose and unmanageable. 
They think of nothing but regaining their liberty, and cannot 
be persuaded to take any food. The young, on the contrary, 
seem quite happy in their new surroundings and soon learn 
all kinds of tricks. 
To my mind there is no nobler kind of game than the 
eland antelope. Specimens of this animal first came into my 
possession in a very curious manner, through the agency of 
Dr. Carl Peters, the famous traveller.. After a long day’s 
march under a burning African sun he arrived at the farm of 
a Boer in Rhodesia. In the course of the evening they fell 
to talking about the ravages which the tsetse-fly and the 
rinderpest wrought among the cattle. Dr. Peters had often 
