CHAP. XXIX HABITS OF THE SEAL 257 



the nets that they destroy, for a seal hunting along the coast 

 in the neighbourhood of the stake-nets keeps the salmon in a 

 constantly disturbed state, and drives the shoals of fish into 

 the deep water, where they are secure from the nets. There 

 is consequently a constant and deadly feud between the fisher- 

 men and the seals, which has almost totally expelled the latter 

 from this part of the coast. An old seal has been known to 

 frequent a particular range of stake-nets for many years, escaping 

 all attacks against him, and becoming both so cunning and so 

 impudent that he will actually take the salmon out of the nets 

 (every turn of which he becomes thoroughly intimate with) 

 before the face of the fishermen, and retiring with his ill-gotten 

 booty, adds insult to injury by coolly devouring it on some 

 adjoining point of rock or shoal, taking good care, however, 

 to keep out of reach of rifle-ball or slug. Sometimes, however, 

 he becomes entangled in the nets, and is drowned, but this 

 seldom happens to a full-grown seal, which easily breaks through 

 the strongest twine if he can find no outlet. From the shore 

 opposite Cromarty I one day saw a large seal swim into the 

 stake-nets and take out a salmon, with which he retired to a 

 small rock above the water, and there devoured it entirely in 

 a very short space of time. 



Sometimes at high -water and when the river is swollen a 

 seal comes in pursuit of salmon into the Findhorn, notwith- 

 standing the smallness of the stream and its rapidity. I wag 

 one day, in November, looking for wild ducks near the river, 

 when I was called to by a man who was at work near the water, 

 and who told me that some " muckle beast " was playing most 

 extraordinary tricks in the river. He could not tell me what 

 beast it was, but only that it was something " no that canny." 

 After waiting a short time, the riddle was solved by the ap- 

 pearance of a good-sized seal, into whose head I instantly sent 

 a cartridge, having no balls with me. The seal immediately 

 plunged and splashed about in the water at a most furious rate, 

 and then began swimming round and round in a circle, upon 

 which I gave him the other barrel, also loaded with one of 

 Eley's cartridges, which quite settled the business, and he floated 

 rapidly away down the stream. I sent my retriever after him, 

 but the dog, being very young and not come to his full strength, 

 was baffled by the weight of the animal and the strength of 



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