254 NETHER LOCHABER. 



common in England. The first public and properly authenticated 

 mention of the thistle as the national badge is, we believe, in an 

 inventory of the jewels and wardrobe effects of James III., about 

 the year 1467. Whether there was an "ancient" Order of the 

 Thistle seems doubtful ; what is commonly called the revival of 

 the order dates from the reign of James the Seventh of Scol^ 

 land, Second of England, in 1687. 



A more natural and less apocryphal combat than the recent 

 dwarf and bulldog business at Hanley is the following. Be not 

 alarmed ; ours is simply a brief account of a fight, fierce and 

 and furious enough to be sure, but very natural — for of the Phocidce, 

 we suppose, as of the " bears and lions " in the well-known hymn, 

 it may be predicted that " 'tis their nature to " — a fight, then, 

 between a pair of dog-seals in the bay under our house a few even- 

 ings ago. In nothing else are the results of the Gun Tax Act so 

 pleasantly manifest as in the increased, and still increasing, con- 

 fidence and friendly relations now so happily established between 

 seals and sea-birds of every kind and the sea-side naturalist, as, 

 throwing books and papers for the time aside, he takes his evening 

 walk abroad within sight and sound of the setting sunlit sea, 

 that gently murmers the whUe, as if for very gladness, in response 

 to the rosy smile of the departing god. Ever since the beginning 

 of summer, a large dog-seal, recognisable as such by his immense, 

 square, bulldog-like head and fierce hirsute beard, has made our 

 beautiful Onich Bay his favourite evening fishing-ground, until we 

 have come to know him perfectly ; no difficult matter either, for 

 he has a curious grey patch, larger than one's hand, on his left 

 cheek, and, unlike most seals, sinks, not log-like, when he disappears 

 under water, but almost always with a lively " header," in which 

 the whole back, arched and shining, is brought to view, as if for 

 our special delectation, as we sit and watch his graceful motions 

 with a glass powerful enough to detect the wary and intelligent 



