224 WILD SPORTS UF THE HIGHLANDS. (cuar. xxx. 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
Seals—Destruction to Fish and Nets—Shooting Seal in River aad Sea— 
Habits of Seals—Anecdotes—Seal and Dog—Seal and Keeper—Catching 
Seals— Anecdotes. 
SEALs, which a few years ago abounded along this coast, are 
now comparatively rare, and before long will be entirely banished 
to the undisturbed and unfrequented rocks of the more northern 
islands. The salmon-fishers on the coast wage a constant war 
against them, in consequence of the great damage they do to 
their stake-nets, which are constantly torn and injured by these 
powerful animals. ‘Nor is the loss they occasion to the salmon- 
fishers confined to the fish which they actually consume or to 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 fishermen 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, who 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. 
