SEALS IN CO. MAYO. 137 



Seeing him so disabled, we ran for our boat, and soon overtook 

 him, giving him another shot, which turned him over, and, 

 laying hold of his flippers, we held on until he died, and then 

 with great difficulty hauled him into the boat, almost capsizing 

 her in doing so. I did not measure this Seal, but weighed him, 

 when he turned the scale at 350 lb. 



The largest Grey Seal ever known to be obtained in this 

 locality was shot at the Enniscrone bag-nets, on June 29th, 1880. 

 He was a very old bull, and measured 8 ft. in length from nose 

 to end of flippers, was 5 ft. 8 in. in girth, and weighed 560 lb. 

 This great beast for over two years annoyed the fishermen very 

 much by tearing the bag-nets, taking the Salmon, as well as 

 scaring others from entering the nets ; he was often fired at, but 

 always escaped until this day, when, as he emerged from the net 

 with a live Salmon in his mouth, a man with a rifle was watching 

 him from the pier, and, as he turned his head, fired, and sent a 

 ball through the back of his skull, on which he instantly sank, 

 but next day was thrown up by the tide on the shore with the 

 Salmon still between his jaws. Although this was the largest 

 Seal obtained on this coast, yet much larger specimens have 

 been got on the Fame Islands, off the coast of Northumberland. 

 William Thompson, in his ' Natural History of Ireland,' states 

 " that Mr. George Eansome, of Ipswich, wrote to him that a 

 Grey Seal, weighing 770 lb., had been obtained on the Fame 

 Islands by a Mr. Eobert Pattison, of Bedford ; and of another 

 specimen captured on the same islands, weighing 740 lb., sent 

 to the British Museum." No doubt equally large specimens 

 frequent the Irish coast, but have escaped capture, or if taken 

 have not been recorded. The late Mr. A. G. More showed me, 

 in the Kildare Street Museum, the skull of a very large Grey 

 Seal, shot by the late Dr. Neligan, of Tralee, on the Kerry coast, 

 but the only statement of its dimensions given was that the 

 skin, when cured, measured nine feet in length. 



I have when without my gun occasionally come very close to 

 Seals. On one occasion I was walking down along the Bartragh 

 side of Moyne channel, when, observing a large Seal resting on 

 the bank about ten yards from the water, I thought of trying 

 how close I could get to him ; so, dropping on hands and 



7iool. 4th ser. vol. IX., April, 1905. n 



