THE COMMON SEAL. 
37 
rapidity. It seldom attempts to bite ; and I have not observed it snarl in the 
unpleasant manner uniformly practised by all the Halichoeri I have seen in cap- 
tivity. It has a singular and effective mode of progression, accomplished by 
convulsive starting jumps as it lies on its side, with its fore-paws on its breast, 
and its hind ones closely pressed together. Its ordinary motion, a sort of gallop, 
is tolerably rapid, and the poAver of continuing it is considerable, as was evidenced 
by its having passed over rough ground, to a distance of at least a mile and a 
half, on escaping one night from the place in which it was confined. This ani- 
mal refused food for twenty-tAvo days after its original capture, but has since 
fed freely on Avhiting* (Gadus Merlangus), which is swallowed Avhole, the head 
merely being fii’st a little bruised. It knoAvs the keeper, and can distinguish at 
a distance whether he has fish Avith him or not. Its attention seems always alive 
to passing objects, and Avhen a bird alights in its cage the attempt to capture it 
is quite laughable : the seal commences by fixing its eyes on it with all the ap- 
parent earnestness of a pointer dog, then makes a plunge head foremost, and, on 
the bird escaping, exhibits very evidently its disappointment. A specimen 
similar to that just described Avas killed with small shot in the river Liffey, not far 
from the Custom-house, by one of the Coast Guard Service, on the 23rd of 
October last. In its stomach were some half-digested fish, AAdiich appeared to be 
the sand-launce ( Ammodytes Lancea). I have been informed that seals are not 
unfrequent in this river, whither they are supposed to follow herrings.” 
Seals have been becoming gradually more scarce of late years in Bel- 
fast Bay, Avhere a portion of the coast on which doubtless they were once 
numerous bears the name of Craig-a-vad, — i. e. the Seal’s Bock. 
In parts of the neighbouring Strangford Lough and also at Carlingford 
they are still abundant. 
The Bev. George M. Black, in a letter which I received from him, 
dated 24th October, ’49, says ; — “ I am sometimes interested and amused, 
when occasionally sailing along the coast in summer in a small pleasure 
boat, by a seal noiselessly putting its head out of the.Avater, perhaps with- 
in ten yards of me, and looking at me Avith its glazy eyes — then as sud- 
denly disappearing. A small island at the entrance of Carlingford 
Lough is a favourite haunt of theirs. They are frequently fired at, but 
unless 4 killed dead' as we say in Ireland, are seldom got, as they are rarely 
ds from the water, which they make their way into as quickly as 
When visiting the neighbourhood of Carlingford on 9th Sept. 1836, I 
was informed that the abundance of seals there was owing chiefly to a 
prejudice amongst the fishermen that it is unlucky to kill them. One of this 
craft who rowed our party across the bay stated, that a man once killed a 
seal which was entangled in his herring-net, and that he never caught so 
much as “ a maze” of herrings afterwards! (See Edmonston’s remarks in 
Wernerian Memoirs, vol. viii. part 1.) 
In June, 1832, during a visit to Horn Head (County Donegal), I was 
told that seals are killed there by night with the aid of torch-light. They 
are found in dry eaves and despatched with clubs. Many years ago 
— perhaps forty, prior to the last-mentioned date — the servants of Mr. 
Stewart of the Horn are said to have killed forty in this manner on one 
night. At all events the number was so great that a song was composed 
in commemoration of the fate of the seals. The gamekeeper informed 
me that he had known four men to kill twenty-four seals here, within two 
hours, in the caves at low water. 
This mode of killing seals is similar to that adopted on the coast of 
* It is alloAved 6 lbs. of fish per diem , but would eat much more. 
