THE GREY SEAL. 
39 
casionally much more frequently. Seeing that it came no closer to the land, 
they changed their position to leeward, which they had no sooner done than its 
nearer approach was apparent ; and when from one hundred and fifty to two 
hundred yards from the shore, my friend fired at it w r ith a musket charged with 
a single ball, which, after passing through its head, was remarked to strike the 
water forcibly about forty yards further on. Life was not quite extinct when it 
was rowed up to. When brought ashore milk was extracted from its mamma. 
This animal was of a uniform whitish grey colour, with darker spots ; it weigh- 
ed 3 cwt. and 18 lbs., but when in good condition would probably have been 4 
cwt. On skinning it two pellets were taken from near the hinder extremity, 
and a grain of large shot from the head ; it had frequently been fired at before, 
and from superiority of size had for many years been a well-known character 
on the coast, and was distinguished by the name of Old Skull, in consequence 
of its favourite resort being a rock called Skull-Martin. The young one was 
at least three feet in length, and was estimated to weigh 60 lbs. It was of a 
canary colour on the back ; the remainder paler, without spot or mark, except 
the muzzle, which was black ; its hair was long and silky. 
“Major Mathews states that many years since he has seen from two to three 
hundred seals together on the rocks near Springvale, where they are now scarce, 
not from having been destroyed, but from the neighbourhood having become so 
much more populous that the rocks they frequented are daily traversed by per- 
sons collecting the edible seaweeds ( Rhodomenia palmata. Porphyria vulgaris), 
and limpets ( Patella vidgaris). They are still very numerous in the rocks a 
little further southward, where, in the perhaps somewhat exaggerated language 
of the country, they are said to be seen ‘ in droves like sheep.’ Major Mathews 
remarks, that when he has fired at seals looking towards him they always dived 
from the flash of the gun, and that he was only successful in shooting them when 
their eyes were turned from him. 
“ From the description both of the young and adult animals above noticed, I 
had little doubt that they were your Halichoerus griseus or Gryphus ; and as 
their carcases still lay on the beach where they were skinned at Springvale, 
about twenty miles distant, I had them brought to Belfast, when, by the aid of 
your lithographed drawings, my supposition respecting their species was confirm- 
ed by actual inspection. I presented them to our Natural History Society 
[Belfast], in whose Museum the skeletons of both are now in part preserved. 
Here is also a specimen of the Phoca vitulina, which was shot December 28th, 
1831, in the river Lagan, at some distance above the Long Bridge at Belfast ; 
the tide, however, flows beyond the place where it was killed. Some years be- 
fore, a seal was obtained in the same locality, and in a deep pool beneath one of 
the arches of the bridge just mentioned. Our friend Mr. G. C. Hyndman on 
one occasion saw two young seals, most probably of the common species.” 
Mr. St. John has devoted the 29th chapter of his “ Wild Sports and 
Natural History of the Highlands ” to an excellent account of seals and 
seal-hunting. His observations relative to individual seals being dis- 
tinguished from each other reminded me of “ Old Skull ” of Skull-Mar- 
tin. He says : — “ 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 in- 
timate with) before the face of the fishermen, and retiring with his ill- 
gotten booty adds insult to injury by coolly devouring it on some adjoin- 
ing point of rock or shoal, taking good care, however, to keep out of reach 
of rifle-ball or slug.” And again : — “ Scarcely any two seals are exactly 
of the same colour or marked quite alike, and seals frequenting a par- 
ticular part of the coast become easily known and distinguished from 
each other.” 
In October, 1844, during a visit at Twizell House, I was informed by 
