THE RED DEER 
had died away. After waiting for half an hour all the sheep fed away except 
ten, which stood in their usual provoking manner, staring about for some- 
thing to be frightened at. 
Being mostly lambs I expected to be able to scare them mildly out of the 
way. A close, and very wet, crawl of about 200 yards through peat and 
slime, brought me rather unexpectedly to another branch of the sea on 
Loch Portin; and by keeping close to the water I crept along to a point 
which I judged must be beyond the sheep and not very far from the seals. 
As I advanced slowly along the shingle of high-water mark, I happened to 
turn round for a moment and found myself face to face with a very large 
seal, not twenty yards away, who was regarding my ungraceful movements 
with great interest. There was more than a little temptation to shoot him, 
for the sandy bottom of the sea was not six feet below him, but I withheld 
my hand as I wished to have a good look at the seals on the rock first, and 
this I knew I should spoil if I fired. A moment later I almost wished I had 
taken the certainty, for, on creeping up a bank to take a peep at the seal 
rock, I found myself looking into the face of an old Highland ewe. We tried 
to stare each other out of countenance, but it was of no use; there was a 
loud hiss and a rush of many feet, as a small flock dashed landwards past 
me, and I raised myself just sufficiently to see a mass of seals nearly 
all asleep, lying on the rock about eighty yards away. There was just a 
chance that the tame wild animals might not take the alarm and from the 
wild tame ones, so, sinking out of sight, I kept still for five minutes. On 
looking up again, I saw that the seals were perfectly quiet. A little wind 
was coming in from the sea, so I got the glass out and proceeded to count 
them. 
On this small rock there were sixty-two, the largest number I have ever 
seen close together, though I have since seen as many as three hundred 
in scattered groups, under the great precipices near Hevnadale Head, 
in the Shetlands. They were nearly all fast asleep, with dry coats, except 
one old beast, who lay on the very top of the rock, who kept raising himself 
up and keeping a look-out. In all assemblies of seals there is always a 
sentinel to give the alarm, and on him the rest depend for their safety. 
I remained for some ten minutes watching the animals through my 
telescope, looking them over to select one with a good coat. They had all 
changed into the winter pelage at this season, and presented every variety 
of the dark and light spotted types. There seemed, however, to be no very 
large seals amongst them, the herd mainly consisting of adult females and 
101 
