THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
immature ones. At last I elected to fire at the watch seal, which seemed 
as good as any. Few animals make such a comic commotion as seals do, 
when a rifle is fired. On the land their contortions are far from graceful, 
and the spectacle of sixty -two fat seals struggling and falling from the 
rock, splashing in terror into the silent sea, is a sight to be remembered. 
For a moment the seal at which I had fired lay on the top of the rock, and 
then, after some spasmodic jerks, it turned over and reached an inclined 
plane, down which it rapidly rolled into the sea and disappeared. 
After the sound of the shot had died away, the sea became dotted with 
black seal heads, and most of these soon disappeared, except a few in- 
quisitive youngsters which came back close to the rock. I waited, out of 
sight, for five minutes, and was about to signal to Rorie to come on, 
when I observed two more large seals coming along the coast in my 
direction. Presently one of these appeared in the shallow channel sixty 
yards away, and on the spot where Rorie had told me I could kill seals 
without fear of losing them. The first of these new-comers offered an 
easy chance and lay over dead at once, and the second one, coming up 
without having heard the shot , shared a similar fate , but sank immediately. 
Before Rorie arrived I killed six seals in six shots, and after an hour’s | 
work we recovered them all except one, the one first fired at, which had 
become stuck in a hole at the base of a big rock. Our little boat was nearly 
deep to the gunwale with men and seals as we returned to the yacht after 
the most successful day that Rorie could remember. 
A day’s seal shooting often falls to the lot of the deer-stalker, and it is 
well to remember that it is not good sportsmanship to kill the common 
seal in deep water except in the early months of the year, when the animals || 
are very fat and almost certain to float. In the autumn only about two j; 
seals out of every five will float, and these are generally males which 
have recovered their condition after the autumnal pelage moult in August 
or immatures that have not bred. Also it must be remembered that there 
is only one sure shot to kill a seal dead and that is in the head and neck. 
A mortal body shot always gives the seal time to make two or three 
wriggles towards the water or off the rock from which it dives and is 
almost invariably lost. Common seals are now so numerous that there 
is no reason why chance shots should ever be taken at them if a specimen 
is desired. The best time to shoot one is after the deerstalking season is || 
over, about October 20, when the animals have gained their beautiful jj 
winter coat. A fine still day should be chosen and the shot taken as the | 
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