328 
SEAL. 
dom, and the capture of them furnishes employment 
for the inhabitants of Caithness. The immense 
caverns found in that part of Scotland, which open 
into the sea, and run some hundred yards beneath 
the land, are peculiarly calculated for the resort 
of seals, where they remain undisturbed during the 
breeding-time, and continue till their young are old 
enough to go to sea. The entrance to these caves 
is so narrow as only to admit a boat ; but within 
they are very spacious and lofty. We are informed 
by Mr. Pennant that in the month of October, or 
beginning of November, the seal-hunters enter the 
mouths of the caverns about midnight, and row 
up to the further end, where they land : each pf 
them being provided with a bludgeon, and properly 
stationed, they light their torches, and make a great 
noise, which brings down the seals in a con- 
fused body with fearful shrieks and cries. At first 
the men are obliged to give way, for fear of being 
overborne ; but when the first crowd is past, they 
kill as many as straggle behind, chiefly the young, 
by striking them on the nose : a very slight blow 
on that part dispatches them. When the work is 
over, they drag the seals to the boat, which two 
men are left to guard. This is a most hazardous em- 
ploy; for should their torches go out, or the wind 
blow hard from sea during their continuance in the 
cave, their lives are Iqgt. The young seals, six 
weeks old, yield more oil than their emaciated dams; 
'above eight gallons have been got from a single whelp, 
which, at the time Mr. Pennant got his information. 
