THE SEAL. 
461 
frequently did in a beautiful bay of the 
island called Seal Bay,—numbers of these 
creatures invariably made their appearance, 
especially if the weather was calm and 
sunny and the sea smooth, crowding around 
us at the distance of a few yards, and 
looking on as if they had some kind of 
notion that we were of the same genus with 
themselves. The gambols in the water of 
my playful companions, and their noise and 
merriment, seemed to excite them, and 
made them course round us with greater 
rapidity and animation.’ The same gentle¬ 
man says, 4 In walking along the shore, of 
a calm and sunny afternoon, a few notes of 
my flute would bring half a score of them 
within thirty or forty yards of me, and there 
they would swim about with their heads 
above water, like so many black dogs, evi¬ 
dently delighted with the sound. I have 
frequently noted the same effect when on a 
boating-excursion. The sound of a com¬ 
mon fife, blown by one of the boatmen, 
was no sooner heard than half, a dozen 
would start up within a few yards, wheeling 
round as long as the music played, and dis- 
