8 o transactions— PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
to Colonel Drummond Hay, and through him to Mr. George 
Pitcaithly, Mr. A. Lumsden, and Mr. T. Marshall. 
As may be supposed, Seals are most common in the lower stretches 
of the river, as between the Tay Bridge and Flisk Point, or New¬ 
burgh On some of the banks (places uncovered at low water), especi¬ 
ally opposite Invergowrie, Mr. Lumsden has seen form 30 to 4° at a 
time, and here they seem to be resident. [In this connection I would 
ask if the large bank just above Invergowrie, named on the ordnance 
map the “ Dog Bank,” gets its title from being frequented by Sea- 
Dogs, another name for Seals?] Above this they are much less 
numerous, and occur chiefly as single individuals, who follow the 
salmon up the river as fat (Mr. Marshall tells me) as the Linn of 
Campsie, where they have been seen from time to time. IVhether 
they so higher than this is not known. 
Mr. Pitcaithly believes that Seals are very destructive to salmon. 
“ I infer this ” (he writes) “ from the number of salmon which we get 
scarred and torn. It is quite a common thing to see one out of 
every three or Jour big fish torn. The late Charles Powrie watched 
a Seal at Orchard Neuk one Sunday m May, and in the course of an 
hour and a half he saw it kill three salmon. ^ The late Jas. Miller, 
Errol was also confident of one large Seal killing nine salmon during 
the time (four or five hours) he was fishing on a bank out from Errol. 
I think the salmon falls a very easy prey to the Seal. On the fish 
we get scratched, the mark of their claws is always down to the belly 
and backwards. I have tried a salmon upon a dead Seal, and could 
not get the scratches to correspond with the claws of the Seal unless 
the Seal had been on its back when it caught the fish. If that is 
the case the fish have little chance of escape. My belief as to this 
was confirmed when watching the Seals in the ponds of the London 
Zoological Gardens. When the Seals were swimming with their heads 
above water, they turned on their backs whenever they went below 
water. The Seals are very numerous between Dundee and New¬ 
burgh, but their place of resting seems to be nearly opposite I^jer- 
gowrie There are one or two high banks thereabouts, on whic 
they go to rest as soon as the banks become dry. I have seen them 
there like a flock of young cattle, but could not get nearer than five 
or six hundred yards. The only step taken to destroy them was by 
a man of the name of Melville. Knowing the latter well, I consulted 
with him, and approved of his plan, which was this-He got long 
planks of wood sunk on the face of the bank at low water and a 
great number of big hooks or ‘cleeks’ nailed to them Mhen the 
tide was out he came on the Seals and hurried them down on the 
cleeks, but many of the cleeks being too weak straightened out, and 
a number of Seals escaped. He got, I think, however, four or five, 
