294 The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland
down; here I threw him the rope, up which he came, well-nigh perished with
the cold. I . j
Thus we came to the end of all that may be of interest to the general reader
of this ever memorable and disastrous stalk. Often our failures in sport are more
interesting than our successes, and in this case the prize was as nearly within the
grasp as anything could possibly be. -How we eventually made our way back to
the boat, and how after more than an hour’s talking and arguing with a crew of
nerve-shattered drunkards we eventually induced them to approach near enough
to allow us to get into the boat— for a nasty sea was now up—is too long a
yam and has nothing to do with Grey Seals; ' ^ '
The first big Grey Seal that I got was under rather peculiar Circumstances,
for I was not expecting to see one at the time. August R9 1898, was a
beautiful day, so Captain Skipwith and I were off to the island of Langasgeir
where X hoped to shoot an old male Common Seal in the yellow coat, having
seen a fine one there shortly before. We located the Seals, to the number of forty,
lying on a small high rock situated within thirty yards of the south end of the
larger island; there being no Cover we had to go right to the north end and
crawl flat on our faces through the water the whole length of the island.
However, though the wind was bad the stalk was successful. Getting within a
hundred yards I slew the yellow Seal where he lay, with a shot in the neck.1 As
the tide was rising swiftly I feared the body of the Seal might be floated off before
the boat could arrive, so my gallant human retriever at once took off his-clothes
and went to fetch it. As he plunged into the water I suddenly observed two
large grypus watching him with interest from the stream on the north side of the
island, only about two hundred yards away. They were in shallow water and luckily
had not seen me, for I had seated myself to fill a pipe behind some rocks. It only
took a minute or two to work round to their flank within easy shooting distance,
and the larger of the two had just come up again in exactly the same spot when
I got into position and fired. The water, over an area of ten or twelve yards,
was immediately clouded with blood and oil, but there was little doubt as to the
effect of the shot, although the Seal had sunk at once. When the boat came
round after picking up Mr. Pip in a nude condition, and afterwards his clothes,
which had drifted far out to sea, it was no easy task to find the body of the
Grey Seal owing to the fogged condition of the water, and after a disappointing
hunt we were forced to abandon the search, with the hope of recovering it at
1 This Seal is now set up in Mr. Rothschild’s museum at Tring.