We all have our disappointments in sport, but in the following case it was
more than a mere sporting failure, for I think I lost the finest specimen of a
Grey Seal that ever was seen. Mr. Prichard and I went one day to Haskeir,
and the Seals, being alarmed, moved off the rocks before we could get in our stalk
on the south island. In the water and amongst seven other old males was the
largest grypus I have ever seen or ever expect to see. He looked like an immense
polar bear in the water, and the other old males seemed children beside him.
Naturally I laid my plans carefully, and instructed the boatmen to follow my
directions implicitly. The head man was armed with a Seal-gaff with which he
was to hook the body if I was lucky enough to kill the beast close to the boat,
whilst the others were to lie on their oars ready to pull. Well, the Seals allowed
the boat to come within a hundred yards; and presently, as I lay on a high shelf
waiting an opportunity, the great Seal appeared flat and high on the surface but
within a long shot. I resolved to fire, and the patriarch of the Greys lay dying
on the sea. It was a moment of intense excitement such as Seal-hunters only
know, those few seconds in which the brain is torn with doubts of 4 will they
reach him or will they not?' My companion was for plunging into the sea then
and there, but I restrained him, as it was a certainty that the boat would reach
the Seal first. It was scarcely possible to look on the actual scene of passing
events, and when I did imagine my horror to observe the prow of the boat
almost touching the carcase, and the man who said he knew all about Seal-hunting
suddenly drop the gaff which he held in his hand, seize a great oar, and lifting
it up smash it down upon the head of the Seal. There was only one result
of such a course: the floating body sank at once to unknown depths, and
was seen no more. Comment in such a case is quite useless, but it is sufficient
to show how all the patience, the exposure, and the time spent in attaining
one’s aim and object after many months may all be thrown away by the sudden
action of one whisky-sodden idiot. How big that grypus was I should be afraid
to say, but he was something far beyond the ordinary size; the Hogarey
and Tigyarey men had known him for some years as the 4 big bull ’ of Haskeir.
I did not secure a big male until the autumn of 1901» when I killed a fine
one off one of the Ramna Stacks in the Shetlands. I was coming down the
steep green face of the island of Gruney with a large and bellicose lamb across
my shoulders, and was struggling to get him in a comfortable position, when
my eye suddenly caught sight of a fine old grypus lolloping about in some
swirling currents below, and not ten yards from the rock. My rifle lay about
fifty yards to the right on a point where I had been watching all the morning
for a favourable chance, so handing the lamb to a crofter I made for the gun
with quick strides and stunned the Seal immediately on his rising to the surface.
The boat with six men lay within fifty yards of the Seal, and when about to
shoot I had signed to them to be ready. They at once responded to the call, but
found it impossible to get nearer than thirty yards, as there was a heavy swell
going and they were afraid of being stove in. Then ensued a miserable
exhibition of human incompetence. I could not swim, and from twelve crofters
who stood around, each with a lamb boa round his neck and to whom I appealed
to swim the ten yards and fetch the Seal, I received but one answer, 4 Sic a
peety we canna sweem.’ The grypus, much to my surprise, floated and presently
drifted away out into the Sound of Yell, where by chance a ling-boat from West
Sandwich saw the floating carcase and hooked it with their cod-gaffs. A week
afterwards in Yell. I met by chance a man who told me of the capture, and
I eventually recovered the skin minus the head and paws.
I secured another large Grey Seal the same season, in rather a curious way.
At the north end of Yell is the tiny fishing station of Cullivoe, and there I
obtained lodgings in the school, where for a week I received excellent fare and a
good education from genial Mrs. Clubb. A long walk of seven miles round the
Voe of Gloup brings the traveller opposite the Holm 0’ Gloup, once a great
resort of the Grey Seal, but now almost deserted. Here I picked up a good
local man named Robert Henderson, who knew the rocks well and said he could
show me a big Seal. Exactly opposite the Holm was a little 4 Geo ’ on the main
island, and on looking over the top of a precipice, about three hundred feet
high, we saw at the bottom a large Seal lying close to the water’s edge. Henderson
became immediately seized with the shaky palsy, but I was in no way
disturbed, for I felt sure from the colour of the hide, a yellow grey, that the
animal was only a very large Common Seal, which I had no intention of disturbing.
‘ Aren’t ye going to shoot him?’ asked my companion excitedly. 4 No,’ I
said. 4 It’s only a Common Seal, and I don’t want him.’ However he begged
me to do so, as he much wanted the skin for shoes for his family, so I gave in,
but with doubts as to my ability to score, as it was a long shot. The first
bullet hit the Seal across the back of the head and only partially stunned the
animal, so I had to give two more, one of which penetrated the neck and the
other the heart; then he lay still. On taking the telescope out to examine the
victim I saw at once that it was a much larger animal than I at first supposed,
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