raising both head and back-flippers as he takes a general survey of his
surroundings. The look-out is often the Seal that has most recently emerged
from the ocean and is still wet. From this we may deduce a certain subtle
reasoning and recognition of its own limitations on the part of the animal, for
only during the short time after coming from the sea is the Seal keenly alive to
the possibilities of impending danger. As his coat dries he becomes too sleepy
to trouble about extraneous matters, so his place must be taken by another that
is more awake and fresher from the sea. When Seals have been ashore for an
hour or two, and the tide has half flowed, they are generally most easy to
approach, and seldom have any guard set.
I am exceedingly fond of lying with a telescope and watching Seals on a
sunny day. They are charming creatures, and many of their little ways are very
interesting. After my previously mentioned visit to the Long Clodie Wick,
Shetlands, the wind got up, thus closing the place from the sea for the rest of the
season, so, with Mr. Haldane’s permission, I spent the next two days on the top of
the precipice with my telescope, and enjoyed a remarkably fine view of the animals
and their habits.1 The place having been so long a resort of Seals the tenants
regarded it as absolute sanctuary, although I had been unkind enough to disturb
them the day before. Many of the Seals came ashore at high water, and in fact
at all states of the tide, whilst some remained asleep the entire day without moving,
a circumstance that was new to me, and probably accounted for by the rarity of
disturbance. A very heavy swell was coming in on the third day, and I was
interested to see how the Seals would take the rocks on a lee shore among breakers,
but so cleverly were their resting places chosen that in no case did they lie up
exactly in the same spots as on the first day, but took advantage of the turn of a
boulder here or a ‘ Geo ’ there, and so obtained shelter. Nevertheless, there
was one favourite site that seemed fairly to face the breakers, and here much to
my astonishment I saw two Seals land with surprising audacity. They came in
on great rollers which hurled them far up the face on to a sort of slab from which
they immediately climbed on to a higher and drier ground above the rush of the
waves. A moment’s hesitation or lack of judgment would have meant at least a
severe buffet if not serious injury, but these Seals had been brought up in these
shelterless surroundings and knew the form of every boulder and its possibilities.
Whilst watching the Seals and studying their various attitudes, a comic relief was
1 I have made no secret of this Seals’ sanctuary, for no one can molest the Seals from the land side without Mr. Haldane’s
permission, and to approach from the sea requires such a day as comes but once a year.