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Catching and Shooting Seals in River and Sea
CHAPTER XXIX.
Seals-Destruction to Fish and Nets-Shooting Seal in River and Sea-
Habits of Seals-Anecdotes-Seal and Dog-Seal and Keeper-Catching
Seals-Anecdotes.
Seals, which a few years ago abounded along this coast, are
now comparatively rare, and before long will be entirely banished
to the undisturbed and unfrequented rocks of the more northern
islands. The salmon-fishers on the coast wage a constant war
against them, in consequence of the great damage they do to
their stake-nets, which are constantly torn and injured by these
powerful animals. Nor is the loss they occasion to the salmon-fishers confined to the fish which they actually consume or to the
nets that they destroy, for a seal hunting along the coast in the
neighbourhood of the stake-nets keeps the salmon in a constantly
disturbed state, and drives the shoals of fish into the deep water,
where they are secure from the nets. There is consequently a
constant and deadly feud between the fishermen and the seals,
wdiich has almost totally expelled the latter from this part of the
coast. An old seal has been known to frequent a particular
range of stake-nets for many years, escaping all attacks against
him, and becoming both so cunning and so impudent that he
will actually take the salmon out of the nets (every turn of which
he becomes thoroughly intimate with) before the face of the
fishermen, and retiring with his ill-gotten booty, adds insult to
injury by coolly devouring it on some adjoining point of rock or
shoal, taking good care, however, to keep out of reach of rifleball or slug. Sometimes, however, he becomes entangled in the
nets, and is drowned, but this seldom happens to a full-grown
seal, who easily breaks through the strongest twine if he can find
no outlet. From the shore opposite Cromarty I one day saw a
large seal swim into the stake-nets and take out a salmon, with
which he retired to a small rock above the water, and there
devoured it entirely in a very short space of time.
Sometimes at high-water and when the river is swollen a seal
comes in pursuit of salmon into the Findhorn, notwithstanding
the sroallness of the stream and its rapidity. I was one day, in
November, looking for wild ducks near the river, when I was
called to by a man who was at work near the water, and who told
me that some " muckle beast " was playing most extraordinary
tricks in the river. He could not tell me what beast it was, but
only that it was something " no that canny." After waiting a
short time, the riddle was solved by the appearance of a good-sized seal, into whose head I instantly sent a cartridge, having
no balls with me. The seal immediately plunged and splashed
about in the water at a most furious rate, and then began swimming round and round in a circle, upon which I gave him the
other barrel, also loaded with one of Eley's cartridges, which
quite settled the business, and he floated rapidly away down the
stream. I sent my retriever after him, but the dog, being very
young and not come to his full strength, was baffled by the
weight of the animal and the strength of the current, and could
not land him; indeed, he was very near getting drowned himself,
in consequence of his attempts to bring in the seal, who was still
struggling. I called the dog away, and the seal immediately
sank. The next day I found him dead on the shore off the bay,
with (as the man who skinned him expressed himself) i: twenty-
three pellets of large hail in his craig."
Another day, in the month of July, when shooting rabbits in
the sand-hills, a messenger came from the fishermen at the stakenets, asking me to come in that direction, as the " muckle sealgh "
was swimming about, waiting for the fish to be caught in the nets,
in order to commence his devastation.
I accordingly went to them, and having taken my observations of the locality and the most feasible points of attack, I got
the men to row me out to the end of the stake-net, where there
was a kind of platform of netting, on which I stretched myself,
with a bullet in one barrel and a cartridge in the other. I then
directed the men to row the boat away, as if they had left the
nets. They had scarcely gone three hundred yards from the
place when I saw the seal, who had been floating, apparently
unconcerned, at some distance, swim quietly and fearlessly up to
the net. I had made a kind of breastwork of old netting before
me, which quite concealed me on the side from which he came.
He approached the net, and began examining it leisurely and
carefully to see if any fish were in it; sometimes he was under
and sometimes above the water. I was much struck by his
activity while underneath, where I could most plainly see him,
particularly as he twice dived almost below my station, and the
water was clear and smooth as glass.
I could not get a good shot at him for some time; at last,
however, he put up his head at about fifteen or twenty yards distance from me ; and while he was intent on watching the boat,
which was hovering about waiting to see the result of my plan
of attack, I fired at him, sending the ball through his brain.
He instantly sank without a struggle, and a perfect torrent of
blood came up, making the water red for some feet round
the spot where he lay stretched out at the bottom. The
men immediately rowed up and taking me into the boat, we
managed to bring him up with a boathook to the surface of the
water,tand then, as he was too heavy to lift into the boat (his
weight being 378 lbs.) we put a rope round his flippers, and
towed hini ashore. A seal of this size is worth some money, as,
independently of the value of his skin, the blubber (which lies
under the skin, like that of a whale) produces a large quantity
of excellent oil. This seal had been for several years the dread
of the fishermen at the stake-nets, and the head man at the place
was profuse in his thanks for the destruction of a beast upon
whom he had expended a most amazing quantity of lead. He
assured me that 100Z. would not repay the damage the animal had
done. Scarcely any two seals are exactly of the same colour or
marked quite alike, and seals, frequenting a particular part of the
coast, become easily known and distinguished from each other.
There is a certain part of the coast near the sand-hills where
I can generally get a shot at a seal. I have frequently killed
them, but seldom get the animal, as the water is deep at the
place and the current strong. The spot I allude to is where
the sea, at the rise of the tide, flows into a large basin through a
narrow channel, the deep part of which is not much more than a
hundred yards in width. If there are any seals hunting this part
of the coast, they come into this basin at every tide in search of
fish, or to rest in the quiet water. My plan is to be at the place
before the tide has begun to rise, and then, having made up a
breastwork of sand and weed, I wait for the appearance of the
seals, who frequently, before the tide has risen much, come
floating in, with their heads above the water. If they do not
perceive my embankment, I am nearly certain of a shot, but if
they do, they generally keep over on the opposite side of the
channel, watching it so closely that on the least movement on
my part they instantly dive. So quick are their movements in
the water, that I find it impossible to strike a seal with ball if he
is watching me, for quick and certain as is a detonating gun,
they are still quicker, and dive before the ball can reach them.
As for a flint gun, it has not a chance with them. Within the
memory of some of the people here, seals were very numerous
about this part of the coast, and were constantly killed by/the
farmers for the sake of their oil, and with no weapons except
their hoes or spades, with which they attacked them when lying
on the sandbanks. It is but seldom that I see them resting on
the shore, but occasionally watch them in that situation, as they
either lay sleeping on the banks or play about, which, notwithstanding their unwieldy appearance, they sometimes do. At
other times they engage in the most determined battles with each
other, fighting like bulldogs, and uttering loud mournful cries.
In waiting for seals, attention must be paid more to the state of
the tide than to the time of day, although certainly, like all wild
animals, they appear less on their guard at early dawn than at
any other hour. The seal generally takes the same course every
day at the same height of tide, and basks on the same rock or
sandbank during low-water. They show themselves much less
in cold and stormy weather than when it is warm and fine.
Knowing this, and having seen a seal show himself in a particular channel or basin of the sea, you may be nearly sure of
seeing him there the next day, about the same height of tide.
The young appear about July. When first born they are
nearly white, and the hair is rough and long: they gradually
become spotted and of a darker colour, like the old ones. The
very young ones that I have seen here were probably born about
the rocks and caves of the Ross-shire coast. Some rocks off the
coast near Gordonston were till very lately the constant resort
of seals, but owing to workmen having been' employed there of
late years in building a lighthouse and other works, they very
seldom rest on them at present. They were also much frightened by a plan for catching them adopted by some of the workmen. Observing that the seals when disturbed tumbled off the
rocks in great confusion, two fellows, during low-water, fixed
firmly into the rock several strongly barbed iron hooks, with the
points turned upwards. Tiis done, the first time that they saw
any great assemblage of seals basking on the rock, near their
hooks, they got into a boat and rowed quickly up to the place,
firing guns and making all the noise that they could. The poor
seals, in their hurry to escape, came tumbling over the side of
the rocks where the hooks were placed. Several were much torn
and wounded, and one was held till the men got up and dispatched him. This cruel proceeding had the effect of keeping
them from the place for a considerable time afterwards. Notwithstanding the great timidity of the seals, they have immense
strength in their jaws, and, indeed, great muscular power in
every part of their body. A farmer near the coast here, seeing
several basking on the sandbanks, and not being possessed of a
gun, hit upon what seemed to him the capital plan of setling a
strong bulldog at them, hoping that the dog would hold one of
them till he could get up and kill it with his spade. The dog
reached the seals before they could get into the water, and
attacked one of the largest. The seal, however, with a single
bite completely smashed the head of the dog, and flinging him
to one side, scuffled away into the water, leaving the farmer not
much inclined to attempt seal-hunting again.
My man, one day while we were waiting in our ambuscade for
the seals, gave me an account of a curious adventure he had with
one near the same spot a few years back.
He wras lying at daybreak ensconced close to the water's
edge, waiting in vain for a shot at some grey geese that frequented the place at the time, when he saw a prodigiously large
seal floating quietly along with the tide, not thirty yards from
the shore. Donald did not disturb the animal, but went home
early in the day, and, having cast some bullets for his gun and
made other preparations, retired to rest. The next morning
he was again at the shore, well concealed, and expecting to see
the seal pass with the flowing tide ; nor was he disappointed.
About the same period of the rise of the tide, the monster appeared again. Donald cocked his gun, and crouched down
behind his ambuscade of seaweed and shingle, ready for the
animal's head to appear within shot. This soon happened, but
instead of swimming on with the tide, the seal came straight to
the shore, not above ten yards from where his mortal enemy was
lying concealed. The water was deep to the very edge, and the
great unwieldy beast clambered up the steep beach, and was very
soon high and dry, a few yards from the muzzle of Donald's gun,
which was immediately pointed at him, but from the position in
which the seal wras lying he could not get a shot at the head, the
only part where a wound would prove immediately fatal. Donald
waited some time, in hopes that the animal would turn or lift
his head, but at last losing patience, he gave a low whistle,
which had the immediate effect of making the animal lift its
head to listen. The gun was immediately discharged, and the
ball passed through the seal's neck, close to the head. Up ran
Donald, and flinging down his gun, seized one of the immense
fins or flippers of the beast, which he could scarcely span with
both hands. The seal was bleeding like a pig at the throat, and
quite stunned at the same time, but though it did not struggle,
it showed a kind of inclination to move towards the water, which
obliged Donald to stick his heels into the ground, and to lean
back, holding on with all his strength to prevent the escape of
the enormous beast. "'Deed, Sir," said Donald, "if you
believe me, lie was as big as any Hieland stirk in the parish."
Well, there the two remained for above an hour-motionless,
but always straining against each other, Donald's object being
to keep the seal in the same place till the tide had receded to
some distance, and then to dispatch him how he best could.
Many a wistful glance he cast at his gun, which he had so rashly
flung down without reloading ; the said gun being, as he said,
" but a bit trifling single-barrelled thing, lent him by a shoe
maker lad, who whiles took a shot along the shore"-in other
words, who poached more hares than he made shoes.
After they had remained in this uncomfortable position for a
long time, till Donald's hands, had become perfectly cramped
and stiff, the seal suddenly seemed to recover himself, and turning
round to see what was holding him, looked the man full in the
face, with a bewildered air of astonishment; then seeing what
kind of enemy he had to deal with, he gave a tremendous shake,
casting Donald off like a ; bit rag," as he expressed it, and
leaving him prostrate in the pool of blood that had come out of
the bullet-hole, moved slow ly into the water, and quietly went
down to the bottom. Donald, in utter disgust and wretchedness
at losing his prize, walked straight home, and went to bed to
sleep off his disappointment. The next morning, however, on
considering over the matter, he came to the conclusion that the
seal must be dead, and would probably, as the tide ebbed', be
grounded on one of the adjacent sandbanks ; so he returned to
the bay at low-water, and the first thing he saw was his seal
lying dead on a sandbank, and looking like a coble keel upper
most. And a perfect argosy did it turn out, producing more
pints of oil and a larger skin than ever seal produced before or
since.
I have seen these animals caught by placing a strong net,
made for the purpose, across a deep and narrow channel through
which they escaped when frightened off a sandbank, where
they were in the habit of resting at low-water. We quietly laid
the net down, fixing it at each end with an anchor ; we then
rowed round to the bank, and away went the seals, splattering
over the wet sands into the channel; we came after them as hard
as we could row. At first, when they struck the net, some
turned back, but frightened on by our shouts, they made a rush
at the net. We got to one end of it, detached the anchor, and
began to haul it round, so as to enclose the seals; then began a
noise and clamour which surpassed anything of the kind I ever
heard-the seals splashing and snorting like drowning horses,
while we were all straining every nerve to row round the boat,
with the weight and struggles of seventeen seals, large and small,
against us ; my crew of six Highlanders, shouting, cursing and
swearing, and encouraging each other in Gaelic-presently a
more furious shout from the leader of the crew announced that
something unexpected had happened, and looking round, we saw
that thirteen of the seals had escaped, partly by jumping over the
net, and partly by breaking through a weak part of it. One
very large seal, who we afterwards found had left her young one
within the net, returned in her maternal fondness to rescue it;
she swam round, and finding her offspring in the midst of all the
confusion, swam away again from the net, leading the way for
the little one to escape also. I snatched up my gun and fired,
killing her on the spot, so that she fell back into the net, and we
managed to land her, and the other four, and dispatched them,
despite their struggles, to the great joy of the salmon-fishers of
the Cromarty Firth. At another time, several years ago, I was put
into rather a dilemma by one of these animals : we had shot a three-parts grown seal, as she was asleep on an isolated rock. Having
got her into our very frail and crazy boat, we proceeded towards
the land in high spirits, but before we were half-way across, our
seal, who had only been stunned, the shot having merely grazed
her head, came to life, and finding herself in so unwonted a position, commenced an indiscriminate attack on everything in her
way; our legs being more so than anything else, we had to
throw our feet up on the gunwale of the boat, and dispatch her
how we could, as she was tearing away, with immense strength,
at the woodwork within her reach, and we expected that she
wrould have made a hole in the bottom of the boat. We managed,
however, with some difficulty to stun her again, with the handle
of an oar, and got safe to land with our prize, the first of the
kind I had ever captured.
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