as a looking-glass, they could not escape notice.

Up came a sleek head not twenty yards from me, and down it went again,
just in time before my rifle ball struck the eddying water; and at the
same instant both barrels of R----'s gun, discharged one after another,
made the drum of my ear ring.

"Two of them," he murmured. P---- and the sailor fired almost
immediately; but the seals were too quick for them. As fast as we could
load, these creatures kept rising around us; and they only seemed to
dive in order to spread the tidings below amongst their friends, for
they increased in numbers at each emersion. After firing a great
quantity of shot and powder to little purpose, we were making up our
minds to attack a rock covered with gulls, when a large seal rose within
reach of our oars, but sunk again the moment it discovered our
propinquity. In a few minutes afterwards, it bounced, head first, to the
top of the water, five-and-twenty or thirty yards from the boat; and
R---- and I having granted P---- the preference of first shot, he gave
the seal's full face the fuller benefit of a double charge of duck-shot.
We never saw the seal again, although we loitered about the spot for an
hour in the hope of finding its carcass. The cockswain persuaded us that
the seal was dead to a certainty; but that P---- had stowed such a
locker of shot in its head, it was too heavy to float.

The rock, moving like a huge living mass, being so thickly covered with
gulls, now attracted our attention; but we did not purpose to destroy
them for the mere sake of slaughter; for R---- had bought a couple of
young eagles a few days before, and it was necessary to procure food for
them.

"Let's pull to the rock," observed R----, "and see what we can do
there."

"I assent," said P----; "but we had better pull round to leeward, and
take them by surprise. What do you say, cockswain?"

"Yes, your Honour," replied the man, "we shall never be able to near
them as we pull now. Give the rock a wide berth, and get under the lee,
as your honour says."

"Pull away, then," said R----, to the two sailors; "but don't make a row
with your oars in the water."

The cockswain kept his eye on the rock, and, every now and then, hinted
to me the course I should steer; for I had taken the tiller.

"Port a little, your Honour," he said, in a voice hardly above a
whisper. The gig obeyed her helm instantly. We gradually came near to
the rock; and passing abreast of