ut enough for the seal and me also, when the weather was fine;
but when it was rough, they could not obtain any, and then I was obliged
to feed them. The way I obtained from them the extra supply of fish
was, that when they first went out, I seized, on their return the fish
which they brought; and as often as I did this, they would go for more,
until the females were fed.

But I had one difficulty to contend with, which was, that at the time
the birds could not obtain fish, which was when the weather was rough, I
could not neither, as they would not take the bait. After some
cogitation, I decided that I would divide a portion of the bathing-pool
farthest from the shore, by a wall of loose rock which the water could
flow through, but which the fish could not get out of, and that I would
catch fish in the fine weather to feed the seal and the birds when the
weather was rough and bad. As soon as I had finished curing my stock of
provisions and got it safely housed in the cabin, I set to work to make
this wall, which did not take me a very long while, as the water was not
more than two feet deep, and the pool about ten yards across. As soon
as it was finished, I went out every day, when it was fine, and caught
as many fish as I thought I might require, and put them into this
portion of the bathing-pool. I found the plan answer well, as the fish
lived; but I had great difficulty in getting them out when I wanted
them; for they would not take the bait.

As my birds were no longer a trouble to me, but rather, on the contrary,
a profit, I devoted my whole time to my seal. I required a name for
him, and reading in the book of Natural History that a certain lion was
called Nero, I thought it a very good name for a seal, and bestowed it
on him accordingly, although what Nero meant I had no idea of. The
animal was now so tame that he would cry if ever I left him, and would
follow me as far as he could down the rocks; but there was one part of
the path leading to the bathing-pool, which was too difficult for him,
and there he would remain crying till I came back. I had more than once
taken him down to the bathing-pool to wash him, and he was much pleased
when I did. I now resolved that I would clear the path of the rocks,
that he might be able to follow me down the whole way, for he had grown
so much that I found him too heavy to carry. It occupied me a week
before I could roll away and remove the smaller rocks, and knock