R----, to the seafaring Stentor.

"Beg pardon, my Lord," replied the man, in a low voice, and touching his
hat with a sheepish look.

"Keep the boat broadside on," observed R---- to the cockswain.

R---- had scarcely spoken, when the water bubbled a little, and the
seal's black snout, with dilating nostrils, rose close under the gig's
gunwale. The water whirled in eddies, and his tail, as he turned,
appearing slightly above the surface, showed me that the seal had seen
us, and dived again.

"He must come up in a minute; so, look out," whispered P----; and the
triggers of both barrels of his gun clicked, as he breathed the fact and
admonition. Fortunately the day was very calm, and the least
disturbance, the fall of the thistle's down, marred the bright surface
of the Fiord.

The head of the luckless seal soon peeped slowly up, a short way astern
of the boat, and before his eyes had risen above the water to take a
horizontal glance at us, P---- sent a handful, or so, of small shot into
his nose. Down popped the little dark proboscis speedily as thought.

"He hadn't much fresh air then," said R----, laughing at the promptitude
with which P---- saluted the appearance of the unfortunate seal.

"No; that's the way to do it," answered P----, smiling. Then turning to
the sailors, he said,

"Back astern."

The boat was accordingly backed, and so silently, that only the silvery
sound of the water as it fell, drop by drop, from the oars, contended
with the natural trickling of the ripples as they murmured under the
ledges of rock.

"Here he comes," whispered R----, "close on our quarter."

The seal rose, like a cork, up to its fore fins as if it had suffered
much torture from long retention of its breath, and, swifter than
thought, R----'s gun flashed, and with a sharp report seemed to take a
bucket of water from the Fiord, and fling it into the air. When the
light gray smoke of the powder had rolled in a revolving cloud from the
space intervening between us and the spot where the animal was observed,
the water was white with froth, but no sign of the seal could be seen.

"By Jove! that's odd. I thought I had killed him to a certainty," said
R----, somewhat surprised.

"Yes, my Lord, you hit him," observed the cockswain, consolingly. "I saw
him reel over to port."

"That's all right," said P----, "in that case he is done."

Once more two large bubbles, the spiteful heralds of the seal's advent,
rose to the top