WILD SPORT IN BRITIANY. 207 



and plunging in and out of pools, as if water were her native 

 element. 



" Now this is what I call sport," said Keryfan to me, just as 

 the hounds had again brought the pig to bay. " It reminds me, 

 Frank, of that day when you and I joined Mr. Trelawny's pack on 

 the Plym river, and had the good fortune to see them kill a fine 

 dog-otter under Cann Quarries. Such a dashing, crashing, amphi- 

 bious lot as they were I shall never forget." 



" True enough. That was the day when a hound called 

 Wanderer made so many fine hits, and at last marked the otter 

 in a holt that proved to be a wasp's nest when, as they sallied 

 forth to revenge the intrusion, old Limpetty, the huntsman, blew 

 his horn like a madman, bolted off, and rode his horse Jack 

 Sheppard head-foremost into a deep pool. But luckily the otter, 

 as you remember, Keryfan, bolted too, or, backed as he was by 

 such protection, we could never have touched him again." 



By crossing a narrow strip of open ground, guided by the 

 peasants, we now managed to cut off a long bend of the river 

 just in time to head the chase, as the pig, with her mouth wide 

 open, and reduced to a trot, came struggling through the flood 

 right up to us. The hounds were close on her ; but as there was 

 no friendly rock, nor even the roots of a tree, against which she 

 could bring her back to bear and face the foe, she still struggled 

 on towards the precipitous bank on which we all stood to witness 

 the scene. She was too beaten, however, to gain even that point - } 

 for, in attempting to cross a run of shallow water, a couple of the 

 leading hounds, old Csesar being one of them, seized her by the 

 hams, and in another instant, as all three rolled over together, at 

 least five couple more had fixed their fangs in her fore and aft, 

 holding fast on, and tugging at her as if her hide must be torn in 

 one minute into " a hundred tatters of brown." But not a bit of 

 it not an inch of her hide was broken ; and it is impossible to 



