A Peccary Hunt on the Nueces 165 



it showed not only the utmost daring but the 

 most consummate horsemanship and wonder- 

 ful skill in the use of the rope, the coil being 

 hurled with the force and precision of an iron 

 quoit; a single man speedily overtaking, rop- 

 ing, throwing, and binding down the fiercest 

 steer or bull. 



There had been many peccaries, or, as the 

 Mexicans and cowpunchers of the border 

 usually call them, javalinas, round this ranch 

 a few years before the date of mj visit. Until 

 1886, or thereabout, these little wild hogs 

 were not much molested, and abounded in 

 the dense chaparral around the lower Rio 

 Grande. In that year, however, it was sud- 

 denly discovered that their hides had a mar- 

 ket value, being worth four bits that is, half 

 a dollar apiece; and many Mexicans and 

 not a few shiftless Texans went into the busi- 

 ness of hunting them as a means of livelihood. 

 They were more easily killed than deer, and, 

 as a result, they were speedily exterminated 

 in many localities where they had formerly 

 been numerous, and even where they were 

 left were to be found only in greatly dimin- 

 ished numbers. On this particular Frio 

 ranch the last little band had been killed 

 nearly a year before. There were three of 



