A Peccary Hunt on the Nueces 167 



tacked in sheer wantonness by a drove of these 

 little wild hogs. The two men were riding 

 by a grove of live-oaks along a wood-cutter's 

 cart track, and were assailed without a mo- 

 ment's warning. The little creatures com- 

 pletely surrounded them, cutting fiercely at 

 the horses' legs and jumping up at the riders' 

 feet. The men, drawing their revolvers, dashed 

 through and were closely followed by their 

 pursuers for three or four hundred yards, al- 

 though they fired right and left with good 

 effect. Both of the horses were badly cut. On 

 another occasion the bookkeeper of the ranch 

 walked off to a water hole but a quarter of 

 a mile distant, and came face to face with a 

 peccary on a cattle trail, where the brush was 

 thick. Instead of getting out of his way the 

 creature charged him instantly, drove him 

 up a small mesquite tree, and kept him there 

 for nearly two hours, looking up at him and 

 champing its tusks. 



I spent two days hunting round this ranch 

 but saw no peccary sign whatever, although 

 deer were quite plentiful. Parties of wild 

 geese and sandhill cranes occasionally flew 

 overhead. At nightfall the poor-wills wailed 

 everywhere through the woods, and coyotes 

 yelped and yelled, while in the early morning 



