35 8 The Wilderness Hunter. 



they came near him, and once catching one, inflicting an 

 ugly cut. All the while his teeth kept going like casta- 

 nets, with a rapid champing sound. I ran up close and 

 killed him by a shot through the backbone where it joined 

 the neck. His tusks were fine. 



The few minutes' chase on horseback was great fun, 

 and there was a certain excitement in seeing the fierce 

 little creatures come to bay ; but the true way to kill these 

 peccaries would be with the spear. They could often be 

 speared on horseback, and where this was impossible, by 

 using dogs to bring them to bay they could readily be 

 killed on foot ; though, as they are very active absolutely 

 fearless, and inflict a most formidable bite, it would usually 

 be safest to have two men go at one together. Peccaries 

 are not difficult beasts to kill, because their short wind 

 and their pugnacity make them come to bay before hounds 

 so quickly. Two or three good dogs can bring to a halt 

 a herd of considerable size. They then all stand in a 

 bunch, or else with their sterns against a bank, chattering 

 their teeth at their antagonists. When angry and at bay, 

 they get their legs close together, their shoulders high, 

 and their bristles all ruffled, and look the very incarnation 

 of anger, and they fight with reckless indifference to the 

 very last. Hunters usually treat them with a certain 

 amount of caution ; but, as a matter of fact, I know of but 

 one case where a man was hurt by them. He had shot at 

 and wounded one, was charged both by it and by its two 

 companions, and started to climb a tree ; but as he drew 

 himself from the ground, one sprang at him and bit him 

 through the calf, inflicting a very severe wound. I have 



