iQ4 THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON. CHAP, viii. 



about fifty paces he tore through the thick jungle, 

 crashing it like a cobweb. At length he again halted ; 

 the dogs, the boar, and ourselves were mingled in a 

 heap of confusion. All covered with blood and dirt, 

 our own cheers added to the wild bay of the infuriated 

 hounds and the savage roaring of the boar. Still he 

 fought and gashed the dogs right and left. He stood 

 about thirty-eight inches high, and the largest dogs 

 seemed like puppies beside him ; still not a dog 

 relaxed his hold, and he was covered with wounds. I 

 made a lucky thrust for the nape of his neck. I felt 

 the point of the knife touch the bone ; the spine was 

 divided, and he fell dead. 



Smut had two severe gashes in the throat, Lena 

 was cut under the ear, and Bran's mouth was opened 

 completely up to his ear in a horrible wound. The 

 dogs were completely exhausted, and lay panting 

 around their victim. We cut off the boar's head, and, 

 slinging it upon a pole, we each shouldered an end 

 and carried it to the kennel. The power of this animal 

 must have been immense. My brother's weight and 

 mine, together being upward of twenty-four stone, in 

 addition to that of half-a-dozen heavy dogs, did not 

 appear to trouble him, and had we not been close to 

 the spot when he came to bay, so that the knives came 

 to the instant succour of the dogs, he would have most 

 probably killed or wounded half the pack. 



Tn this wild and rough kind of sport, the best dogs 



