A PECCARY HUNT ON THE NUECES. 141 



they fight if molested, but they would often at- 

 tack entirely without provocation. 



Once my friend Moore himself, while out 

 with another cowboy on horseback, was at- 

 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 moment's warning. The little creatures 

 completely surrounded them, cutting fiercely 

 at the horses' legs and jumping up at the 

 riders' feet. The men, drawing their revolv- 

 ers, dashed through and were closely followed 

 by their pursuers for three or four hundred 

 yards, although 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 

 the wild turkeys gobbled loudly from their 

 roosts in the tops of the pecan trees. 



