146 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



evidently quite a sportsman, and had two or 

 three half-starved hounds, besides the funny, 

 hairless little house dogs, of which Mexicans 

 seem so fond. 



Having borrowed the javalina hound of 

 which we were in search, we rode off in quest 

 of our game, the two dogs trotting gayly 

 ahead. The one which had been living at 

 the ranch had evidently fared well, and was 

 very fat ; the other was little else but skin and 

 bone, but as alert and knowing as any New 

 York street-boy, with the same air of disreput- 

 able capacity. It was this hound which always 

 did most in finding the javalinas and bringing 

 them to bay, his companion's chief use being 

 to make a noise and lend the moral support of 

 his presence. 



We rode away from the river on the dry up- 

 lands, where the timber, though thick, was 

 small, consisting almost exclusively of the 

 thorny mesquites. Mixed among them were 

 prickly pears, standing as high as our heads 

 on horseback, and Spanish bayonets, look- 

 ing in the distance like small palms ; and 

 there were many other kinds of cactus, all 

 with poisonous thorns. Two or three times 

 the dogs got on an old trail and rushed off 

 giving tongue, whereat we galloped madly af- 

 ter them, ducking and dodging through and 

 among the clusters of spine-bearing trees and 

 cactus, not without getting a considerable 

 number of thorns in our hands and legs. It 

 was very dry and hot. Where the javalinas 

 live in droves in the river bottoms they often 



