WHEAT AND CROP-HUNTING. 105 



the patiale thought it was his usual time to come 

 out, made straight for the open. He was not a fast 

 pig and was soon pumped. Johnstone on his pony get- 

 ting first spear, after which we had some trouble in 

 finishing him off as all the horses took to shying. After 

 a good deal of coaxing and dodging Johnstone managed 

 to get in a good spear, and the pig had just enough 

 life left in him to walk and go and lay down in a pool 

 of water, but this was his last effort for he soon rolled 

 over on his side and succumbed after a few convulsive 

 kicks. This was a rather good boar, very well-made 

 and stood 35". It was lucky finding this pig in so small 

 a patch of wheat and so near a cart track, evidently 

 the cloudy and rainy weather we had in the forenoon had 

 emboldened him, and he lay down in the first cover he 

 came across. 



Hills was delighted, as he said, at the youngsters get- 

 ting a boar all to themselves. 



Next day we were up very early, and must say, we 

 had a most disappointing day of it. We tried some 

 new country about five miles north of the factory, and 

 though we rode through miles of wheat we did not see 

 a single pig, though we came across plenty of signs 

 of them. I can only ascribe the result of our failure 

 to the dry state the country was in : all the bils and 

 water-holes about the place being dry, the pigs had 

 shifted to some more favourite ground where water was 

 more plentiful. By four o'clock in the afternoon we 

 found ourselves back at the factory, very dusty and 



