XXV 



HUNTING IN FRANCE 



THE NATURE OF THE GAME — BARON DE DORI-ODOT — THE KEN- 

 NELS — THE FOREST OF SENOUCHES. 



"C^ ROM rude snares and drives into niire, on down through 

 *■ the age of the crudest weapons and the hand spear to 

 the present day, the taking of the wild boar has been 

 attended with great danger. The hon is styled the King of 

 beasts, but he is a cf)ward in comparison with the wild boar. 

 The wild boar, being a purely herbivorous animal, has no 

 occasion to prey upon any other animal. Stealth is, therefore, 

 to liim an unknown quality. His fighting is always defensive 

 and, as against his common enemies, the wolf and l)ear, he 

 invariably came out ahead, therefore he has come to think of 

 himself as the master of the universe. 



There is no animal, in the whole list of big game or small, 

 that has such an exalted opinion of his own power and ability 

 to defend himself against all comers, as the wild boar. 



He is armed with great tusks in the lower jaw that are from 

 four to six inches in length. The points of these mash or 

 rasp against shorter tusks in the upper jaw that keep the 

 points of the lower tusks as sharp as a knife. 



With these weapons, short handled although they are, he 

 defends himself and at quite a range. His agility is so marvel- 

 lous that nothing can escape a gash that comes within his 

 reach and his reach, when standing, covers a radius of five or six 

 feet to right or left. He can charge ahead, or turn end for end, 

 in a single spring. When fighting from a standstill, liis hind 



