104 THE WILD BOAR. 



which are not usually thrust into his flesh, the hunter re- 

 taining a hold of the weapon, but are lanced at him at a 

 distance of twenty or thirty yards, as he flies before his 

 mounted pursuers. The Indian wild hog does not seem 

 to be quite so ferocious an animal as either the African or 

 the European species. Ample and interesting details and 

 anecdotes on hog-hunting in India may be found in the 

 works upon Indian field sports by Daniel, Williamson, 

 and Johnson. Among other anecdotes, Mr. Johnson re- 

 lates the following : " I was one of a party of eight gen- 

 tlemen on a sporting excursion at Hye, near the city of 

 Patna, on the banks of the Soane river. Returning one 

 morning from shooting, we met with a very large boar in a 

 rhur*, which we did not fire at or molest, as several of the 

 gentlemen were very fond of hunting them, and we had no 

 spears with us. The next morning we all sallied forth in 

 search of him, and, just as we arrived at the spot where we 

 saw him the day before, we discovered him. at some dis- 

 tance, trotting off towards a grass jungle, on the banks of 

 the river : we pressed on our horses as fast as possible, 

 aud were nearly up with him, when he disappeared all at 

 once; our horses were then nearly at their full speed, and 

 four of them could not be pulled up in time to prevent their 

 going into a deep branch of the river, the banks of which 

 were at least fourteen or fifteen feet high ; luckily for us 

 there was no water in it, or anything but fine sand, and no 

 person was hurt. One of the horses, which was very 

 vicious, got loose, attacked the others, and obliged all the 

 gentlemen to quit them, and walk to their tents, where one 

 of the horses had arrived before them, and the rest were 

 soon caught. A few days after this we went again early 

 in the morning in pursuit of the same hog, and found him 

 farther offfrom the grass jungle, in a rhur-field, from which, 



* " Rhur is a species oflupine, or pulse, which grows to the height of from 

 four to six or seven feet; the seeds are eaten by the natives of India, and are 

 also given to the cattle." 



