20 SHIKAR SKETCHES. 



separated from the i Warree ' hill by a wide and 

 boggy 'nullah.' 



Thompson had two horses out, one a bay Waler 

 mare, very fast, but as yet untried after pig, the 

 second a grey Arab who was a clever and sea- 

 soned hog-hunter. I had only one, an iron-grey 

 Persian gelding, seven years old, which I had 

 lately purchased at one of the artillery ' carter ' 

 sales for the magnificent sum of sixty-five rupees, 

 or some six pounds ten shillings. Though per- 

 fectly sound, he had been ' cast ' for vice. He 

 was a sour-looking, three-cornered sort of devil, 

 rather slack in his loins, but with a good shoul- 

 der, fairish hocks and quarters, though somewhat 

 goose-rumped, and with legs like iron ; he pulled 

 like a fiend, would strike, kick, and bite at anyone 

 or anything on the very slightest provocation, 

 but could gallop and stay, and jumped like a 

 deer, and so was eminently suited to be the 

 mount of an impecunious ensign, who in those 

 days thought little of risking his precious neck 

 on any sort of animal that could aspire to the 

 dignity of being called a horse. I had never 

 yet ridden him after pig, and felt rather doubt- 

 ful as to how he would acquit himself in the 

 hunting-field. However, I thought his infernal 

 temper would make him face any pig, and so did 

 not feel uneasy on that score. Fast enough I 



