HOG-HUNTING. 77 



thin bit of outlying cover, which extended some 

 distance out into the plain from a large, steep, 

 isolated hill, covered with rocks and boulders, 



and clothed with dense brushwood. H (the 



friend and sportsman to whom these pages are 

 dedicated) and I got a start of the rest of the 

 field, and had a good race for the spear. The 

 boar ran the line of thin and detached bushes 

 towards the hill. One of us was riding each side 

 of the cover, and the boar kept jinking from 

 one side to the other without affording either of 

 us a chance of spearing. As we neared the hill, 

 old i Parachute ' blundered into a large bush- 

 covered sort of pit, which threw me considerably 

 behind, and, when I emerged, I saw the boar 

 had almost reached the base of the hill, with 

 H - close behind him, and evidently, and with 

 good reason, pretty sure of the spear. The fates 

 were, however, to him adverse ; for his horse, a 

 new purchase, could not be induced to face the 

 pig. This gave me a chance ; and, cramming in 

 the spurs and scrambling up over the boulder- 

 strewn side of the hill, I just managed to spear 

 the boar (though somewhat far back) as he dis- 

 appeared into the thick brushwood. Riding him 

 further was impossible, for the cover was too 

 thick; so, on the rest of the party coming up, 

 we awaited the arrival of the beaters, who, on 



