AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 157 



in a portion of California where the ranchmen raised 

 a great many hogs, but allowed them to range at will 

 in the hills and mountains from the time they were 

 littered until old enough and large enough for 

 market; that in this time they became as wild as 

 deer and as savage as peccaries, so that the only way 

 they could ever be reclaimed and marketed was to 

 catch them with large, powerful dogs, trained to the 

 work. Their feet were then securely tied with strong 

 thongs, and they were muzzled and packed into 

 market or to the ranches, as their owners desired, on 

 horses or mules. 



Johnston had a pair of these dogs, and used to 

 assist his neighbors in rounding up their wild hogs. 

 In one case, he and several other men went with an 

 old German ranchman away up into the mountains 

 to bring out a drove of these pine- skinners, many of 

 whom had scarcely seen a human being since they 

 were pigs, and at sight of the party the hogs stam- 

 peded of course, and ran like so many deer. The dogs 

 were turned loose, took up a trail, and soon had a 

 vicious critter by the ears, when the packers came up, 

 muzzled and tied it securely. The dogs were then 

 turned loose again, and another hog was rounded up 

 in the same way. These two were hung onto a pack- 

 animal with their backs down, their feet lashed 

 together over the pack-saddle, and their long, sharp 

 snouts pointing toward the horse's head. They were 

 duly cinched, and the horse turned loose to join the 

 train. This operation was repeated until the whole 

 herd was corralled and swung into place on the horses, 

 and the squealing, groaning, and snorting of the ter- 

 rified brutes was almost deafening. One pair of hogs 



