154 RTDING* DRIVING AND KINDRED SPORTS 



fond of potatoes, which are grown round canton- 

 ments. I knew a sounder which travelled 

 regularly twelve miles every night to the 

 gardens near a cantonment. I often rode out 

 and watched them going back in the moon- 

 light of the early morning. They always 

 followed the same route. Ihe old sow led, 

 then the squeakers, and the boar brought up 

 the rear. For him at last I determined to lie 

 in ambush, so as to catch the sounder in the 

 open at the early dawn, when there would be 

 light enough to ride the pig. There was a 

 slight eminence on which were some stunted 

 bushes, which afforded shelter and conceal- 

 ment while commanding a view of the plain. 

 Presently I saw the sounder lobbing along, a line 

 of black spots. My horse saw them too. He 

 was a nervous Kathiwar stallion and reared up. 

 The sounder heard and saw us. They halted, 

 and the boar and sow put their snouts together 

 and apparently consulted as to the best course 

 to take, with the result that they turned at 

 rioht-anoles to their usual route. I had a 



o o 



good gallop after the boar, but lost him at a 

 river which he crossed on his way to another 

 patch of jungle. 



The sugar-cane patches, when they have 

 grown up, are favourite haunts for solitary 

 boar. You cannot beat these, as the covert 



