CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 79 



boar. What he found was a very lively boar, 

 in the same spot where he had left it, that 

 actually charged him again with great fury. 

 This time, however, he finished it off. Few 

 other animals could lie up severely wounded 

 for a whole night and then charge, apparently 

 as fresh as ever, next day. Colonel William- 

 son tells me that he once had a lucky shot at a 

 boar, which he could only see indistinctly in 

 a clump of so-called wild arrowroot. On this 

 occasion also the bullet struck it too far back 

 to do mortal injury, and out it came straight 

 for him. The Colonel took a hurried shot 

 at close range, and then, catching his feet in 

 some roots, fell on his back, expecting every 

 moment that the boar would be on him and 

 would score his body with some of those 

 L-shaped gashes that the tusks always make. 

 As he jumped up he found the animal lying 

 dead at his feet, the shot having penetrated 

 to the brain just over the left eye. 



Like many other really brave animals, the 

 boar is no bully. Leave him alone, and he 

 will give you the path. I recollect riding 

 one moonlight night right up to an old boar, 

 with his sow and his litter, and the pigs, 

 which were digging up truffles or some other 

 delicacy when I came suddenly upon them, 

 just galloped back to the hills, the old gentle- 

 man covering their retreat. An elephant, on 



