242 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



may be sure of a decidedly interesting hunt. On the 

 other hand, an unsuspecting pig is easy to stalk, for his 

 eyesight is not good ; his sense of smell is not much bet- 

 ter; and he depends largely upon hearing to protect 

 him from enemies. 



In Tientsin and Shanghai there are several sports- 

 men who year after year go to try for record tusks 

 they are the real authorities on wild boar hunting. My 

 own experience has been limited to perhaps a dozen 

 pigs killed in Korea, Mongolia, Celebes, and various 

 parts of China. 



Harry Caldwell and I returned from our bighorn 

 sheep and wapiti hunt on November 19. He was 

 anxious to go with me for wild boar, but business re- 

 quired his presence in Foochow, and Everett Smith, 

 who had been my companion on a trip to the Eastern 

 Tombs the previous spring, volunteered to accompany 

 me. We left on November 28 by the Peking-Han- 

 kow Railroad for Ping-ting-cho, arriving the follow- 

 ing afternoon at two o'clock. There we obtained 

 donkeys for pack and riding animals. All the traffic 

 in this part of Shansi is by mules or donkeys. As a 

 result the inns are small, with none of the spacious 

 courtyards which we had found in the north of the prov- 

 ince. They were not particularly dirty, but the open 

 coal fires which burned in every kitchen sometimes 

 drove us outside for a breath of untainted air. How 

 it is possible for human beings to exist in rooms so 

 filled with coal gas is beyond my knowledge. Of 

 course, death from gas poisoning is not unusual, but I 



