30 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



One year, on an island in the Ganges about half 

 a mile long, I speared a big black boar. I gave him 

 a heavy spear in the near side behind the shoulder, 

 high up. I held him for a short time, but he broke 

 away, and, diving into thick cover, escaped me. I 

 was sure he would die at once, and had the place 

 watched for vultures next day, but did not find him. 

 Next year we beat the same island, and put up a 

 big black boar, who fairly raised Cain at once. He 

 was only killed after a long fight up and down the 

 island. Day, R.H.A., ought to have had his 

 Tommy cut to pieces, and there were several other 

 narrow escapes. The pig was fighting too blindly, 

 and did no serious harm; he fell to Skinner, 

 5th Cavalry. This pig had a scar six inches long 

 on the near side behind the shoulder, high up. From 

 this, from his behaviour, and from his appearance 

 I am convinced he was the same pig. Yet the original 

 wound looked as deadly a one as can be imagined. 



Speed. The speed of a pig is, I think, apt to be 

 exaggerated. Shakespear, who did the bulk of his 

 hunting from 1854 to 1857, says that " a good hog 

 will run away from the fleetest racer." Baden- 

 Powell says that a single horseman will take three- 

 quarters of a mile to catch his pig, though a heat 

 will run into him considerably sooner. Most writers 

 on hunting a hog agree as to his excessive speed. 



I cannot say that I hold with these views, and I 

 write with a very full knowledge of the Kadir pig, 

 whom I place as indubitably the fastest in India. 

 Provided, and always with this proviso, that you 

 get away within thirty or forty yards of a starting 

 pig, with fair riding ground you ought to run up 

 to him well within half a mile, whether you are alone 



