PIG-STICKING IN BENGAL 151 



Willy Bell Irving, myself, and two others. The 

 country had not recovered from the great earth- 

 quake of 1897, and the ground was split in every 

 direction. We all came down at least once, but 

 eventually Bell Irving killed the buck. The run 

 was an adventurous one, as I got concussion and 

 Bell Irving lost two of his front teeth. 



We do not often come across leopards, but Billy 

 Barker and Abraham Garratt have both ridden and 

 killed a leopard with a hog spear. Tom Westmacott 

 tells me that when hunting in thatching grass some 

 years ago near Chandpara a leopard drove the beaters 

 out of the grass. At the same moment a boar broke, 

 and when the " spears " came back after killing 

 him, it was getting dark and the leopard could not 

 be found. In Barker's case the leopard was a 

 female which had just lost her cubs. She took up 

 her quarters in a patch of paddy with a fence round 

 it, and attacked any one who came near. Barker 

 jumped his horse into the paddy and found the 

 leopard on its back snarling, and killed her with 

 one spear before she could get up. 



The following hints may be of use to the novice, 

 and I give them for what they are worth. 



If you are hunting a boar in country where cattle 

 are grazing, and you lose him, watch the cattle, and 

 if you suddenly see them galloping you may be 

 quite sure that the boar has just passed them. 



It is a mistake to take a green horse up to a 

 wounded boar, particularly if he has a spear in him 

 and is standing in long grass. If possible give a 

 green horse a long steady gallop after a boar in the 

 open and he will very soon tumble to the game. 

 Many a good horse has been ruined at the outset of 

 his hunting career by being charged and cut by a 



