77 



appearance, and in some other respects, was found and still exists 

 in Mexico and other central parts of the continent. 



The wild boar of Europe, fine specimens of -which arc still found 

 in the -wild and woody regions of France and Germany, is a noble 

 animal. Living chiefly on roots and vegetables, he roams fear- 

 lessly through the dense forest ; and although fierce and formi- 

 dable when provoked to anger, at other times he is inoffensive, 

 disposed to attend to his own afiairs, and let man and all other 

 animals alone. The wild boar for the most part leads a solitary 

 life, and armed with curvilinear tusks, sharp-pointed, and from six 

 inches to a foot in length, is universally feared and shunned, ex- 

 cepting by men in grand hunting parties, armed to the teeth, and 

 accompanied by a peculiarly large and fierce species of dogs. 



Hunting the wild boar has ever been considered a deeply ex- 

 citing and dangerous pastime, in which noblemen and monarchs, 

 and mighty men renowned for courage and expert in Avarlike ex- 

 ercises, have in all ages delighted to partake. When attacked 

 and roused to fury, the wild boar defends himself with matchless 

 strength, perseverance and energy. With his enormous tusks he 

 rips open the bodies of the dogs, gores the hunter who comes un- 

 happily within his reach, and never yields till overmatched by 

 numbers and pierced in the most vital parts with many wounds. 



In a "wild state the boar is strong and quick in his movements, 

 and possesses all his senses in full perfection, and the free use of 

 all his hmbs. His activity is wonderful, especially when compared 

 with the sluggish and unwieldy monstrosities which constitute the 

 best breeds of hogs among civilized nations in modern times. His 

 fleetness, when pursued in his native haunts by men and dogs, is 

 almost equal to that-of the deer or the greyhound ; and he actu- 

 ally bounds through the thick forest at a pace which in a rough 

 and uneven country leaves the well-mounted hunter far behind. 



Du Chaillu, the celebrated traveller, whose recent explorations 

 in the equatorial regions of Africa, have excited a deep interest 

 among naturalists, says that he met with a species of hog in his 

 rambles, of very large size, and which, when alarmed, w^ould bound 

 ten yards at a single leap ! And he has often seen them, when 

 hunted, leap across the Ovenga River, which by actual measure- 

 ment was more than twenty-four feet from shore to shore ! 



Be that as it will, it is an undoubted fact that the wild boar of 

 Europe is hardly inferior in strength and courage to the tiger or 

 the grizzly bear ; but he is a stranger to the treachery and cun- 

 ning of the one, and the fearful and indiscriminate ferocity of the 

 other. His character, while it excites fear and awe, cannot but 

 command respect. 



The flesh of the hog was rejected by the founders of the Jewish 

 and Mahometan religion as unfit for human sustenance ; but it is 



