32 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



beautiful horse, whose death a year later from 

 biliary fever hit me hard. Souvenir caught the 

 hog as if he was standing still, and a lucky spear 

 through the spine dropped him in his tracks with 

 some twenty yards yet left of the hundred between 

 him and the jheel. This was in May. The hog 

 was fit and hard, and had been jogging in front of 

 the line for an hour. 



Nothing is more noticeable than the difference 

 in pace between the horses that are now ridden in 

 the Meerut country and those of fifteen years ago. 

 The first of the new really fast horses that appeared 

 was Mr. M. Clementson's Forest King, whom he 

 brought from Dholpore. The horse stood out in 

 a class by himself, and won the Kadir Cup. 



I realize the change in the pace of horses that 

 has taken place very clearly when I ride Pioneer. 

 Fourteen years ago he was, if I may be pardoned 

 for saying so, at the top of the hunt. Now, if we 

 ever get a first spear, it is only by low cunning. I 

 admit neither he nor I have become more rapid in 

 fourteen years. 



Eyesight, — I think pig have good sight, though, 

 like all wild animals, they are very slow at detect- 

 ing a man if he stands absolutely still. I stood out 

 in the open once, as an experiment when beating a 

 hill near Mhow. I was in full view of a sounder, 

 which came to the foot of the hill within a hundred 

 yards of me, but did not break for other reasons. 



Last year, in the Central Provinces, after buffalo, 

 I came across a sounder of pig feeding. I stalked 

 up to within eighty yards and stood rigid in the 

 open. The sounder worked up to me and did not 

 discover me till they were within twenty yards. 



