BLACK SEA COAST. 77 



the point of giving U p the chase when I heard the 

 dogs baying something not far ahead of me. To 

 creep to within thirty yards or so of them did not 

 take long, and then crouching behind the bole of a 

 huge oak, I waited for my eyes to get used to the 

 darkness. Gradually I began to make out the 

 dogs' sterns waving eagerly to and fro, and then 

 under a leaning tree-stump, in the very heart of the 

 shadow, the indistinct outline of their enemy. The 

 music all this time was maddening. The dogs' 

 clamour never ceased. The boar kept half growl- 

 ing, half grunting, while through it all in the 

 distance came the tootle of our forester's horn. 

 Suddenly the mass moved, and a dog went flying 

 belly uppermost, and his yells were added to the 

 discord. But this movement of the boar's was 

 fatal to him, as it brought him into a more open 

 position ; and seizing the opportunity, I rolled him 

 over with my * express.' "Rising he tried to charge, 

 but though I fired again, I believe it was unneces- 

 sary, as he was too hard hit ever to have reached 

 me ; still I had seen a man killed by a wounded 

 boar, and I naturally preferred to keep this one at 

 a distance. 



This was the first really large game I had 

 killed, and T rushed up to him and gloated over 

 him with all the abandon of a boy. I have said I 

 had seen a man killed by a boar, but 1 should 

 have added it was his dead body and not the event 



