348 THE RAINS. 



a thicket of already budding yellow azaleas, from 

 which, as soon as we put foot in it, went forth the 

 most extraordinary noises, while we found our- 

 selves the centre of what appeared to be an enor- 

 mous black shell in the very act of exploding. A 

 second glance revealed the true nature of the black 

 objects that rushed frantically about on every side 

 of us. Unwittingly we had disturbed the rest, nay, 

 stepped right into the middle of the resting-place 

 of a big black sow and her litter of lively black 

 imps. Such a hunt after sucking pigs as followed 

 it would be difficult to describe. The dogs had 

 been sent home ; so all the work had to be done by 

 ourselves ; and from the small size of our prey and 

 the thickness of the covert, it was almost as easy 

 to catch as to shoot the succulent morsels. Most 

 of them escaped us, but we got enough to satisfy us ; 

 so, tired and fairly content, we retraced our steps. 



During the rest of our stay at Golovinsky we 

 had excellent sport with the wild swine, killing 

 one boar whose head an English naturalist declared 

 to be the largest he had ever seen in England. 

 But all boar and nothing else grew monotonous ; 

 and after a week of this sport we struck our tents 

 and moved away to Yakorski, where, with hills 

 and woods all round us, a clear purling brook by 

 our side and the sea at our feet, Ave had good sport 

 till the weather changed. The only drawback was 

 that the tent which was meant to hold two had to 



