THE BOSCH VARK. 



749 



The BOSCH VARK, or Bush Hog, of Southern Africa is a very formidable animal in 

 aspect as well as in character, the heavy, lowering look, the projecting tusks, and the 

 callous protuberance on the cheek, giving it a ferocious expression which is no way belied 

 by the savage and sullen temper of the animal. The Bosch Vark inhabits the forests, and 

 is generally found lying in excavations or hollows in the ground, from which it is apt to 

 rush if suddenly disturbed, and to work dire vengeance upon its foe. In color it is 

 extremely variable, some species being of a uniform dark brown, others of a brown 

 variegated with white, while others are tinged with bright chestnut. The young is richly 

 mottled with yellow and brown. For the following account of the habits of the Bosch 

 Vark I am indebted to Captain Drayson's MS : 



" Where the locality is sufficiently retired and wooded to afford shelter to the bush 

 bucks which I have mentioned, we may generally expect to find traces of the Bush Pig. 

 His spoor is like the letter M without the horizontal marks, the extremities of the toes 

 forming two separate points, which is not the case with the antelopes, at least very rarely 

 so, the general impression of their feet being like the letter A with a division down the 

 centre, thus fa. 



BABYROUSSA. Bablrussa Alfurus. 



The Bush Pig is about two feet six inches in height and five feet in length, his canin-3 

 teeth are very large and strong, those in the upper jaw projecting horizontally ; those in 

 the lower upwards. He is covered with long bristles, and taking him all in all he is about 

 as formidable looking an animal, for his size, as can be seen. 



The Bosch Varks traverse the forests in herds, and subsist on roots and young shrubs. 

 A large hard-shelled sort of orange, with an interior filled with seeds, grows in great 

 quantities on the flats near the Natal forests ; this is a favorite fruit of the wild pigs, 

 and they will come out of the bush of an evening and roam over the plains in search of 

 windfalls from these fruit-trees. 



The Kaffir tribes, although they refuse to eat the flesh of the domestic pig, will still 

 feast without compunction on that of its bush brother. 



In the bush I always found the Kaffirs disinclined to encounter a herd of these wild 

 Swine, stating as their reason for doing so that the animals were very dangerous ; they 

 also said that the wounds given by the tusks of this wild pig would not readily heal. 



