52 SPORT IN BENGAL. 



about to dash into some thick grass or reeds, or jinking across 

 or away from them when almost within jobbing distance. 

 The young sportsman therefore cannot be too earnestly 

 cautioned against this most objectionable practice. 



Another action to be avoided is that of raising the arm 

 high in delivering the downward thrust, as by -fee doing many 

 a stroke misses its object, and many a horse is cut about the 

 stifle by the boar charging home at full speed. It should be 

 remembered that the momentum of a horse at a gallop, 

 meeting a boar rushing on at its best pace is sufficient to 

 drive a keen spear through the latter, without any extra- 

 ordinary muscular exertion on the part of the horseman, whose 

 proper course is to direct the point of his weapon to the right 

 place, his spear hand held low, the shock of the encounter 

 supplying the necessary force. As an example of what this 

 force is, the following incident may give some idea : 



De L. and I, finishing a morning's sport with a fine active 

 boar of thirty-five inches, had a rather long run, and I being 

 a light weight and my companion a heavy one, my horse had 

 outpaced his, and was leading a full hundred yards, when the 

 boar, finding himself beaten in the race, changed his tactics, 

 and turning rapidly, charged at me with long bounds, aiming 

 straight at my knee, and received the point of the spear 

 between his neck and shoulder, forcing it out of my hand ; he 

 spun round once or twice and then fell dead on his side. The 

 spear had passed through the entire length of his body, and 

 its point had come out an inch or two below his tail ; all that 

 I did was to make a well directed thrust at a soft place with- 

 out exerting any great force, as the hog leapt upon me in his 

 last bound. So, too, in passing a running boar, a thrust with 

 the half -arm behind the shoulder will drive the point of the 

 spear clean through the ribs from side to side. 



The hog-hunter should look to his spears carefully, and 

 take good care that the bamboo shaft is thoroughly sound, and 

 the head bright and sharp, both edge and point. There is a 

 small insect, which boring into the bamboo, renders it unsound 

 and liable to snap ; and in this way many accidents occur to 



