EUROPEAN AND INDIAN PIG COMPAKED. 55 



plan of action to meet the requirements of the occasion, and 

 slew him without injury to our horses, by charging one by 

 one in succession, the boar receiving us halfway without any 

 attempt at escape, and dying without a groan, fighting to the 

 very last. This gallant beast measured thirty-six inches at 

 the shoulder, and was the finest and handsomest killed in that 

 country for a long time, and his skeleton was set up in the 

 museum at the corner of Park Street, and may still be seen in 

 the new building, for aught I know to the contrary. 



Mention has been made of two boars measuring thirty- 

 eight inches as the largest seen by me in any district. These 

 two were killed by E. L., of the Civil Service, and myself, in 

 Mymensingh, on the " churs" of the old Brahmaputra, opposite 

 the Bygonbaree House, and within a couple or three miles of 

 each other, and they might have been twin brothers for size, 

 beauty, and character. They were quite black, of immense 

 bulk as well as extraordinary height, excessively fat, and, I 

 am sorry to add, altogether wanting in the pluck of their 

 kind, both falling under our spears without desperate re- 

 sistance, even essaying to avoid the encounter by every art, 

 and finally dying with deep and long-drawn groans. The 

 fact is, they were too lusty and heavy either to race or to 

 fight, and knew it full well. It may be here stated that boars 

 rarely utter a groan when dying, seeming to despise any 

 exhibition of weakness ; also they often dispose of their bodies 

 at the last moments in becoming and dignified posture, imi- 

 tating in this respect the Piercie Shaftons and Sir John 

 Chesters of the biped world. Although one may never tire of 

 this grand sport, one never can witness such deaths without 

 feeling some regrets, for even to the callous they suggest 

 painful thoughts and reflections. 



Never having seen the wild boar of Europe, I am not in 

 a position to judge whether that animal has been correctly 

 represented in the hunting pictures of artists, ancient and 

 modern ; but this I can say, without fear of contradiction on 

 the part of experienced Indian sportsmen, that the boars 

 represented on the canvas of painters are very unlike those of 



