THE PECCARY. 401 



vote on it. Two were in favor of the proposition and two 

 opposed. At last they left it to me. Peccaries were large 

 enough game for me; so on we went, looking for fresh signs, 

 by which the Peccaries are easily found. Taking my field- 

 glass, I was able to see the oi)posite side of the canon, a 

 mile away, and could see something moving. There were a 

 number of animate objects, but we could not decide what 

 they were, as they were soon out of sight. It was decided 

 that I should go down the canon a mile, cross, and go up 

 the other side, and if I found them to be Peccaries, I was 

 to fire my revolver tliree times, so the others could join me; 

 if they were not Peccaries, we were to go up the canon 

 until we found the game we were after, when the same 

 signal should be given by the party finding them. 



I was not long in reaching the ground where I had seen 

 the objects, and soon found that what I saw was a large 

 drove of turkeys, instead of Peccaries. The turkeys in 

 Mexico are smaller than our common wild turkey of the 

 North, and almost coal-black. I was anxious to get one; 

 so I followed the trail uj) the mountain, when all at once 

 up flew tlie whole flock. They had heard or seen me fol- 

 lowing them, and hid until I got right among them. One 

 of them lit in a tree near by, and I was not long in getting 

 him down. The rest of the flock flew down the mountain; 

 so I took the one I had killed and started down after them. 

 Frequently I would get a glimpse of one running, down 

 below me, and at last got another shot, but missed. Then 

 they all flew clear across the canon. I watched them alight, 

 then sat down on a rock to rest, taking my coat off, for by 

 this time I was quite warm. 



I had not sat there more than five minutes before I 

 heard the sharp noise of the Peccaries. They came in sight 

 not more than twenty yards below me. There were not 

 more than a dozen that I could see, and there were plenty 

 of small pines near by; so I thought I would just kill the 

 whole herd, provided they showed fight. As they came 

 into the open ground, they seemed to wind me, as they 

 began to snuff and paw. I fired at one, and, just as I 



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