TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REIVUNISCENCES. 199 



in a small canyon and ran them 

 into a 'shalow cave, the entire 

 bunch disappearing except one 

 that stood at the cave entrance as 

 sentinel. The sentinel was shot 

 down when promptly another took 

 his place. He also was shot down 

 but was replaced by anohter, and 

 so on, ad infinitum until the whole 

 herd was exterminated. 



As to their actually attacking 

 man I know of but one instance 

 when this occured. A man of the 

 name of Jim Thome, who was a 

 cow man while engaged in his 

 duties of "riding fence," per- 

 ceived a bunch of peccaries feed- 

 ing not distant from the line of 

 fence, among which was a litter 

 of pigs. The desire to have one 

 of these little pigs got the better 

 of his good judgment and off he 

 went. His mount easily overtook 

 the herd and then he dismounted. 

 In the course of the chase he was 

 led to a point about 150 yards 

 from his pony and about 100 yards 

 from the line of fence. He didn't 

 .realize this until he got hold of 

 one of the pigs which gave forth a 

 few lusty squeals. But, when he 

 saw the entire herd, with the of- 

 fended mother in the lead, charg- 

 ing in his direction, his powers of 

 deduction once more became nor- 

 mal and in the next instant he 

 found himself leading a herd of 

 Texas javelins in a race for the 

 fence, for be it noted right here, 

 that there wasn't a shrub in the 

 neighborhood big enough to hold 

 anything heavier than a lizard. 

 At length he found himself 

 perched on one of the fence posts, 

 and later, as the position became 

 tedious and as the herd insisted on 

 "milling" around this particular 

 post for a continued length of time 

 he changed his position to laying 

 lengthwise on the top wire of the 

 fence and remained there for more 

 than an hour, the herd having tar- 

 ried there for that length of time. 



In addition to the above, I take 

 the liberty to append another in- 



teresting and graphically written 

 .'irticle on a Texas javolia hunt, 

 which appeared in the Texas Field 

 (September, 191:1, issue) relating 

 t ) some Texas hunters hunting 

 jayrlins near the Nueces Kivcr, 

 t^Vout forty miles West of CotuUa 

 — a wild and prolific .'ountry for 

 these dangerous little wild hogs 

 as well as coyotes and rattle- 

 snakes. The hunters were on a 

 deer hunt in the winter of 1910, 

 on the Nueces River, and how one 

 of the four hunters got lost is. 

 graphically narrated by the writer 

 of that article : 



"Up to this time, nothing had 

 been heard of John, and when »►, 

 time went on we did not hear 

 from him, we were beginning to 

 wonder what had happened, 

 when from far off to the north- 

 east we heard two shots in rapid 

 succession, followed by a third, 

 our distress signal. Instantly we 

 knew something out of the ordi- 

 nary had happened .John, knew 

 every inch of the land along the 

 river, and we were certain that 

 he was not lost and trying to sum- 

 mons help to find his way to camp, 

 even though it was two hours 

 past darkness. We held a hasty 

 Council and agreed to take a 

 couple of lanterns, saddle the 

 horses and go in the direction of 

 the signal. My brother agreed to 

 remain in camp, while Wess and 

 I went on the hunt for our com- 

 rade in distress. 



After seeing to our guns, and 

 taking an extra supply of cart- 

 ridges along, we mounted, and 

 riding north for a few yards, we 

 entered an abandoned trail lead- 

 ing in the general direction of the 

 shots, each of us carrying a lan- 

 tern on opposite sides of our 

 horses, so that if we passed on 

 either side of him he would see 

 one of the lights and call us to 

 him. We had traveled for per- 

 haps a mile, when we heard the 

 distress signal again off a little 

 to the right of our course, and 



