62 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA 



usually overpowered his antagonist utterly, by using his 

 immense weight and power of limb to force him prostrate 

 on the earth, the while riving at the throat with a force 

 that often scooped a hollow in the earth under the scene 

 of action. His efiorts were now directed to effect this 

 favourite manoeuvre; but the wolf was too strong for 

 him, and repeatedly foiled the attempt. But the young 

 hounds, who were not at all without pluck, soon returned 

 to his assistance, and seizing the wolf by different hind- 

 legs, made such a spread-eagle of him, that Tinker had 

 no dijBS.culty in holding him down while I dismounted 

 and battered in his skull with the hammer-head of my 

 hunting-whip. None of the three dogs had been bitten. 

 Tinker having got his jaws in chancery from the very 

 first. I am sure that the three, or even Tinker alone, 

 would have killed him in time without my assistance; 

 for Tinker never let go a grip he had once secured, and 

 though not so large, was not much inferior to him in 

 strength. 



The catalogue of amusements offered to the sportsman 

 in the open plain would be incomplete without a mention 

 of the " mighty boar." He is to be found almost every- 

 where — in the low jungle on the edge of cultivation, and 

 sometimes in the sugar-cane and other tall crops; and 

 with a liberal expenditure of self and horse may be ridden 

 and speared in a good many places. Generally, however, 

 the country is highly unfavourable to riding, the black 

 soil of the plains being split up into yawning cracks many 

 feet in depth, or covered with rolling trap boulders, both 

 sorts of country being equally productive of dangerous 

 croppers. The neighbourhood of Nagpiir affords the best 

 ground; and there there is a regular "tent club," which 

 gives a good account of numerous hogs in the course of 

 the year. The sport has been so voluminously described 

 that I believe nothing remains to be said about it. The 

 hogs that reside in the open plains are not much inferior 

 in size to those of other parts of India; but those met 

 with in the hiUs are generally much smaller, and far more 

 active. A brown-coloured variety has sometimes been 

 noticed among them. The common village pig of the 



