WILD PIGS— ANIMAL AND HUMAN 247 



slope, slipping and rolling over logs- and stones, and 

 were up the opposite hill before we reached the bottom 

 of the ravine. They found the pig which I had killed 

 and a blood-splashed trail leading around the hill where 

 the boar had disappeared. 



My pig was a splendid male in the rich red-brown 

 coat of adolescence. The bullet had struck him "amid- 

 ships" and shattered the hip on the opposite side. From 

 the blood on the trail we decided that I had shot the 

 big boar through the center of the body about ten inches 

 behind the forelegs. 



We had learned by experience how much killing a 

 full-grown pig required, and had no illusions about 

 finding him dead a few yards away, even though both 

 sides of his path were blotched with red at every step. 

 Therefore, while the Chinese followed the trail, Smith 

 and I sprinted across the next ridge into a thickly 

 forested ravine to head off the boar. 



We took stations several yards apart, and suddenly 

 I heard Smith's rifle bang six times in quick succes- 

 sion. The Chinese had disturbed the pig from a patch 

 of cover and it had climbed the opposite hill slope in 

 full view of Smith, who apparently had missed it every 

 time. Missing a boar dodging about among the bushes 

 is not such a difiicult thing to do, and although poor 

 Smith was too disgusted even to talk about it, I had a 

 good deal of sympathy for him. 



We had little hope of getting the animal when we 

 climbed to the summit of the ridge and saw the tangle 

 of brush into which it had disappeared, but neverthe- 



