WILD PIGS— ANIMAL AND HUMAN 249 



During the day the birds kept well up toward the sum- 

 mits of the ridges and only left the cover in the morning 

 and evening. 



Our second hunt was very amusing, as well as success- 

 ful. We met the same party of Chinese hunters early in 

 the morning, and agreed to divide the meat of all the 

 pigs we killed during the day if they would join forces 

 with us. Among them was a tall, fine-looking young 

 fellow, evidently the leader, who was a real hunter— the 

 only one we found in the entire region. He knew in- 

 stinctively where the pigs were, what they would do, and 

 how to get them. 



He led us without a halt along the simamit of the 

 mountain into a ravine and up a long slope to the crest 

 of a knifelike ridge. Then he suddenly dropped in the 

 grass and pointed across a canon to a bare hillside. Two 

 pigs were there in plain sight — one a very large sow. 

 They were fully three hundred yards away and on the 

 edge of a bushy patch toward which they were feeding 

 slowly. Smith left me to hiu-ry to the bottom of the 

 canon where he could have a shot at close range if either 

 one went down the hill, while I waited behind a stone. 

 Before he was halfway down the slope the sow moved 

 toward the patch of cover into which the smaller pig had 

 already disappeared. It must be then, if I was to have 

 a shot at all. I fired rather hurriedly and registered a 

 clean miss. Both pigs, instead of staying in the cover 

 where they would have been safe, dashed down the open 

 slope toward the bottom of the canon. At my first shot 

 all eight of the Chinese had leaped for the empty rifle 



