HUNTING PECCARIES IN TEXAS. 891 
There was a nobler quarry on foot, and we plunged our 
horses eagerly into the narrow tracks opening into the 
cane-brake in the direction of the chase. We soon found 
ourselves riding beneath the matted arches formed by the 
meeting of the cane-tops, bound together by vines, ten or 
twelve feet above our heads. The cane on either side 
formed a wall so close, and seemingly so impregnable, that 
it seemed to me that a starved lizard would have found 
difficulty in making its way between the stems. So long 
as we could remain in the paths, of which there were but 
few, it was all very nice and exciting to listen to the fitful 
music of the chase; but when it came bursting on us with 
a roar of fitful yells, that made our horses shiver with 
eagerness, and we scattered each man for himself, trusting 
to his own ear, to enable him to intercept the chase, and 
win the honor of the first shot, then the rough and fierce 
realities of a bear hunt began to be realized. My fiery 
horse plunged into the thickest of the brake, requiring my 
whole strength to keep him within anything like bounds. 
Now the bear had commenced circling in short turns through 
the tallest and most dense of the cane; and very soon, when 
the thundering chase went crashing past me, utterly invisible, 
though within fifteen paces, my horse became entirely 
unmanageable, and in three or four furious bounds, I was 
torn from the saddle by the interlacing vines, through which 
he was endeavoring to burst his way. I held on to the reins, 
and recovered my seat, without stopping to count bruises ; 
but the shock of the fall had brought me to my memory. 
I now did what I should have done at first, had I retained my 
self-possession, drew my heavy bowie knife, and commenced 
cutting my way through the brake. Ho! the chase has made 
another tack; and followed by the yells of my half-crazy 
comrades, the wild route turns crashing and roaring towards 
me again. This time my horse was even worse than before. At 
the first plunge he again became entangled in the vires, and 
