LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
271 
rivulet, brought the company to the thicket near the 
spring-head, whence issued a long grunt. On the 
coming up of the hounds, out bolted a black pig, 
making off with unabated speed for another thicket. 
A shout of laughter and acclamation hailed the 
development of the game, and all agreed that the 
gallant swine should be spared to run again. The 
reluctant hounds were accordingly whipped off. 
As I pass through the oak woods on my morn- 
ing walk to the school, I frequently see the lairs of 
the forest swine. These consist of fallen leayes, 
brought together into heaps as large as the diame- 
ter of a waggon-wheel, and nearly a yard high, 
and in these cool mornings I often see them reek- 
ing with steam, the luxurious rogues having up- 
started but a moment before, probably disturbed 
by the sound of my approaching footsteps. The 
people tell me, what indeed 1 should certainly infer 
from the appearance of the smoking beds, that the 
boar and sow sleep side by side in these cosy nests, 
and surely none could be devised, in the circum- 
stances, softer, drier, or warmer. 
A neighbouring overseer, an enthusiastic old 
sun-dried backwoodsman, talks of feral cattle 
existing in some of the more inaccessible swamps 
between these parts and the Florida border. He 
has been engaged in parties to hunt them, shooting 
the cows for their beef; the bulls are fierce and 
dangerous assailants. I give this only on his 
authority, for the planters hereabout know little con- 
cerning wild cattle, but I saw a plantation-cow the 
other day slaughtered with the same characteristic 
weapon, the rifle. She was a savage animal, the 
dread of the household, and the winter’s stock of 
beef being about to be salted down, her fate was 
