AFRICAN BOAR HUNT WITH THE CHEMICAL MATCH. 243 
gazelle and the Carthage hen that start out of range. The other 
species, haired or feathered, generally wait till you tread on their 
toes before they will rise. When fire is set to a copse in which 
some evil beast is suspected, hyena, jackal, or tiger-cat, it is rare 
that the animal decides to leave before getting his fur singed. I 
have often seen the wild boar affect the same stoicism. 
This remarkable coolness of the African wild boar in imminent 
presence of fire, has its cause in the agronomic habits of the coun- 
try. The Arab employs no other method of clearing, than fire. 
He burns periodically the tall grass, the bushes, and the reeds of 
the plain in all places that he destines for his next cultures, and 
the flame, carried on by the wind, never stops but when it meets 
with nothing nnore to devour. Naturally the indigenous game has 
in the end become accustomed to this often-repeated spectacle, and 
hence this indifference in face of danger and the contempt of fire, 
which we find sublime in Mucins Scevola. 
I pity the poor hunters of France, who have not hunted the 
wild boar with the chemical match. I would return to Africa 
only for the pleasure of repeating this, enjoyment. I have taken 
friends to these royal chases, which have nothing against them 
except being too amusing and not enough dramatic ; they have 
returned enthusiasts. It is less noble, less learned, less meritori- 
ous, certainly, from the artistic point of view, than a hunt at Com- 
peigne or at Fontainbleau ; but those flames and smoke that the 
wind sweeps along the ground, and that cut out furnaces as they 
run in the centre of copses, then suddenly rebound in dazzling 
sheaves ; the hissing of green leaves, the sport of flakes carried off' 
in the air, the detonation of reeds that simulate the running fires 
of a battalion of infantry, the barkings of dogs animated by their 
masters’ presence, and hearing the brushwood rustle, rustle, be- 
fore them ; finally for the bouquet, the dislodging of the company 
and the general close discharge of fire-arms — all these constitute 
an ensemble of sound, motion, rapturous impulse, more wildly po- 
etic than any thing ever seen in our combed and corded forests of 
France. Add the sudden chances ; the issue of the jackal, the 
tiger-cat, the hyena, the porcupine. But the peace has come and 
destroyed all this. I have acquired the painful assurance that of 
