AFFECTION OF THE LION FOR THE BOAR. 
245 
serene, peculiar to southern climates, when the least sounds reach 
you, when you can read and write with as much ease at midnight 
as an Englishman at London at midday. Every soldier was list- 
ening. Suddenly a rustling of the foliage, quickly followed by 
the fall of a heavy body in the water, drew the general attention. 
It was a wild boar of large size, running straight ahead, that had 
dashed into the stream, hoping thus to save his bacon. A fresh 
displacement suddenly effected in the high grass, announced that 
the poor beast was pursued by a terrible animal. 
In fact an enormous lion had reached the very spot where they 
were in ambush, by a few prodigious bounds. Reaching the bank 
of the river, he perceives his prey, measures his force, darts for- 
ward, falls on it, strangles it in his tremendous jaws, then abandons 
it, and returns upon his steps as though he had been merely aveng- 
ing some insult. 
Our soldiers, witnesses of this drama, would have asked no 
better amusement than to have intervened .in favor of the weaker 
in this too unequal struggle ; but the prudence of their chief for- 
bade it, a volley of fire-arms at this hour of the night, and at this 
advanced post being almost certain to give the alarm to the Arabs. 
It is said also, that the panther finds no fault with a quarter of 
wild boar when an opportunity to get one cheap presents itself. 
The wild boar of Algiers, less powerful, though equally well armed 
with the French boar, has a much milder character ; but this mild- 
ness does not amount to amiability. The tusks of the African wild 
boar rip open men and dogs as well as those of the French wild boar. 
There is even more danger for the hunter charged on by the an- 
imal in Africa, for there, there is no trunk of a tree to shelter you 
when you are on the defensive ; and in this case there remains no 
other procedure for you than that of M. De Montcrocq, one of 
our last great hunters, in whom I have remarked the passion of 
causing himself to be charged on by wild boars at bay in order to 
secure the pleasure of shooting the animal in the head and lodg- 
ing a ball between his eyes. 
As we had not dogs enough, when we hunted together, to allow 
some couples to be disemboweled in every chase, as owners of a 
numerous equipage are accustomed to do, we never hesitated to 
