XVII 
THE BOAR 
139 
drives were very large, and excessively fat. 
There was nothing so good to be obtained in 
the market; vegetables were very plentiful, and 
cheap. One favourite dish was wild boar, stewed 
with leeks, onions, and cauliflowers ; to vary this 
dish when we had nearly tired, we changed it to 
“ leeks, onions, and cauliflowers, stewed with wild 
boar.” One of the largest I killed one night by 
moonlight, by wandering along the skirts of the 
forest upon the snow, and waiting until I heard 
the animal crunching through the frozen sub¬ 
stance. Having a white paper fore - sight, I 
could shoot with tolerable accuracy. It was 
astonishing to witness how the wild hogs could 
plough their way through deep frozen snow. I 
was well furnished with snow - shoes, the wood 
being that of the fig - tree, light and tough, 
nevertheless I could never overtake these power¬ 
ful and active animals, although they must have 
suffered considerably; I have frequently seen the 
snow discoloured with blood, where the sharp 
frozen surface had lacerated the legs of the hogs 
when breaking through, in ploughing their way 
forwards. 
The pleasure of shooting at Sabanja consisted 
in the diversity of game; it was impossible to 
foretell what the creature might be that would 
appear before the line of beaters. Although we 
frequently shot roe-deer, I never attained a shot 
at red - deer. I took great pains, but these 
animals were invariably concealed amongst dense 
