The Portland daily press., 1862-09-29
MISCELLANY.
A South Carolina Hog Race.

A South Carolina Hog Race.
We had passed through dense forest Of
pines, but were emerging into a bottom coun-
try," where some of the finest deciduous trees
then brown and leafiess, but bearing prom
ise of the opening beauty of spring, reared,
along with the unading evergreen, their tall
stems in the air. The live oak, the sycamore,
the Spanish mulberry, the holly, aud the per-
simmon-galy iestooned with wreaihs of the
white and yellow jessamine, the woodbine and
the cypress moss, and bearing here and there
a bouquet of the mstletoe. with its deep
green and glossy leaves upturned TO the sun
flung their broad arms over the road, forming
an archway grander and more beautiful than
any the hand of man ever wove for the great
est hero the world has ever worshipped.
The woods were free from underbrush, and
a coarse wiry grass, unfit for fodder, and scat
tered through them in detached patches, was
the only vegetation visible. The ground was
mainly covered with the leaves and burs of
the pine.
We passed great numbers of swine feeding
on these burs, and now and then a horned ami
NAL browsing on the cypress-noss where it
hung low on the trees. / observed that near
ly all the swine were marked, though they
seemed too wild to have ever an owner
or a human habitation. They were long,
lean, slab-sided race, with legs and shoulders
like deer and bearing no sort of resemblance
TO the ordinary hog, except in the snout, and
that feature much longer and sharper
than the northern swine, that doubt If Agas-
siz would class the two as one species. How
ever they have their uses-they make excel
lent bacon, and are death on snakes" Ire
land itself is not more free from the serpentne
race than are the districts frequented by these
long-nosed quadrupeds.
"We call them Carolina race-horses," said
the Colonel, as he finished an account of their
peculiarties.
"Race-horses! Why, are they fleet of foot ?'
"Fleet as deer. I'd match one against an
ordinary horse, at any time"
"Come, my friend, you're practising on my
ignorance of natural history"
"Not bit of it. See! there's good speci
men yonder five can get him into the road,
and fairly started, I'll bet you dollar he'll
beat Sandy's mare on half-mile stretch-San-
dy to hold the stakes and have the winnings
swell, agreed" | said, laughing, "and I'll
give the pig ten rods the start"
NO. replied the Colonel, ''you can't afford
it. He'll hare to start ahead, but you'll need
that in the count. Come, Sandy, will you
go in for the pileT
Pm not sure that the native would not have
run race with old Nicholas himself, for the
sake of so much money. To him it was vast
sum; and as he thought of it, his eyes struck
small sparks, and his enormous beard and
moustaches vibrated with something that faint
ly resembled a laugh. Replying to the ques-
ton, he said:
"Kinder reckon Iwull, Cunnel; howsomdev-
er, / keeps the stakes, ony how"
"Of course" said the planter; but be honest
win if you can"
Sandy halted his horse in the road while
the planter and took to the woods on either
side of the way. The Colonel soon maneu-
vred to separate the selected animal from the
rest of the herd and without much difficulty
t,.fr.
OH each flank, we kept him till he and Sandy
were fairly under way.
Hell keep to the road when once started"
said the Colonel, laughing: and he'll show you
some of the taest running you ever saw in
your life
Away they went At first the pig, seeming
not exactly to comprehend the programme,
cantered of at leisurey pace, though he held
his own. Soon, however, he cast an eye be-
hind him-halted moment to collect his
thoughts and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT then, lowering
his head and elevating his tail, put forth all
his speed. And such speed! Talk of deer,
the wind, or a steam engine-they are not to
be compared with it. Nothing in nature ev-
er saw run-except it may be Southern tor
nado, or With Ward potician-could hope
to distance that pig He gained on the horse
at every step and soon it was evident that my
dollar was gone.
in for shilling in for pound,' is an old
adage-so, turning to the Colonel l said, as
intelligibly as my horses rapid pace and my
excited risibilities would allow:
Il see I've lost, but I'll go you another dol
lar that you can't beat the pigr'
4No-sr." the Colonel got out in the breaks
of his laughing explosions; "you can't hedge
me in that manner. I'll go a dollar that you
can't do it, and your mare is the fastest on the
road. She won me thousand not month
ago"
III l.