Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-01-20

WHEN the company is not large and the
animals are not very numerous, three or
tour men will race together for the spear,
it being a universal rule that the honor
belongs to the man who can draw &C first
blood" The result depends on variety
of considerations The boar, driven out
of one patch, will endeavor to gain anoth-
er cover. If the friendly shelter is about
mile off there is no reason to expect that
the animal will turn and charge, unless it
be one of an unusually savage nature. If
the second cover is two or three miles
from the first, and the beast is one Of aver
age courage and fierceness, a charge may
be expected as soon as breath is scant and
weight begins totell. We rarely ever met
with boar thirty inches in height that
would not distance for the first quarter or
half mile the very best Arab that was
ever bought for the Indian market. But
after awhile wind and training prevail,
and as the sportsman comes to closer
quarters it is impossible to say whether he
will spear the tired pig from behind
or whether the animal, like Macaulay's
British lion at Agincourt, will turn to
bay in wrath and will come down on the
nearest hunter with bristles erect, tail as
stiff as ramrod, foaming jaws and series
OF short and defiant grunts. One maxim,
approved by all hog hunters Of every de-
gree, is that the charge must be met, and
notawaited. To stand, spear in hand, while
q 10 tn
yourself and your Arab to be upset, cut
and slashed and ruined for life. A great
deal now depends on correctness of aim
and lightness of touch. A practiced rider
puts his horse into a smart canter, bends
slightly forward over its right shoulder,
and plants the spear as near the spine as
possible, before the tusks of his adversary
can rip up the forearm or the belly. With
a Jerk, to which the instincts of the horse
respond, he wheels rapidly round to the
| left, withdrawing his spear if the wound
! be slight, and leaving it sticking if deep,
while the enraged animal is just too late
even to Craze the horses hooks. Then,
| from determined boar, there may ensue
| a serious of these attacks. The wounded
| hog sets it's back to bush and rushes out
upon one man after another. AS many as
three spears have been seen lodged in the
TANKS or ribs, quivering as the hog
staggers away under them, until at last it
| sinks from hemorrhage or a fourth spear
settles the business. In a good country,
not only level but smooth, the whole
affair-the burst, the pursuit, the charges
and the death-may be all over in less
than ten minutes. But the course of true
hog-hunting is not always more smooth
than that of love. Sometimes the ground
| is clay, trodden by cattle unevenly when
wet, and then hardened into the consistency
of iron. Sometimes the boar skirts the
edge of a marsh or swims deep river, or
takes to line of gardens and orchards,
| in the midst of which lie buried the
houses of the Bengal peasant, where the
hunter gets bewilGered among shady and
narrow paths crossing each other al right
angles, and may either lose the chase al
| together or be suddenly charged by an en-
raged tusker where there is no room for
him to practice the least cavalry ma
neuyer. At other times the boar from
the very first "jinks,' as it is technically
termed, crosses from right to LETT under
the horses forelegs, turns "dunghlll,"
refuses to charge and repeats his tactics
so cleverly that the three best-mounted
and most skilled riders are thrown out,
and the honor of drawing first blood falls
to some second-rate man with third-rate
country bred horse, who comes up and
'cuts inn Just at the very right time. Very
rarely hog has been heard to squeal as
the hunters spear is just about to be de-
livered. but in such q case it IS reasonable
to conclude that the fiery blood OF the
Jungle race has been Impoverished by
mixture with that of the domestic species;
and, on the other hand, fine specimen
of boar forty inches high, with tushs
polished by constant combats or by run-
bling against trees, refuses to run after less
than three hundred yards, turns Sharply
on the delighted sportsman, gashes one
horse, sends another 10 the right-about'
ard, pierced through and through, DIES
in silence, biting hard'' at the spear-shal'
or at anything, animate or inanimate. that
comes within its reach-L6nd0n SATURDAY
ReUieao.