Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-24
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Boar Hunting In Mornrcn.


A correspondent of the London Saturday
Review gives the following account of a
boar-hunt with Sir John Hay III Morocco:
By o o'clock the Hafer Hill was alive
with men and horses large contingent
having arrived from Tangier and the
neighboring villages. Prominent among
the company was the notorious Sheriff of
WAGON, mounted on fine gray horse, and
surrounded by picturesque and miscellane-
GUS minions. The Moors on foot, with
their molly costumes, their spears, sticks
and guns, and their varied assortment Of
dogs, added an element Of savagery, tenn
pered by the good humor in their faces.
The leader gave the signal TO advance,
and the assembly fell into long line,
facing southwark, with tae Atlantic
mile and half to the right hand.
In this order the broad top Of the
Hafer Hill was traversed for some time,
the Moors on foot acting vigorously
as heaters. But no boar was found,
and when the cavalcade came abreast Of a
long wood which fringed the far side of
the nu!lah or mud plain below the seward
slope OF the hill new formation was made,
Some eight or ten mounted hunters, with
many more on foot, were ordered TO descend
the slope, and, after crossing the mud plain,
to hide in the skirts of the woods facing to-
ward the hill. They crossed accordingly, and
the riders backed their horses into the covert,
the Moors on foot with their dogs crouching
down in the intervals. Meantime the
beaters on Hafer Hill were laboring to drive
the boar down and across the mud plain
toward the party in ambush. Shots were
fired, horns blown. and yells raised, groups
rapidly formed and separated, and pre-
sently the watchers in the wood witnessed
a rapid gallop up hill, which ended in
first kill' out of sight.
The excitement OF the ambushed party
now grew intense, as they felt that fate
owed them the next turn ofluck. Men and
animals were equally impatient Dogs
whined low, with strained muzzles. and
were reproyed with u sharp Uskutp' in
sound, as IN sense, strangely akin to the
British Shut up j. Horses danced with
eagerness, and could hardly be kept in
cover. At last patience had its reward. A
large boar emerged from the opposite
skirt of the Hafer Hill, and trotted stead
lily across the mud plain toward the hid
den enemy. When ne had come far enough
to show that he meant business, the
dogs were loosed and the mounted spear
men scurried after them as fast as the
heavy, wet ground would permit. The
boar gave contemptuous hands off re-
ception TO the dogs, but upon the arrival of
the spearman he turned and regained the
thicket whence he bad come The riders
plunged after him, hither and thither
through the covert, according as their own
eyes or tongues of the dogs gave evidence of
his presence. Anon the boar suddenly reap
peared, and charged straight at certain
gallant major, who struck him so hard as to
be unable to withdraw the spear. The
wounded beast then made northward along
the slope of the mill, and was in five min
utes more caught up and killed within a
few yards from the.edge of the mud. A
portion of the first spear was afterward
recovered. Number twol After brief
pause the spearmen and hunters who had
followed the boar across the mud
plain were ordered back into hiding.
The beating on the hill was re-
sumed, and presently boar of unusual
size broke covert not far from his prede-
cessor's place of death, and headed straight
across the mud. The ambushed party
galloped wildly toward him, pre-
coded as before by the dogs The
boar stopped to think, and then
swerved SO sharply to the right as
to throw out all the riders. When sur
rounded minute later he met the whole
rout of men and beasts with the utmost
gallantry, facing each way in turn.
He received dozen thrusts with
out fiinching, and died game to the last
his few dying s9ueaks being, as we
have promised, marks of dissent, and not
of fear. When the great man large in
death, lying nightly low" had been suffi-
GENTLY admired, the hunters regained their
previous stations. and fourth boar was
eventually killed on the mud plain.