The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-07-19
HUNTING THE WILD BOAR
1T Is THE FIERCEsT ANIMAL TO BE
FOUND ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
FlocLs OF Hogs that Have Run Wild
for Twenty Years and Are Now
Worse than Grizzly Bears.
Los Angeles Letter in St. Louis Globe


ern California several winters ago. lis
among the wild hogs down on the bottom
lands of the Colorado river, fifty or sixty
miles south of the old town of Yuma. A
party of us was down there several days
a fortnight since, and believe we had ad-
ventures enough to thrill our sportsmen
friends for a full generation" great
many hunters in California indorse every
word of Commissioner Roosevelt's opinion.
and no hunting ground for big game is
probably becoming more popular than this
in the winter time, when the climate along
the lazy, muddy Colorado river is like that
of July in the Eastern States.
When the late Thomas Blythe. of San
Francisco was making his millions of dol
lars, over which the lawyers and a count
less array OF relatives, legitimate and il
legitimate, have haggled and fought in the
courts of California for ten years, he
bought as investment about million acres
OF land. some forty-five miles below Yuma
on the muddy Colorado river, at the rate
or 80 cents an acre. In the summer Of 1868
he sent down about three hundred of the
biggest Berkshire and Poland-China hogs
and sows that could be had on the Pacific
coast. and had them turned loose on the
bank Of the Colorado, near the colony of
Lerdo that Blythe tried to establish. 1t
was expected that the pigs would wax and
multiply down there, and be a source of
revenue to Thomas Blythe every year. They
would find their feed on the roots, grass,
weeds. tules and mesquite beans that
abound in that region.
From the time the beasts were set loose
on the tule lands of the lower Colorado
there has been no attempt to slaughter
them, old Blythe had planned, and
thereby get revenue. The pigs have run
wild, and there having many generations
of the animals that have never seen
human being, they are now the fiercest
and widest animals known in California
except grizzly bears There are literally
thousands of them roaming in the chapar-
raj and among the tules up and down the
Colorado and Hardic rivers They go as
they please, whenever they will. for moth
ing stops them in their course. Most of
the hunters who go down the Colorado
every winter for big game give the wild
swine wide hearth. for they excel any
animal known in California for ferocity
and courage. Many a man who has gone
after a mountain lion. a lynx or panther
in the mountain ranges OF California says
he does not care to hazard himself in
hunting the wild boars of the Colorado
river country.
FOUND THE WRONG BOAR.
Two years ago an experienced sportsman
from southern Illinois was spending the
winter in Yuma. He mad a pair of very
fine. large staghounds, which the owner
claimed could run down and kill any wild
hog along the Colorado river. One day he
took the dogs and rifle and went down the
river for nice little boar. just right for
the oven. He had not gone thirty miles.
and landing. before he found a band of
hogs and little pigs. and turned his dogs
loose on them. No sooner had they started
them, when out OF the tules near by
Jumped an enormous boar a monster. who
with mouth wide open. paying no attention
to N.e dogs. made for the hunter. The lat
ter drew up his rifle and fired. but on came
the boar the dogs nip ing him at every
jump.
The hunter fired a second shot. but
came the beast. The hunter turned and
ran for a mesquite tree a few Yards dis
tant the hog close to his heels. He dropped
his gun and jumped for life., grasping
limb of the tree just as the hog grabbed
his pants and tore one-half of them from
him but he was safe. just out of reach.
The dogs all this while ran grabbing the
paid no attention. The mad boar seized
the bark of the tree in his great tusks and
tore IL into shreds Finally he turned upon
the dogs instantly killed one and wounded
the other so that it died soon after He
then turned his attention to the tree where
the hunter sat. He guarded him until it
was dark Twice did the man get down
and try to get his rifle. but his foe was on
guard and drove him back up the tree.
During the night the boar left. Daylight
came. and so did help. The men had hard
" reached the river and got IN their BOAT
when down came the old hog after them In
vain pursuit.
Dan WATERS has just come home from
hunt down the Colorado in company with
three Yuma half-breed Indians. and he is
lr l,rrcx- toll
army of Interested sportsmen in this place.
Speaking OF Blythe's wild boars the other
.sDangerous? THEY'RE the fiercest ami
mails in the whole State. Two old boars
can whip bear in no time and II wound
shoot at wild boar shoot to kill. or hunt
a tree mighty quick. and good-sized one
at that. or you're goner;, Don c imp p, n
roots and then rim you to pieces. Don't
forget when huntin' old boars 70 keep near
a tree you can climb quick.
when three Of the most intelligent half
breed Yuma Indians proposed to take me
cthe old white man. on boar hunt ac-
cepted readily enough. but had no idea
what kind of sport and excitement ! was
going to have. bad no idea 1T would beat
bear hunting. So we got up early one
morning while we were down the river. and
went up into a sparsely timbered foothill
section. 10 drop over. as I-supposed. hog
or two i'm the course of the day 1t was
plain when got among the trees that
some swine had been feeding there. but we
could not see hide or hair of them. We
turned the dogs loose. and in less than
twenty minutes we heard a deep bay over
on the right about a quarter of a mile.
AN INDIAN IN PERIL.
I'm few minutes / heard a crash i'm
the underground. and a savage grunt and
snort and out started big SOW and two
half-grown pigs. Just as the SOW appeared
over a slight elevation about $50 feet away
4 fired and keeled her over. The pigs
stood still minute until they caught sight
of me, when they charged furiously.
knocked one of them over before they had
made twenty-five feet, but the other kept
right on, the very picture of demoniac rage,
with foam flying from his jaws and his
teeth and tusks swapping like castanets.
Luckily had placed myself under low
branched live oak tree, and I lost no time
i'm putting myself out of the reach of the
savage beast The tree was thick-spread-
ing oak and / was safe enough to take
things easy. j had swung my Winchester
over my shoulder before | assembled the
tree, and one shot from my gun settled the
hog. About 200 yards away / could see
Jack, my Yuma savage, leaning against a
sapling. which was not over five or six
inches in diameter. Attracted by the rush
of the hogs. Jack drew away from his tree
as "a IRENE ndous old boar darted out of the
underbrush about fifty yards distant. Jack
saw him coming like a cyclone, and. with
out considering, shot at him. The shot
struck the boar fairly between the eyes,