The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-16
HUNTING THE WILD HOGS
4 DANGEROUS ADVENTURE IN THE
 SAN JOAQUIN RIVER BOTTOM.

Exciting Experience of William Doug lass and "Jim, Pope in the WiIds of Lathrop County, California.
 For years past a select tot of knowing hunters have been having exciting sport knocking wild hogs in certain sections of the San Joaquin river bot tcms. It isn't every day, though that tne yenturesome hu ters are almost killed by the cornered hogs. That fare, however, nearly befell William Dorg- lass recently, says "ThA San Francisco Call" If Jim Pope. with q t-usty Winchester, hadn't bee standing near by Douglass wouldn't be telling the ex- citing story he do's about the old ''tusker' that had him down in rush.
 The country they hunted in is wild and densely covered with an almost l impenetrable tangle of vines, low brush and occasional trees. All old residents along the the lower San Joaquin Valley know just such territory along the bot l tom lands, where the water overfows in the spring. Hundreds of wild hogs inhabit some of them.
 | It was in just such a jungle, near Lathrop, where young Douglass went | to bag some hogs, and 1t was in this | rH,yIa after killing Deputy Sheriff Buzzell on Thanksgiving Eve, 1895. To this wild erness of willows and underbrush Will | Hams and Schlagel fled last September after attempting to wreck and rob the southbound New Orleans express.
 | Nearly every traveller in California knows of Lathrop, in the banner wheat | county of this state, but very few of | the passengers who dine at the station l daily know that less than five miles away there is this wild spot. where | boar hunting can be followed that is every bit as exciting as the famous hunts in India. There can be no pig 1 sticking" to be sure, for the hunter ] who wishes to bay wild podker in the | San Joaquin underbrush must rely on his rife and enough nerve and strength ! to carry him on hands and knees be- meath the network of vines and bushes.
 The land hereabout abounds in 'coons l and 'coonhunting is favorite pastime | with the Sportsmen of San Joaquin | county. Occasionally, when running | down one of these ring-tailed despoil- CTS of lenroosts, the hunters run across l one of the droves of wild hogs that | sometimes venture out into the open 1 places on the river bottom. The hunt CTS, however, rarely venture into the l thickets on the old Trahern ranch and in the underbrush, where the wild hogs root out a living. It is dangerous | venture unless one is prepared to meet 7 a rowing, vicious old "tusker." Will | Hams, the train wrecker now serving a life sentence in the Folsom State prison, knew this wild section we'll, and told the authorities that he crawled all night long through this tract on the | evening of the Morano hold-up He was looking for hiding place where it l would take the officers weeks to find him, and he was in just the right kind | of country to find such a place. He might still be at large had not hunger and curiosity forced him to leave the ndunIS oI lf1e Wllu HOBS.
 Those robbers will have plenty of hog meat to keep them alive" was what number of old-timers said when they heard that the train wreckers had taken to the brush. This is what fired hunters with a desire to possess pair of wild boar's tusks.
 Pope and I had heard' said Doug lass, in telling his adventure that there were lots of wild hogs in the un- derbrush near the river. ] heard this story when first came to the country, but paid no attention to it, for when ever I had a chance to go hunting was after ducks or doves. After the newspapers printed so much about that Williams and Schlagel affair, and told of the wild country they were suppos- ed to be in, I suggested to Jim-that's S Pope-that we go down into it some day and see if we could get one of those wild boars. Jim is always ready for anything of that kind, and has a fine Winchester to help him out. I had no gun, so I borrowed single-barrell- ed magazine shotgun, like that crack Shot of the Reliance club uses in breaking bluerocks. We fitted out for three days stay, and hired a skiff to go up as far as San Joaquin City did not know much about the country, but Jim had lived in the country all his life, and knew the lay of the land.
 We we reached San Joaquin City 1t was early in the after noon, and Jim in- quired if there were any woodchoppers' camps near by. Just as soon as we learned in what direction we could find one we started for 1t. Maybe you don't think it was work getting there. That $ the toughest country ever expect to travel through. There Is nothing but tangled willows, blackberry vines, haz. el bushes and underbrush, and you have to crawl on the ground or climb over it or cut your way through. It was nearly night when we reached the clearing where the woodchoppers' cabin is. No one would ever find it in ten years without proper directions.
 'tThe woodchopper routed us out at o'clock next morning to get outside of some coffee, bacon and q teal duck apiece. The old chap made us eat a tremendous breakfast, for, as he fut it, If you don't feel full you'll never lave the sand to hunt long in that brush. We were mighty glad aftecward that we fed well, for when we struck the brush we found that it took nearly an hour to go a mile.'
 Tt must have been fully three hours l e,.-.