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THE HOG.

very common to see a plough at work at the very edge of the canes where the villagers are beating for hogs; and as the bullocks employed are extremely skittish and wild, it often happens that they take fright and run off with the plough, which frequently is broken to pieces. The ploughman, alarmed equally with his cattle, also takes to flight, as do all the peasants who may see the bristling animal galloping from his haunt."

Mr. Johnson describes another scene eminently charisteristic of the desperate fierceness and strength of the wild hog. He was one of a party of eight persons, on a sporting excursion near Patna on the banks of the Soane. Returning one morning from shooting, they met with a very large boar, which they did not fire at or molest, as, although several of the party were fond of hunting, they had no spears with them. The next morning they all sallied forth in search of him, and just as they had arrived at the spot where they had seen him the day before, they discovered him at some distance galloping off towards a grass jungle on the banks of the river.

They pressed their horses as fast as possible, and were nearly up with him when he disappeared all at once.

The horses were then nearly at their full speed, and four of them could not be pulled up in time to prevent their going into a deep branch of the river, the banks of which were at least fourteen or fifteen feet high. Happily, there was no water in, or any thing but fine sand, and no person was hurt. One of the horses, that was exceedingly vicious, got loose, attacked the others, and obliged them and all the rest, to recede.

A few days afterwards they went again, early in the morning, in pursuit of the same hog, and found him farther off from the grass jungle, in a rhur-field, from which with much difficulty they drove him into a plain, where he stood at bay challenging the whole party, and boldly charging every horse that came within fifty yards of him, grunting loudly as he advanced.

"The horse I rode," says Mr Johnston, "would not go near him, and when I was at considerable distance off, he charged another horse with such ferocity that mine reared and plunged in so violent a manner as to throw me off. Two or three others were dismounted at nearly the same time; and though there were many horses present that had been long accustomed to the sport, not one of them would stand his charges. He fairly drove the whole party off the field, and gently trotted on to the grass jungle, foaming and grinding his tusks."

In Morocco the wild boar is the most common and prolific of all the ferocious animals found there; the sow produces several large litters in the year; and were it not that the young form the favorite food of the lion, the country would be overrun with these animals.