sire for wholesale slaughter.

Hounds are employed to track the peccary and bring it to bay, when the
hunters ride up and finish the chase by their unerring rifles.

A flock of peccaries, when pursued, will sometimes take shelter in a
cave or cleft of the rocks, one of their number standing ready at the
mouth. When this one is shot by the hunter, another will immediately
rush out and take its place. This too being destroyed, will be replaced
by a third, and so on until the whole drove has fallen.

Should the hounds attack the peccary while by themselves, and without
the aid and encouragement of the hunter, they are sure to be "routed,"
and some of their number destroyed. Indeed, this little creature, of
not more than two feet in length, is a match for the stoutest bull-dog!
I have myself seen a peccary (a caged one, too)--that had killed no less
than six dogs of bull and mastiff breed--all of them considered fighting
dogs of first-rate reputation.

The Kentuckian had a peccary adventure which had occurred to him while
on an excursion to the new settlements of Texas. "It was my first
introduction to these animals," began he, "and I am not likely soon to
forget it. It gave me, among the frontier settlers of Texas, the
reputation of a `mighty hunter,' though how far I deserved that name you
may judge for yourselves.

"I was for some weeks the guest of a farmer or `planter,' who lived upon
the Trinity Bottom. We had been out in the `timber' several times, and
had filled both bear, deer, and turkeys, but had not yet had the luck to
fall in with the peccary, although we never went abroad without seeing
their tracks, or some other indications of what my friend termed
`peccary sign.' The truth is, that these animals possess the sense of
smell in the keenest degree; and they are usually hidden long before the
hunter can see them or come near them. As we had gone without dogs, of
course we were not likely to discover which of the nine hundred and
ninety-nine hollow logs passed in a day, was the precise one in which
the peccaries had taken shelter.

"I had grown very curious about these creatures. Bear I had often
hunted--deer I had driven; and turkeys I had both trapped and shot. But
I had never yet killed a peccary; in fact, had never seen one. I was
therefore very desirous of adding the tusk of one of these wild boars to
my trophies of the chase.

"My desire was gratified sooner than I expected, and to an exte