fact.

The hunting of wild boars has, from the most ancient times, been
reckoned a noble sport; for it not only called for dexterity and
courage, but was attended with considerable danger, from the extreme
savageness of these animals when at bay, and the facility with which
they rip open their antagonists with their tusks. They were in former
times considered as royal game, and fines were imposed on those who
killed them without having the privilege of doing so. The time of their
extirpation in England is uncertain; but we know that in the reign of
Charles the First, orders were given for some domestic hogs to be turned
into the New Forest, that they might become wild; but they were all
destroyed in the time of Cromwell. Some still exist in the large
European forests, and a variety of hounds are still trained to hunt
them. Horses are particularly alarmed at them, and in the history of
boar-hunts, we constantly read of the sportsmen being forced to alight
from their steeds to take a steady aim. The numbers of ancient arms in
which they are found, and the names of old places derived from them,
attest their numerous presence here; for instance, Brandon, which is
_brawn's den_; brawn being the old term for boar. Their skin is so thick
as frequently to deaden the force of bullets, which, after death, have
been found lying between it and the flesh.

The wild boars of Africa have a broader snout than their European
brethren, and possess two protuberances under the eyes, which prevent
them from seeing anything underneath them. They live in subterranean
holes; and one which had been for some time kept in confinement, was
accidentally left loose in a small court near his cage, upon which he
tore up the pavement, and had already made a deep pit when his keeper
returned. When the natives of Africa spear or entrap one, they tie his
fore-feet together, sling him on a pole, decorate him and themselves
with creeping plants, and return to their huts with triumphant shouts
and rejoicing. The flesh of these is very close-grained, white and
hard. The impossibility of keeping meat in that country till it becomes
tender, makes wild boar flesh almost useless to Europeans, unless their
teeth vie with those of negroes.

Some idea of the sort of sport which attends the chase of wild boars,
may be formed from the following account of one which took place in a
forest in Luxembourg. At a battle, several of these animals were driven
together, and