ad, rolling over
and over down the hill. He attempted to get to his feet but was
unable to stand, and I put him down for good with a second shot. It
all happened so quickly that we could hardly realize that a day of
disappointment had ended in success.

On our way back to camp Harry and I decided that this would end our
hunt, for we had three fine bulls, and it was evident that only a
very few wapiti remained. The species is doomed to early extinction
for, with the advent of the railroad, the last stand which the elk
have made by means of their extraordinary adaptation to changed
conditions will soon become easily accessible to foreign sportsmen.
We at least could keep our consciences clear and not hasten the
inevitable day by undue slaughter. In western China other species of
wapiti are found in greater numbers, but there can be only one end
to the persecution to which they are subjected during the season
when they are least able to protect themselves.

It is too much to hope that China will make effective game laws
before the most interesting and important forms of her wild life
have disappeared, but we can do our best to preserve in museums for
future generations records of the splendid animals of the present.
Not only are they a part of Chinese history, but they belong to all
the world, for they furnish some of the evidence from which it is
possible to write the fascinating story of those dim, dark ages when
man first came upon the earth.

CHAPTER XVIII

WILD PIGS-ANIMAL AND HUMAN

Shansi Province is famous for wild boar among the sportsmen of
China. In the central part there are low mountains and deep ravines
thickly forested with a scrub growth of pine and oak. The acorns are
a favorite food of the pigs, and the pigs are a favorite food of the
Chinese--and of foreigners, too, for that matter. No domestic pork
that I have ever tasted can excel a young acorn-fed wild pig! Even a
full-grown sow is delicious, but beware of an old boar; not only is
he tough beyond description, but his flesh is so "strong" that it
annoys me even to see it cooked. I tried to eat some boar meat, once
upon a time--that is why I feel so deeply about it.

It is useless to hunt wild pig until the leaves are off the trees,
for your only hope is to find them feeding on the hillsides in the
morning or early evening. Then they will often come into the open or
the thin forests, and you can have a fair shot across a ravine or
from the