es and
burrs of the pine.

We passed great numbers of swine, feeding on these burrs, and now and
then a horned animal browsing on the cypress-moss where it hung low on
the trees. I observed that nearly all the swine were marked, though they
seemed too wild to have ever seen an owner, or a human habitation. They
were a long, lean, slab-sided race, with legs and shoulders like deer,
and bearing no sort of resemblance to the ordinary hog, except in the
snout, and that feature was so much longer and sharper than the nose of
the Northern swine, that I doubt if Agassiz would class the two as one
species. However, they have their uses--they make excellent bacon, and
are "death on snakes." Ireland itself is not more free from the
serpentine race than are the districts frequented by these long-nosed
quadrupeds.

"We call them Carolina race-horses," said the Colonel, as he finished an
account of their peculiarities.

"Race-horses! Why, are they fleet of foot?"

"Fleet as deer. I'd match one against an ordinary horse at any time."

"Come, my friend, you're practising on my ignorance of natural history."

"Not a bit of it. See! there's a good specimen yonder. If we can get him
into the road, and fairly started, I'll bet you a dollar he'll beat
Sandy's mare on a half-mile stretch--Sandy to hold the stakes and have
the winnings."

"Well, agreed," I said, laughing, "and I'll give the pig ten rods the
start."

"No," replied the Colonel, "you can't afford it. He'll _have_ to start
ahead, but you'll need that in the count. Come, Sandy, will you go in
for the pile?"

I'm not sure that the native would not have run a race with Old Nicholas
himself, for the sake of so much money. To him it was a vast sum; and as
he thought of it, his eyes struck small sparks, and his enormous beard
and mustachio vibrated with something that faintly resembled a laugh.
Replying to the question, he said:

"Kinder reckon I wull, Cunnel; howsomdever, I keeps the stakes, ony
how?"

"Of course," said the planter, "but be honest--win if you can."

Sandy halted his horse in the road, while the planter and I took to the
woods on either side of the way. The Colonel soon manoeuvred to
separate the selected animal from the rest of the herd, and, without
much difficulty, got him into the road, where, by closing down on each
flank, we kept him till he and Sandy were fairly under way.

"He'll keep to the road when once started," said the Colonel, laughing: