HUNTING WILD BOARS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 57, 6 February 1925, Page 12

HUNTING WILD BOARS

NORTH AUSTRALIAN SPORT. HIDEOUS AND FEROCIOUS PIGS. SYDNEY, Jan. 15. An interesting glimpse of th© exciting sport of wild boar hunting is given in a letter from Mr T. H. Sewell, who, acoempanied by his wife, has cycled into the far north of Australia from Brisbane. The pair have penetrated right into York Peninsula. Mr Sewell gives an amusing description of the as- j tonishment of the natives at their first inspection of "push" bicycles. The opportunity of exercising his prowess against the notorious wild boars of that part of Australia came to Mr Sewell during a visit which he and his wife paid, to the remote, but splendidlyequipped Rotliam Park station, which, with its 10,000 square miles of country and its 120 miles of frontage to the Mitchell river, is one of the largest and richest in tho Peninsula. Free born in a forest lair, and roaming by night and day, says Mr Sewell, the wild boar hasi become a problem along the rivers of «the Gulf. There, as elsewhere, the wild pigs have reverted to a hideous and ferocious type, resembling only in general appearance the farm product. They wander in herds from place to place, rooting up the ground for miles, a danger to horses and riders alike. The boars have developed formidable tusks, are quick in their movements, and some are estimated to weigh 4cwt. They at times attack with little provocation, and recently, a mailman, when out riding, was attacked, and his horse was ripped and thrown. "Thus it was," he continues, "more with the surgo of battle in our breasts than the spirit of sport that we set out in quest of the wild pigs. The party consisted of Ralph White and myself and a black youth. We had gone two miles when the native explained, 'Smell 'm pigs.' Tho dogs got the scent, and in a moment there was a frantic hullabaloo of baying and snarling dogs, squealing sows and rifle shots, when tho black boy yelled 'Boars,' and discreetly 'got.' We were in a trap in a creek-bed, where the sows and young had been drinking while the boars apparently kept guard on the steep banks. When we gained a vantage ground the herd had disappeared, leaving four casualties.

"We had bagged eight in all, and turned for home when someone suggested giving tho next pig we met a sporting chance. It happened that the next turned out to be a surly boar, having neither kith nor kin. Its chances of life consisted of its ability to' avoid two of us and two hounds. There was a cry, followed by smashing and crashing undergrowth. The boar emerged fighting furiously. The dogs circled about, heading the boar off, while two of us with sheath knives earno up. When the boar turned to meet a flank attack from the dogs, wo sprang for its hind legs, but for some time did not get nearer than a dozen feet having to leap back from his tusks. The dogs sprang in again and again. Rage foam flecked its body as its mouth , opened in wild grunts when our knives, missing its hind leg sinews, drew blood. By sheer momentum of a rush tho dogs carried the baor off its fet. never to rise again."