HUNTING WILD BOARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18927, 27 January 1925, Page 11

HUNTING WILD BOARS.

NORTH AUSTRALIAN SPORT. HIDEOUS AND FEROCIOUS PIGS. END OF "A SPORTING CHANCE." [from our own correspondent. ] SYDNEY, Jan. 15. An interesting glimpse of the exciting sport of wild boar hunting is given in a letter from Mr. T. H. Sewell, who, accompanied by his wife, has cycled into the far north of Australia from Brisbane. Tiie pair have penetrated right into York Peninsula. Mr. Scwell gives an amusing description of the astonishment 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 splen-didly-equipped Rotham 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 the Peninsula. Free born in a forest lair, and roaming by night and day, says Mr. Sewell, the wild boar has 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, "mora with the surge of battle in our breas<jg 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. Wc had gene two miles when the native explained, 'Smell 'in pigs.' The dogs got the scent, and in a moment there was a frantic hullabaloo of baying and snarling dogs, squealing sows and rifle shots, when the 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 tha 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 the 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 csme up. When the boar turned to meet a flank attack from the dogs, wc sprang for its hind legs, but for some time did not get neirer than a dozen feet, having to leap back front his tusks. The dogs sprang in again and again. Rage foam j flecked its body as its mouth opened in wild grunts when our knives, missing its I hind leg sinews, drew blood. By sheer j momentum of a rush the dogs carried the boar off its feet, never to rise again."