Sketches From My Life: By The Late Admiral Hobart PashaHobart-Hampden, Augustus Charles
History
Sketches From My Life: By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha
Hobart-Hampden, Augustus Charles
Adventure and adventurers; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Blockades
I have heard a good deal of the danger of pig shooting, on account of
the savage propensities of the animal; but I have found that, with very
rare exceptions, the Anatolian wild boar always runs. It is true that
they (she or he, the females are the most savage) have a nasty knack of
giving a sort of jerk with their heads, when fighting or even passing an
enemy, and that jerk means to a man the ripping up of his leg from his
heel to his thigh, to a dog the tearing open of his entrails.
On one occasion I was out cock shooting, when some shepherds' dogs in a
valley adjoining that in which I was walking started a large wild boar,
a beast they call a '_solitaire_,' from the fact that he is always seen
after a certain time of life alone. The animal made for a ridge dividing
the valleys; on getting there he passed along the sky-line, about eighty
yards from where I was. I changed my cartridges and fired a ball at the
pig, who rushed away, apparently unshot; on going to the spot, however,
where he had passed when I fired, I found some drops of blood. This
blood I traced for about half a mile, till I came to a large clump of
bushes into which my spaniels dashed, evidently close to their game. I
heard a tremendous row in the bushes, had hardly time to prepare when
the great beast with his eyes all bloodshot and foaming at the mouth
rushed straight at me. I was on a narrow path, from which there was no
escape, as the boar was tearing up it, followed by the dogs. I fired a
ball straight in his face, at the distance of about two yards, in spite
of which he rushed straight on, knocked me clean over, and while passing
me made the usual dangerously effective jerk I have alluded to above, by
which he cut my _boot from the ankle to the thigh_, drew a little blood
just above and inside of the knee; after which the boar rushed headlong
for about thirty yards and dropped dead. I found that my bullet had
smashed through his forehead straight between the eyes and gone into his
brain.
He was an enormous brute, weighing when cleaned twenty-one stone;
carrying the finest tusks I have seen anywhere as belonging to a wild
boar. I only had one man with me; we were what may be called eight miles
from anywhere. Still I was determined not to leave my prize; so I sent
my man for a country waggon, and sitting down on my now harmless beast,
smoked cigarettes and waited quietly till the vehicle came.
Now, _apropos_ to wild boar attacking people, I am convinced that this
animal had no intention of attacking me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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