ust to a revolver or
the colonial boar-spear, half a pair of shears (I suppose it should be
called _a shear_) bound firmly on a flax stick by green flax-leaves. We
had heard of pigs having been seen by our out-station shepherd at the
back of the run, and as we were not encumbered by the heavy rifle, we
mounted our horses and rode as far as we could towards the range where
the pigs had been grubbing up the hill sides in unmolested security for
some time past. Five miles from home the ground became so rough that
our horses could go no further; we therefore jumped off, tied them to
a flax-bush, taking off the saddles in case they broke loose, and
proceeded on foot over the jungly, over-grown saddle. On the other side
we came upon a beautiful gully, with a creek running through it, whose
banks were so densely fringed with scrub that we could not get through
to the stream, which we heard rippling amid the tangled shrubs. If we
could only have reached the water our best plan would have been to get
into it and follow its windings up the ravine; but even Pincher could
hardly squeeze and burrow through the impenetrable fence of matapo and
goi, which were woven together by fibres of a thorny creeper called "a
lawyer" by the shepherds.

It was very tantalising, for in less than five minutes we heard trusty
Pincher "speaking" to a boar, and knew that he had baled it up against a
tree, and was calling to us to come and help him. F----ran about like a
lunatic, calling out; "Coming Pincher: round him up, good dog!" and so
forth; but they were all vain promises, for he could not get in. I did
my best in searching for an opening, and gave many false hopes of having
found one. At last I said, "If I run up the mountain side, and look down
on that mass of scrub, perhaps I may see some way into it from above."
"No: do you stay here, and see, if the pig breaks cover, which way
he goes." Up the steep hill, therefore, F---- rushed, as swiftly and
lightly as one of his own mountain sheep; and in a minute or two I
saw him standing, revolver in hand, on an overhanging rock, peering
anxiously down on the leafy mass below.

Pincher and the creek made such a noise between them that I could not
hear what F---- said, and only guessed from his despairing gestures that
there was no trap door visible in the green roof. I signalled as well as
I could that he was to come down directly, for his-standing-place looked
most insecure. Insecure indeed it prov