Page:Life in Java Volume 1.djvu/213

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WILD BOARS.
195

For three posts from Probolingo, the country was very flat and uninteresting, nothing but endless open fields of sawahs, with an occasional forest of teak and other wild trees. As we approached Klaka, the land became more undulating, gradually rising as we proceeded onward. Wild boars we saw in abundance, many intently searching for food in the field or common on each side of the way, on which the wild long grass grew to an enormous height; others scampering across the road, some ten yards before our horses, and then, as though terrified by the sight of our large vehicle, suddenly darting across the fields, and vanishing into the adjacent thickets.

It was growing quite dusk as we neared our destination. The road, which was one seldom traversed by carriages, was very bad, in some parts scarcely passable. At one time, indeed, we came to a dead stop, as, in spite of all the efforts of the coucer and lopers, with the exertions of the poor

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