France, too, formerly had its trackless forests, through which the grisly boar roved in savage grandeur its boar hunts its legends of sanguinary combats with these monsters. The "wild boar of Ardennes" has been the theme of many a lay and romance. But civilization, the increase of population, and the progress of agriculture, have here, too, been at work. Still, however, in the large tracts of forest land which yet exist and supply the towns with fuel, boars are still occasionally to be met with, although they cannot be regarded as so wild or ferocious as the ancient breed. At Chantilly, within forty miles of Paris, the late Prince of Condé, who died in 1830, kept a pack of hounds expressly for the purpose of hunting the boar; and some English gentlemen who visited the hunting palace in the summer of 1830, were informed by the huntsman that a few days previously he had seen no less than fourteen wild hogs at one time. But the good old "wild boar hunt," as once existed, with all its perils and excitements, is now extinct in France as well as in Germany. Where any traces of it remain, they resolve themselves into a battue of a most harmless description, which takes place in the parks of the princes or nobles. The drivers beat up the woods, the wild swine run until they come in contact with a fence stretched across the park for the purpose, and about the centre of which, at an opening in the wood, a sort of stage is raised, on which the sportsmen stand and fire at the swine as they run past. Germany being a country boasting forests of immense extent, was once the most celebrated of all nations for its wild boars and boar-hunts; and in many parts wild hogs are still abundant, and various methods are adopted to destroy them, as well for amusement as to turn their carcasses to account, which furnish those finely-flavored hams called Westphalian.
The most simple and effectual way is to find out the haunts of the boar, and place a matchlock on rests, well charged, and concealed by brambles near it. A rope is attached to the trigger, and carried below the rests to the trunk of a tree at some little distance, so as to intersect the animal's path to the forest. Over this the hog inevitably stumbles, and thus discharges the piece, and receives the ball in the neck or shoulder.
The ordinary method of shooting the hog in Germany is as follows:—
The huntsman, jäger, goes out with an ugly but useful animal, not unlike a shepherd's dog, but smaller, which is in German language called "a sow-finder." The business of this creature is to seek the hog, and so well trained is he that no other animal will turn him from that particular scent. On meeting with the object of his search he gives tongue incessantly, and with active but cautious irritation pursues the boar till he is at bay; then, by continual teasing, he manages to turn him sideways to his master, the shoulder afford-
