WARM GREETING OF A GREAT ‘BORE.’—Par. [472].

CUR AND WILD HOG.

472. If a hog was in the wind, the cur dashed off immediately, following the animal until it stopped at bay, when a shrill bark warned the sportsman of the scene of action. The tiny animal had many a scar on his rugged hide, cut by hogs, with whose ears and heels he frequently took liberties; but, up to the time that the officer left that part of the world, the dog had escaped serious injury by his good generalship and activity. He certainly had a very just estimate of his own physical powers, for with young porkers he stood on little ceremony, rushing into them at once, and worrying and holding them until the hunter came to his assistance.

473. You might draw a useful moral from this long story by considering for a moment what kind of sport our Creole acquaintance would have had, and what number of Guinea-birds, wild hogs, and deer (capital shot as he was) he would have killed in the year, had he been obliged to speak to the little cur when hunting. The calculation, I fancy, would not be found difficult from the number of figures employed in the enumeration.

474. You may think the foregoing a tough yarn, but I have now in my mind an instance of sagacity in a Newfoundland, apparently so much less entitled to credence, that I should be afraid to tell it (though the breed is justly celebrated for its remarkable docility and intelligence), if its truth could not be vouched for by Capt. L——n, one of the best officers in the navy; and who, when I had the gratification of sailing with him, commanded that noble ship, the “Vengeance.”

INVITATION TO A ‘WHITE-BAIT’ DINNER.—Par. [475].

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A NEWFOUNDLAND FISHING.