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HUNTING THE WILD BOAR ! i i Interesting Details of Trip to Santa Cruz j Island, Where Roams in Large Numbers That Dangerous Animal. "The anhnals arc large and fierce, but if you enjoy the genuine thrills of hunting dangerous , game, wild boar hunting will certainly appeal to , you." Titus wrote Captain Ira K. Eaton, owner of the , yacht Sea Wolf, in response to our inquiry regarding the chartering of his boat for the trip to and from Santa Cruz Island. Boar hunting did : appeal to us, and the old sea dogs statement, "The animals are large and fierce," sold us on the prop- , osltion. Accordingly we wired him, chartering the ! craft to sail from Santa Barbara on April 2 and , for the return trip ten days later. If you hare never heard of Santa Cruz Island, get out your atlas and look for It off the coast . of southern California latitude 34 degrees north, longitude 118.45 degrees west. The island is one of the Santa Barbara Archipelago, and is under the political jurisdiction of Santa Barbara County, California. It is a wild and rugged bit of land some thirty miles in length, a fourth as wide, and uninhabited except for a mere handful of human beings who have developed its most fertile slopes as a sheep and cattle range. The island has an interesting history, a brief summary of which is necessary to the understanding of it as the sportsmans paradise that it is today. Cabrillo, the Spanish navigator, discovered it in 1042. He pronounced it worthless, and In 1582 Spain decided to utilize It as a penal colony. In that year a shipload of some sis hundred heretics, thieves, usurers and other divers culprits were lauded on the island. They were given a few head of cattle, some horses and hogs, and told to work out their own salvation. They did. The frigate which carried them there was scarcely out of sight oyer the horizon before they set to work cutting timber in the hillside piue forests. From this green lumber they fashioned the frames of some rude boats. Then they killed the cattle and horses, covered the boats with the skins, sealed the seams with pine resin and put to sea. Just what became of thein is not definitely known, but tradition has it. that they reached the coast of California and settled in what is now Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties. The swine given them were turned loose on the island to multiply and evolve into the race of vicious wild boars with which the island is now infested. T.he boars today are the plague of the ranch people. They root out garden truck as fast as it is planted, kill sheep and lambs, smash fences, and not infrequently gore cattle and horses until they have to be killed to put them out of their misery. There is a bounty on snouts and accordingly no closed season nor bag limit. BEAUTIFUL PRISONERS HARBOR, The Sea Wolf set us ashore at Prisoners. Harbor, a beautiful little land-locked cove on the north coast of the island, where the Spanish penal colony is supposed to have been marooned. In addition to firearms and ammunition enough to have started n filibuster, and our camping outfit, Ave also had three motorcycles, two of them with sidecars to be used for transportation purposes about the island. In having these little machines wo possessed a distinct advantage over the majority of hunters who have visited Santa Cruz Island. Obviously, the few sportsmen who have hunted there go to its shores in boats. Lacking means of transportation inland, most of the hunting has been done along the seacoast, or at no great distance from it. There is no great mileage of roads, but a motor trail has been built by the ranch people from Prisoners Harbor across the island and to the west end, which is a distance of about eighteen miles, which trail traverses some of the best hunting country. By merely disconnecting the sidecars we were able to ride over an almost endless mileage of sheep and cuttle trails. As it was about the middle of the afternoon when we landed at Prisoners Harbor, the balance of the day was spent in touring inland for a distance of about five miles and establishing a permanent camp. Our camp site was a grassy mesa overgrown witli magnificent oak trees, located near the bottom of a high-walled canyon. The location was ideal. There was plenty of fallen oak for firewood and in the canyon just a few steps from our camp was a roaring mountain torrent of pure cold water. After a much relished supper we enjoyed the incomparable pastime of smoking our pipes and swapping yarns around the camp fire before turning in for. the night. But we hadnt been asleep long before getting an introduction to the wild, life of the island. I was awakened by a: sound as of some animal walking .stealthily through the leaves and twigs in the vicinity of our camp. I sat up in my sleeping bag, reached for my pistol, and listened. Presently something went "sniff! sniff! sniff!" from a point most startingly near, and an instant later two gleaming green eyes appeared in a hole in the tent wall which had been burned by a spark from the camp fire of a previous expedition. With far less ado than it takes to tell it, I drew a bead between the two eyes and fired. With the flash and crack of the weapon there was a bloodcurdling snarl outside the tent, and the whole camp came tumbling out on the double quick. A flashlight inspection revealed that my bullet hadnt been wasted. Beneath the hole in the tent lay the lithe and quivering body of a civet cat. He was stone dead, with his skull shattered and his whiskers powder burned. SPANISH COWPUNCHER AS GUIDE. Next morning after putting our camp in order and caching our supplies beyond the reach of other camp marauders, we loaded up our hunting equipment and set out for the boar country with the motorcycles. We stopped at the Caires Ranch en route to establish ourselves with the ranch people and to take, advantage of certain services arranged in advance for our hunting. The chief feature of this was the picking up of three boar dogs and an old Spanish cowpuncher by the name of Quatc Espinosa, who was to serve as our guide in the hunting grounds. Spanish is the language of Santa Cruz Island, and neither Quatc nor the dogs understood anything else. The dogs were lively little fellows of terrier breed, scarred from head to foot from previous encounters with wild boars. They answered to the names of Pistola, Thomasia and Jerito Spanish for "Pistol, Thomas and Little Jerry." English words meant nothing to these dogs, but when spoken to in Spanish they were as alert as dogs could be. An expression such as sicola, Pistola. Coche! Coche! mira la coche! "Sic em, Pistola. Pigs! Pigs Loog at the pigs!" would set them all Jumping and barking in anticipation of the hunt. Armed with an ancient 45.70, we put Quate in one sidecar and the three dogs in the other, and Avith Pinkey, the third member of our party, trailing behind on the solo motorcycle, Ave set out for La Hacienda del Sur The South Ranch, a locution where, according to the old Spaniard, Ave were pretty certain to find game. The trip to the South Ranch was a distance of about tAvelve miles and the road leading there lacked much of being a boulevard. The distance, however, Avas covered in about half an hour Avith uo inconvenience greater than some Castillian mut-terings irom Quate about his preference for a horse. Finally Ave came to a gate across the trail where Quate assured us Ave had best leave the machines, for to proceed farther with them would probably scare tho game aAvay. Setting out from the gate on foot, Ave proceeded across! a grassy headland with numerous thickets of brush. It sloped off gradually toward the sea and was broken by numerous canyons and ravines. We had gone less than a half mile after leaving the machines, when the dogs picked up a Avarm trail and went baying off into the brush of a near-by canyon. Almost at the same instant five boars tore out of tho thicket and fled up the opposite canyon Avail with all the speed and fleetnws of a herd of deer. It was long range shooting, but Ave all got into action Avith our rifles. ARTILLERY GETS IN ACTION. "Ker-bung! Ker-bung!" roared Quates black : powder blunderbuss; "Ping! Ping! Ping!" rang out ; Johnstons high-power smokeless; aud "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Avent Pinkeys deer gun. Johnston hit his ; porker with all three shots, but It took the third one to send him hoofs up and squealing, crashing through the brush to the bottom of the canyon nearly six hundred feet below. PlnUcy floored a fine-looking "meat pig" Aviiich caught In the brush i as he fell into the canyon. Quate apparently mbiscd bota Bhots, for when the smoke from his. u ! i i j , , , : , ! , . : ; ; i u cannon cleared away we could get no trace of any- i tiling he had put down. I singled out a monstrous 1 black boar that was traveling for his health up the i canyon wall and slammed four shots after him with j my Winchester automatic. At least three of the bullets took him broadside, for I saw the dust fly out of his bristles and he turned each time . and bit himself where the bullets hit him. While our rifles were cracking, the dogs had crossed the canyon and were going pellmell after the two boars which had reached the top of the open pasturland and were going like deer across the i island. Quate, Pinkey and Johnston scrambled across the canyon and followed the dogs and boars, while I set out hot foot on the trail of the .one I had punctured. Getting across the canyon and up the other side was a feat of mountaineering in itself, and by the time I arrived at the thicket where I bad seen my boar head in I was pretty well winded. Puffing like a porpoise, I dropped into the grass thinking to rest a moment before going on, but as I did so I put my hand in something wet. The Avet substance Avas blood. I was on the trail of my boar all right! Momentarily forgetting my fatigue, I took up the trail again. There was a distinct blood trail leading off into the thicket. The brush was, so dense that progress Avas a matter of inches per minute, but my only thought was of getting that pair of tusks. So I flattened out and Aviggled in.; I afterward learned the foolhardiness of this venture, when I was informed by Quate that folloAving a wounded boar into a thicket is little short of attempted suicide. A Avounded boar, he told me, "frill charge like a streak of lightning through a thicket where a man can scarcely move. I realized then that there had been many moments AAhile I was in the brush when, if the boar had charged, he would have had me like a rat In a trap. Possibly Fate had ruled that my time hadnt come; at any rate, I got out of the thicket and into an open area before I found my boar. As I Aviggled out into the sunlight I heard him grunting and snorting at the other end of the grass land. He was badly Avounded and in a terrible rage. Squealing, grunting and frothing at the mouth and with blood gushing from a gaping bullet hole in the side of his neck, rhe would vent his Avrath by lunging his tusks into the ground. With each onslaught against the earth he Avould back up for another rush, hurling great chunks of sod fully twenty feet in the air. Several times as I was maneuvering about to get a vital shot at him lie charged the brusii and scrub oak trees several inches in diameter Avere rooted skyward as if they had been so many stalks of corn. Finally he turned broadside toAvard me, aud I droA-e another 351 soft-point into his shoulder. The shot only enraged him more without so much as making him turn a hair. A second and a third bullet had no more effect, but the fourth one revealed to him the source of those stinging hornets which tortured his flesh. With a belloAV that set the surrounding landscape vibrating, and the bristles of his back standing up like bundles of wire, he lunged at me five hundred pounds of raging fury! TENSE AND PRECARIOUS MOMENT. There was just one cartridge left in my rifle and no time to reload. . Upon the work of that bullet I realized it was the boar or me. He Avas within twenty feet and bearing doAvn like something hurled out of a catapult Avith those Avicked tusks bared for action in my flesh, Avhcn I took careful aim bctAveen ills eyes and pulled the trigger. That bullet did the business! The bones of his great black head were torn to a pulp; but Avitli the momentum of his charge he turned a double flip-flop, landing in a heap almost at my feet. He was as dead as a coffin nail. The head of that old tusker will ahvays be one of the most prized trophies in my collection, for if I live to be a hundred years, I will never forget the thrills of that tense moment when that huge black bulk charged down upon me and I faced his fury alone! It was nearly an hour before Quate, Pinkey and Johnston returned and began hallooing through the brush in an effort to locate me. Their surprise can Avell be imagined when they crawled into the thicket and found me calmly smoking my pipe beside the body of Avhat Quate declared to be the biggest boar ever seen or killed in his forty years on the island. They had returned empty handed. They had chased, for nearly two miles the two boars Avhich went over the hill. Several times the dogs had had them cornered, but before the hunters could get up for a shot they broke and ran again. Finally they made good their getaway into an impenetrable thicket where neither dogs nor men could hope to follow. The next problem we faced was that of getting the big boar across the canyon and to the sidecars. He Aveigheil five hundred pounds if lie weighed an ounce, and it was as much as the four of us could do to drag him. To lighten off as. much as possible, Quate split him down the belly with his hunting knife and dumped out the contents of the body cavity this reduced the weight by fully a hundred pounds. Then by dragging, rolling and carrying him inch by. inch, Ave finally got him across the canyon and up the other side. The huge carcass was a load for the sidecar which almost crushed the springs doAvn on the chassis. It AA-as too big to go into the car, making it necessary to hang the great head and shoulders over the cowl after bracing it with pieces of oak to prevent its collapsing under the load. After getting the big boar loaded, we went back across the canyon, got off the head of Johnstons three hundred and fifty pound tusker, and cut up Pinkeys "meat pig" for camp pork. The dogs, still panting and next to exhausted from their hunting, made a feast of the liver. They Avere content to ride back to the ranch Avith Quate in the other sidecar Avithout the necessity of being tied in. TRULY A FISHERMANS PARADISE. Next morning we had pork chops for breakfast. The Avild pork is chiefly scorn fed and is a meat that Avould haA-e the approval of the most critical epicure. All three of us found ourselves somewhat stiff and sore from oui exertions ot the previous day, so the camp was in perfect accord AA-hen Pinkey suggested fishing as a program for the day with boar hunting to be resumed the .lay following. This plan was carried out by touring down to Prisoners Harbor with the motorcycles, where Ave baited np our tackle and got busy. Fishing at Prisoners Harbor, or for that matter" anywhere else arjund Santa Cruz Inland, sounds like a fish story for fair. From the rocks along the shore w could look down into five or six fathoms of transparent water, the most gorgeous of submarine gardens. Avlicro iish without kind and number finned their way among the marine vegetation or dangled leisurely in the sunlight. They ranged in size from little minnows and jacksmelz to big sea bass and barracudas five or six feet in length. There Avere great lobsters and crabs, and more kinds and sizes of fish than Ave had ever seen outside of an aquarium collection. For bait wc used mussels gathered from the near-by rocks, but the fishing Avasnt fishing at all. All Ave had to do was to throw in a line and then watcii the fish scramble for it. If avc put on two hooks, avc Avould pull out two fish or more hooks, more fish, up to the breaking limit of the line. White sea bass, sea perch, rock bass, rock cod, and barracuda, Aveighing up to four or five pounds each, were the ones most frequently landed. The big fellows didnt bite avc-11. Pinkey snagged a fifty-pound shecphcad bass aud tussled Avitli him for an hour and a half before the line finally parted and the fish got away with the hook and half the line. By the middle of the afternoon the sidecars resembled a fish market we had more fish than wo knew Avhat to do Avith, and it Avas useless to take more. Accordingly, avc reeled in our lines und hauled the fish up to the Caires Ranch, where wc turned the bulk of the catch over to the cook. The meat diet of the ranch people is principally mutton, hence the fish Avere received Avith thorough appreciation. On Santa Cruz Island there is no lack of human sustenance, and avc soon realized that had we come there empty handed avc could easily have gone away fat. Within a stones throw of our fishing rocks there Avas an enormous bed of the most delicious oysters ours for the gathering; and a little farther along the shore tho rocks were literally festooned Avith abaloucs, one of the most delectable shellfish to be found in the Pacific. It was evident that half the stores we had brought to the- island Avould be taken home untouched. With more fresh pork than Ave kneAV Avhat to do Avith, and everything else included, the food situation seemed like heaven compared Avith anything we have known in the past four years. For the next days boar hunting Quatc outlined a trip into El Portrero del Norte The North Pns-i ture, one of the wildest and most rugged sections of the island, Avherc he declared the boars Avere so numerous they Avere literally eating the scenery off the landscape. Although some ten miles from the ranch ana on the other side, of tAvo momituin i 1 i j . i ranges, we were able to go Avithin a mile of this hunting ground with the sidecars. Wc Avere then nt the end of the trail, and as nothing could be gained by taking the machines farther, avc set out into the country on foot. Progress through the Portrero del Norte district was tedious. It is a jungle of oaks, scrub oaks, and brush, where a tenderfoot Avould experience little difficulty in losing himself. The very nature of the country served to illustrate the futility of attempting to hunt Avithout dogs. Time and time again the dogs would explore a thicket Avhere a man would be unable to moAe, only to come out again Avithout getting a trace of game. Wc hunted over several square miles of the Portrero country Avithout getting a sfct at anything, although we found numerous fresh tracks and places where the boars had uprooted the ground. At last the dogs picked up a fresh trail and AAere off like a shot, barking and yelping, into a canyon thicket. In another moment our campaign of action Avas outlined. Johnston, Avho was the best rifleman of our party, Avas to cross the canyon and take up his position on the opposite Avail, to cut off the escape of the game in that direction; Pinkey was to guard the near-by Avail; Avhlle Quate and I were to descend into the canyon to approach the baying dogs from opposite directions and chase out or bag any boars the dogs had cornered. The fact that we heard no grunts or squeals led us to believe the dogs AA"ere on the trail of some game other than boars, but Ave proposed to investigate, nevertheless. Having somewhat of an advantage of years over Quate, I dropped into the bottom of the canyon and reached the dogs some ! minutes ahead of the old Spaniard. Our conclusions in this respect Avere correct. I found the dogs barking skyAvard at the foot of an oak tree in the upper branches of Avhich they had treed a fox. "A nice skin for the little wife,"- thought I, as I dreAV my pistol and picked Jlr. Reynard off the limb Avith a single shot. As the shot raug out, there was a great commotion, squealing and grunting up the gorge a little beyond the point Aiiere I had descended. At the same instant I heard Johnston yell out: "There they go, Pink! Let em have it!" PULLED OFF THE TRAIL BY A FOX. Simultaneously his rifle cracked. Then Pinkey cut loose from his side of the canyon, and the echoes of the smokeless had hardly ceased rolling through the canyon when Quate blazed away Avith his black powder artillery from some point down the canyon. The entire canyon atmosphere Avas a bedlam of squeals, grunts, barking dogs, and echoing rifle shots and there I stood like a bump on a log Avondering from Avhich direction the sIioav was going to begin. Of all the fish in the sea, I felt about the fishiest at that moment. Id been right in the midst of a herd of boars, and had let those fool dogs pull me off on the trail of a fox! I heard Johnstons rifle crack again, and again, and again and the last shot was follOAAcd by the sound of a heavy body crashing into the canyon. Then the hunters voice exclaimed: "I got that one, Pink! Quick, head off that other one! Hes going down the canyon!" This AA-as interesting. If there was a boar headed down the canyon, he must be traveling my way. I spun around, started up the gorge, and had hardly gone ten yards Avhen all pandemonium let loose. There was an intermingling of enraged snorts, squeals and grunts, accompanied by the barking of the dogs and a crashing of boulders. By this time I had reached a point Avherc the canxon Avas exceeding narroAV and rocky I could have touched the tAvo Avails with my outstretched hands and Avas splashing along through a foot or more of Avhite foaming Avater. Bursting suddenly around a curve I came upon the cause of all the racket. Down the canyon came a huge boar with Pistola and Jerito dangling from his ears and the third dog snapping at his tail. Ho was snorting and squealing with rage, and by charging ahead managed to shake off the dogs. But he could rid himself of his tormentors only for a moment at a time. The dogs Avere as quick as cats, and once shaken off Avere up and after their quarry iri an instant. I clambered up onto a ledge of rock and several times got a bead on the old tusker, but in the free-for-all between boar and dogs didnt dare to shoot for fear of killing one of our little hunting comrades. 350-POUND BEAUTY. After several fruitless attempts,- the boar made a clean, break .dOAVn the canyon. This Avas my chance, and I let him have it. The bullet caught him on the left shoulder and toppled him against the canyon Avail. The shot didnt put Itim out by any means it only staggered him. But his hesitation was fatal, for in an instant the dogs were on top of him again. Recovering someAvhat from the shock of the soft-nosed bullet, the old tusker lunged forth with Avhat I conjectured to be his dying effort. With a bellow that shook the Avhole canyon, he rose on his hind hoofs, stretching his full length upright, and with a dog dangling from each car. For a second he was poised Avith his black bulk in the air. There Avas just time enough to swing my rifle to my shoulder and blaze away. The bullet took him between the fore legs, and with a stifled grunt he collapsed like a Avet rag. He was shot through the heart, and that terrible soft-nosed missile had literally cut his backbone in two. He was a magnificent specimen, Aveighing about three hundred and fifty pounds and Avith a beautiful pair of ivory tusks four inches long. I had hardly succeeded in pulling the dogs off when Johnston and Pinkey came running down the canyon. They had been training the boar I had killed and bad virtually chased him in front of my gun. Pinkey had accounted for two old tuskers and Johnston had disposed of two more. Presently Quate came trudging up the canyon carrying another i fox. He also announced proudly that ho had a "meat pig" a couple of hundred yards be-Ioav. By the time AA-e had got off the heads of the five boars, skinned the two foxes, quarteied Quates "hariis and pork chops," and lugged everything to the tide-cars, all of ,is Avere pretty Avell fatigued. Pistola, too, the best of our hunting dogs, had received a bad tusk slash across the back of his neck in the encounter Avith the last boar. Wo decided, therefore, to call our hunting a day, and tour back to -oar camp. Pistola, however, hadnt suffered the only casualty; Johnston and I Avere bleeding and suffering from numerous cuts and scratches Avhere avc had torn ourselves in scrambling through the brush, and Pinkey Avas in agony as. the result of having chased one of his boars through a thicket of cactus. Our thoughtfully provided "first aid" kit came in handy that night, and there was a healthy demand all around for iodine and bandages. That evening we suffered another piratical incursion in our camp. We had finished a wonderful supper and were smoking our pipes around the camp fire, Avhen we heard a noise Avhich sounded like some animal licking his chops in the vicinity of our provision cache. We all grabbed our pistols and proceeded to investigate. Pinkey was "heading the procession, and naturally neared the cache first. He got there just in time to be all but rollled on his back by a large black creature AA-hich came bounding out, bumped against his legs, and headed for the river. Then tAvo more black forms tore out in the Avake of the first. MeanAvhile Pinkey had AA-hipped out an automatic pistol of Aviiich he had relieved a German officer in France, and AA-as on the verge of cutting loose Avhen Johnston and I identified the animals. "Dont shoot!" Ave both called to him. The creatures Avere nothing more dangerous than seals, which are protected on Santa Cruz Island under federal law. They had cleaned tip eA-ery last fish on our string,- but had molested nothing else. The fish, however, could hardly be considered as a loss, as Ave had an occanful of them ours for the catching. J. E. Hogg in Outers Recreation.
