ent for nearly a minute; then the
marten began the attack by showing its teeth, erecting its hairs, and
springing forward with graceful bounds. At the same time the porcupine,
erecting an armour of quills, which had till then been concealed under
its thick hair, appeared all at once to become twice its former size.
The marten had too much impetus to stop its attempt to seize the
porcupine by the snout; but the latter, suddenly whisking round, dealt
the marten a tremendous blow with its tail, filling its body with short
darts, and sending it off the trunk sprawling among the snow.

The marten was now animated by rage as well as by the desire to capture
its foe. It again sprang up, ran along the boughs of the fallen tree,
and advanced once more towards the porcupine; but its courage and
agility did not avail it. Another blow from that formidable tail cast
it once more into the snow; while the porcupine looked down with
contempt on its defeated antagonist. Reuben, taking good aim with his
rifle, put the marten out of misery; while I killed the victorious
porcupine. The dogs then rushed forward; but Snap, the most eager, had
reason to repent his eagerness, as before we could keep him off the
animal he had received several sharp quills in his jaws. These we
immediately extracted, but he never again attempted to seize either a
living or a dead porcupine.

We killed another marten and some squirrels, and were returning home
just at sundown, when we met Uncle Mark, who had followed our trail--no
difficult thing to do over the snow, even for a white man. He had just
before caught sight of an opossum, which had escaped him. It had
evidently paid a visit to our poultry-yard a short time previously, and
having succeeded in carrying off one of the inhabitants, was making its
way with its prey to its mate or hungry family when Uncle Mark overtook
it. He had knocked it over with his stick, and supposed it dying or
dead, as it lay with open mouth, extended tongue, and dim eyes. At that
moment he had caught sight of a marten or some other animal moving
through the forest. The creature thereupon proved that it was only
"'possuming;" for the instant his eye was withdrawn it sprang up, and
set off at a rate which showed that its powers of locomotion, at least,
had not been impaired by the blows it had received.

He was telling us this, when the dogs began to yelp, and presently right
ahead of us appeared a creature of the size