terms by approaching him through the mountains on the east. With a
farmer's son for guide we struck in by way of Weaver Hollow, and,
after a long and desperate climb, contented ourselves with the
Wittenberg, instead of Slide. The view from the Wittenberg is in
many respects more striking, as you are perched immediately above a
broader and more distant sweep of country, and are only about two
hundred feet lower. You are here on the eastern brink of the
southern Catskills, and the earth falls away at your feet and curves
down through an immense stretch of forest till it joins the plain of
Shokan, and thence sweeps away to the Hudson and beyond. Slide is
southwest of you, six or seven miles distant, but is visible only
when you climb into a treetop. I climbed and saluted him, and
promised to call next time.

We passed the night on the Wittenberg, sleeping on the moss, between
two decayed logs, with balsam boughs thrust into the ground and
meeting and forming a canopy over us. In coming off the mountain in
the morning we ran upon a huge porcupine, and I learned for the
first time that the tail of a porcupine goes with a spring like a
trap. It seems to be a set-lock; and you no sooner touch with the
weight of a hair one of the quills than the tail leaps up in a most
surprising manner, and the laugh is not on your side. The beast
cantered along the path in my front, and I threw myself upon him,
shielded by my roll of blankets. He submitted quietly to the
indignity, and lay very still under my blankets, with his broad tail
pressed close to the ground. This I proceeded to investigate, but
had not fairly made a beginning when it went off like a trap, and my
hand and wrist were full of quills. This caused me to let up on the
creature, when it lumbered away till it tumbled down a precipice.
The quills were quickly removed from my hand, when we gave chase.
When we came up to him, he had wedged himself in between the rocks
so that he presented only a back bristling with quills, with the
tail lying in ambush below. He had chosen his position well, and
seemed to defy us. After amusing ourselves by repeatedly springing
his tail and receiving the quills in a rotten stick, we made a
slip-noose out of a spruce root, and, after much manoeuvring, got
it over his head and led him forth. In what a peevish, injured tone
the creature did complain of our unfair tactics! He protested and
protested, and whimpered and scolded like some infirm old