ng.

Orville heard it also, and, raising up on his elbow, asked, "What is
that?"

"What the hunters call a 'porcupig,'" said I.

"Sure?"

"Entirely so."

"Why does he make that noise?"

"It is a way he has of cursing our fire," I replied. "I heard him
last night also."

"Where do you suppose he is?" inquired my companion, showing a
disposition to look him up.

"Not far off, perhaps fifteen or twenty yards from our fire, where
the shadows begin to deepen."

Orville slipped into his trousers, felt for my gun, and in a moment
had disappeared down through the scuttle hole. I had no disposition
to follow him, but was rather annoyed than otherwise at the
disturbance. Getting the direction of the sound, he went picking his
way over the rough, uneven ground, and, when he got where the light
failed him, poking every doubtful object with the end of his gun.
Presently he poked a light grayish object, like a large round stone,
which surprised him by moving off. On this hint he fired, making an
incurable wound in the "porcupig," which, nevertheless, tried harder
than ever to escape. I lay listening, when, close on the heels of
the report of the gun, came excited shouts for a revolver. Snatching
up my Smith and Wesson, I hastened, shoeless and hatless, to the
scene of action, wondering what was up. I found my companion
struggling to detain, with the end of the gun, an uncertain object
that was trying to crawl off into the darkness. "Look out!" said
Orville, as he saw my bare feet, "the quills are lying thick around
here."

And so they were; he had blown or beaten them nearly all off the
poor creature's back, and was in a fair way completely to disable my
gun, the ramrod of which was already broken and splintered clubbing
his victim. But a couple of shots from the revolver, sighted by a
lighted match, at the head of the animal, quickly settled him.

He proved to be an unusually large Canada porcupine,--an old
patriarch, gray and venerable, with spines three inches long, and
weighing, I should say, twenty pounds. The build of this animal is
much like that of the woodchuck, that is, heavy and pouchy. The nose
is blunter than that of the woodchuck, the limbs stronger, and the
tail broader and heavier. Indeed, the latter appendage is quite
club-like, and the animal can, no doubt, deal a smart blow with it.
An old hunter with whom I talked thought it aided them in climbing.
They are inveterate gnawers, and spend much of th