172 The Wilderness Hwiter. 



In got his foe by the small of the back and killed it with- 

 out receiving a scratch. 



The porcupine is sure to attract the notice of any one 

 going through the mountains. It is also found in the 

 timber belts fringing the streams of the great plains, 

 where it lives for a week at a time in a single tree or 

 clump of trees, peeling the bark from the limbs. But it 

 is the easiest of all animals to exterminate, and is now 

 abundant only in deep mountain forests. It is very tame 

 and stupid ; it goes on the ground, but its fastest pace is 

 a clumsy waddle, and on trees, but is the poorest of tree- 

 climbers, — grasping the trunk like a small, slow bear. It 

 can neither escape nor hide. It trusts to its quills for 

 protection, as the skunk does to Its odor ; but It is far less 

 astute and more helpless than the skunk. It Is readily 

 made Into a very unsuspicious and familiar, but uninter- 

 esting, pet. I have known it come into camp in the day- 

 time, and forage round the fire by which I was sitting. 

 Its coat protects it against most foes. Bears sometimes 

 eat It when very hungry, as they will eat anything ; and I 

 think that elk occasionally destroy It in sheer wantonness. 

 One of Its most resolute foes Is the fisher, that big sable 

 — almost a wolverine — -which preys on everything, from 

 a coon to a fawn, or even a small fox. 



The noisy, active little chickarees and chipmunks, 

 however, are by far the most numerous and lively deni- 

 zens of these deep forests. They are very abundant and 

 very noisy ; scolding the travellers exactly as they do the 

 bears when the latter dig up the caches of ants. The 

 chipmunks soon grow tame and visit camp to pick up the 



