58 RIVERBY 



camp was an unusually large spring, of icy coldness, 

 which served as our refrigerator. Trout or milk im- 

 mersed in this spring in a tin pail would keep sweet 

 four or five days. One night some creature, prob- 

 ably a lynx or a raccoon, came and lifted the stone 

 from the pail that held the trout and took out a fine 

 string of them, and ate them up on the spot, leav- 

 ing only the string and one head. In August bears 

 come down to an ancient and now brushy bark- 

 peeling near by for blackberries. But the creature 

 that most infests these backwoods is the porcupine. 

 He is as stupid and indifferent as the skunk; his 

 broad, blunt nose points a witless head. They are 

 great gnawers, and will gnaw your house down if 

 you do not look out. Of a summer evening they 

 will walk coolly into your open door if not prevented. 

 The most annoying animal to the camper-out in this 

 region, and the one he needs to be most on the look- 

 out for, is the cow. Backwoods cows and young 

 cattle seem always to be famished for salt, and they 

 will fairly lick the fisherman's clothes off his back, 

 and his tent and equipage out of existence, if you 

 give them a chance. On one occasion some wood- 

 ranging heifers and steers that had been hovering 

 around our camp for some days made a raid upon it 

 when we were absent. The tent was shut and 

 everything snugged up, but they ran their long 

 tongues under the tent, and, tasting something sa- 

 vory, hooked out John Stuart Mill's "Essays on Re- 

 ligion," which one of us had brought along, think- 

 ing to read in the woods. They mouthed the volume 



