202 The Wilderness Hunter 



with a pack of hounds, when the country is favor- 

 able; and when chased in this fashion yields excel- 

 lent sport. The skin of both these lynxes is tender. 

 They often maul an inexperienced pack quite badly, 

 inflicting severe scratches and bites on any hound 

 which has just resolution enough to come to close 

 quarters, but not to rush in furiously; but a big 

 fighting dog will readily kill either. At Thomp- 

 son's Falls two of Willis' hounds killed a lucivee un- 

 aided, though one got torn. Archibald Rogers' dog 

 Sly, a cross between a greyhound and a bull mastiff, 

 killed a bobcat single-handed. He bayed the cat 

 and then began to threaten it, leaping from side to 

 side; suddenly he broke the motion, and rushing 

 in got his foe by the small of the back and killed it 

 without 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 exter- 

 minate, and is now abundant only in deep moun- 

 tain 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 



