468 



THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



THE PORCUPINE. 



backward. The quills on the tail do not run to a point, but 

 are open at the end, and appear as if they had been cut off. 

 These are not very firmly fixed in the skin, and when the 

 creature shakes himself, they make a loud rattling noise. 



There is a species of porcupine found in Canada, and other 

 parts of North America, which climbs trees ; its quills are 

 much shorter than those of the African kind. The Indian 

 women use the quills, when split and stained of various bright 

 colors, to embroider the tobacco-pouches, and the moccasins, 

 or deer skin slippers, of their husbands ; and this quill work 

 is often done with great skill and ingenuity, and has a very 

 pretty effect. 



The porcupines are all very harmless animals ; rather dull, 

 stupid perhaps ; still, if they do no good, they do no harm. 

 They sleep all day, in some hole dug in a bank, and come out 

 at night, to search for roots for food. Their sole defence from 



