FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



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animal of considerable importance. It is a very common 

 article of food, and its quills are extensively employed by 

 the squa-ws in ornamentation. Stained most brilliantly 

 by dyes either obtained from the woods or purchased in 

 the settlements, they are worked in fanciful patterns into 

 the birch-bark ware (baskets, screens, or trays), which 

 form their staple of trade with the whites. 



All the holes, hollow trees, and rocky precipices in the 

 neighbourhood of an encampment are continually explored 

 by Indian boys in search of a porcupine's den. 



The Indians commonly possess little cur dogs, which 

 greatly assist them in discovering the animal's retreat ; 

 they wiU even draw them forth from their holes without 

 injury to themselves — a feat only to be accomplished by 

 getting hold of them underneath. 



It is a curious fact that the settler's dogs in general 

 evince a strong desire to hunt porcupine, notwithstanding 

 the woeful plight, about the head and forelegs, in which 

 they come out of the encounter, and the long period of 

 inflammation to which they are thereby subjected. The 

 Indian's porcupine-dog, however, goes to work in a far 

 more business-like manner — seldom giving his master 

 occasion to extract a single quill. " The Old Hunter " 

 tells me as follows : — " I once knew an instance of an 

 Indian's dog, quite blind, that was particularly great on 

 porcupines, so much so, that if they treed, the little 

 animal would sit down beneath, occasionally barking, to 

 inform its master where lodged the ' fretful ' one. Another 

 dog belonging to an Indian I knew, was not to be beaten 

 when once on porcupine. If the animal was in den, in 

 he went and, if possible, would haul it out by the tail. 

 If not strong enough, the Indian would fasten his hand- 



