HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS 37 



He protested and protested, and Mdiimpered 

 and scolded like some infirm old man tormented 

 by boys. His game after we led him forth 

 was to keep himself as much as possible in the 

 shape of a ball, but with two sticks and the 

 cord we finally threw him over on his back and 

 exposed his quilless and vulnerable under side, 

 when he fairly surrendered and seemed to say, 

 "Now you may do with me as you like." His 

 great chisel-like teeth, which are quite as for- 

 midable as those of the woodchuck, he does not 

 appear to use at all in his defense, but relies 

 entirely upon his quills, and when those fail 

 him he is done for. 



After amusing ourselves with him a while 

 longer, we released him and went on our way. 

 The trail to which we had committed ourselves 

 led us down into Woodland Valley, a retreat 

 which so took my eye by its fine trout brook, 

 its sujDerb mountain scenery, and its sweet 

 seclusion, that I marked it for my own and 

 promised myself a return to it at no distant 

 day. This promise I kept and pitched my tent 

 there twice during that season. Both occasions 

 were a sort of laying siege to Slide, but we 

 only skirmished with him at a distance; the 

 actual assault was not undertaken. But the 

 following year, reinforced by two other brave 

 climbers, we determined upon the assault, and 

 upon making it from this the most difiicult 

 side. The regular way is by Big Ingin Valley, 

 where the climb is comparatively easy, and 

 where it is often made by women. But from 



