210 ANIMALS OF THE 



their time there than upon land. They are chiefly 

 in creeks and harbours of salt water. They mul- 

 tiply in -great numbers, make themselves holes in 

 the ground, and sleep for several months. During 

 this torpid state, their hairs (and I should also 

 suppose their prickles) fall, and they are renewed 

 upon their revival. They are usually very fat ; 

 and although their flesh be insipid, soft, and 

 stringy, yet the Indians find it to their taste, and 

 consider it as a very great delicacy. 



THE PORCUPINE. 



THOSE arms which the hedgehog possesses in 

 miniature, the Porcupine has in a more enlarged 

 degree. The short prickles of the hedgehog are 

 in this animal converted into shafts. In the one, 

 the spines are about an inch long ; in the other, 

 a foot. The porcupine is about two feet long, 

 and fifteen inches high. Like the hedgehog, it 

 appears a mass of misshapen flesh, covered with 

 quills, from ten to fourteen inches long, resem- 

 bling the barrel of a goose-quill in thickness, but 

 tapering and sharp at both ends.* These, whe- 

 ther considered separately or together, afford 

 sufficient subject to detain curiosity. Each quill 

 is thickest in the middle, and inserted into the 



[* This animal has two fore- teeth obliquely divided both in the upper 

 and under jaws, besides eight grinders; and the body is covered with quills 

 or prickles. It has four toes on the fore-feet, five on the hind-feet, a crest- 

 ed head, a short tail, and the upper lip is divided like that of a hare.] 



