212 ANIMALS OF THE 



like those of a hog, being only one-third of an 

 inch from one corner to the other. After the 

 skin is taken off, there appears a kind of paps on 

 those parts of the body from whence the large 

 quills proceed ; these are about the size of a small 

 pea, each answering to as many holes which ap- 

 pear on the outward surface of the skin, and 

 which are about half an inch deep, like as many 

 hollow pipes, wherein the quills are fixed as in so 

 many sheaths. 



This animal seems to partake very much of the 

 nature of the hedgehog, having this formidable 

 apparatus of arms, rather to defend itself than 

 annoy the enemy. There have been, indeed, 

 many naturalists who supposed that it was capa- 

 ble of discharging them at its foes, and killing at 

 a great distance off. But this opinion has been 

 entirely discredited of late ; and it is now univer- 

 sally believed that its quills remain firmly fixed 

 in the skin, and are then only shed when the ani- 

 mal moults them, as birds do their feathers. Ijt 

 is true we are told by Ellis, that a wolf at Hud- 

 son's Bay was found dead, with the quills of a 

 porcupine fixed within its mouth ; which might 

 have very well happened, from the voraciousness 

 of the former, and not the resentment of the latter. 

 That rapacious creature, in the rage of appetite, 

 might have attempted to devour the porcupine, 

 quills and all, and very probably paid the forfeit 

 by its life. However tin's be, of all the porcupines 

 that have been brought into Europe, not one was 

 ever seen to launch their quills ; and yet the irri- 

 tations they received were sufficient to have pro- 



