PORCUPINE HUNTS. 293 



four of them were chased for a couple of miles by my old 

 dog, and made such good use of their legs that I could 

 not get near enough for a shot. 



During two or three evenings we had great fun near 

 the town of Pietermaritzburg in blocking out porcupines. 

 I nearly ran over one on horseback one day, and narrowly 

 escaped getting his quills in my horse's legs. They spread 

 their quills wide, and run backwards very fast, thus 

 presenting a chevaux-de-frize anything but agreeable. 

 This one dodged about round me, now running through 

 the grass quite fast, then stopping and backing, so that 

 I could with difficulty keep my usually well-behaved 

 shooting pony from actually turning tail, and in conse- 

 quence fired both bullets without any satisfactory result. 

 In a few minutes he came to his hole, a place big 

 enough for a man to live in near the entrance, that had 

 evidently formerly been occupied by some able excavator, 

 probably an ant-bear. I could not get at the " fretful " in 

 this retreat, but on arriving at home consulted with my 

 Kaffirs, who agreed that we would get some dogs, and go 

 out soon after the moon rose. We did so, armed with 

 knob-kerries and assagies ; and placing two sentries over 

 the hole, we sent the dogs on the traces, having dis- 

 covered that he was out for the night. We soon heard 

 the yelping of the curs, and ran to the spot. The 

 porcupine was coming along in a great fuss with the dogs 

 all round him; assagies and sticks were hurled at him, 

 while he dodged amongst the Kaffirs' naked legs, who 

 jumped about with wonderful activity. A blow on the 

 nose at last finished him. 



