VISIT TO A PORCUPINE LOCALITY. 
ROM a private letter from Dr. Edward Palmer we take the 
following as likely to be o: interest to our readers: 
This afternoon I visited the settlement known as Blue Lakes, 
twenty-five miles south of Shoshone, Idaho, and five miles below 
Shoshone Falls. At the time of my visit the peaches were ripe, 
and the porcupine, an animal which in large numbers infests this 
locality, is very fond of ripe peaches. From the rocky walls of 
a canyon which surrounds this place constant watch is kept and 
a gun is on hand loaded and ready for the appearance of Mr. 
Porcupine. 
The habit of the animal is to ascend the tree, march out on 
the most exposed limbs, where the fruit is ripest, and eat off the 
part most accessible to him. He is cautious to walk on the large 
limbs only, selecting for his feast the fruit attainable without 
risking a fall below. 
_ The various peach trees in this locality showed that they had 
received numerous visits. Always the ripest and most exposed 
_’ portion of the fruit had been eaten where any had been touched, 
_ leaving about a two-thirds portion on the tree. In no instance 
did I see that an attempt had been made to eat the side or under 
part of a peach. The weight of the animal confined him to firm 
_ positions and compelled him to take the upper portion only. 
_ Any deviation would precipitate him below. 
__._ The numerous dead porcupines testified to the fact that they 
are being rapidly destroyed by fruit growers. I watched an 
_ animal go to a tree, then hunted up the owner of the tree, who 
_ soon ar with a gun and brought the would-be robber to 
; zround. Sincerely yours, Hbwaan PALMER. 
Botanical Division, Department of Agriculture. 
A Caurornia girl, Miss Dorothea Klumpke, has been made a Doctor 
‘of Mathematics by the aeons of Sarbonne, the first degree ever con- 
. on &@ woman in France. Klumpke has contributed something pe 
to the knowledge of the world i sa study of the heavens. : 
