PRANKS OF PORCUPINES. 
G. O. SHIELDS. 
As a worker, the porcupine ranks next 
to the beaver in the quadruped creation. 
No obstacle seems to balk Mr. Quilly in 
his efforts to obtain salf or grease, and 
the things he does in pursuit of these 
dainties are almost beyond belief. The 
facts I shall relate, however, can be verified 
by hundreds of men who have camped in 
the woods where this little rodent makes 
his home. Many a man has been compelled 
to get up in the night and club these in- 
truders out of the tent to avoid having 
his shoes, his gloves, his hat, his bacon. 
his salt bag, or other property destroyed. 
The porcupine seems to know no such im- 
pulse as fear. He takes it for granted that 
he may go anywhere in search of food or 
of delicacies; and even after being whacked 
across the nose with a stick, or kicked out 
of the tent, he will return and continue 
his depredations, time after time. He 
seems not to have sense enough to take a 
hint, unless it be emphasized with a club 
laid on so vigorously as to inflict serious 
bodily injury, or even to cause death; yet 
in other respects he is exceedingly cun- 
ning. 
It seems a pity that so ingenious an 
animal as the porcupine should not have 
sufficient fear of man to keep out of his 
way; but poor Quilly is sadly deficient in 
this matter, and, as a result, his bones and 
his quills lie in bunches about almost every 
camp ground in the Northern States and 
in Canada. Many men and boys take de- 
light in murdering these poor beasts in 
cold blood, and when attending to their 
own affairs. Others, as I have said, are 
almost compelled to kill them in order 
to get a chance to sleep, or in defense of 
their property. ’ 
I have known porcupines to eat almost 
a whole axe handle that had been swung 
by sweaty hands and then left about some 
old, deserted camp. I have frequently 
found the remains of pork barrels and salt 
barrels that have been partially eaten by 
porcupines, in order to get the remnant 
of salt or grease which the wood contained. 
Two of my friends who were camping 
in the Selkirk mountains caught a young 
marmot, took him to camp and put him in 
a box, with a view to carrying him home. 
The slats which the men put over the front 
of the box had formed part of a packing 
box in which bacon had been carried. The 
cage was left outside of the tent and in 
the night a porcupine came along, ate the 
slats and liberated the marmot. 
.again and resumed operations. 
A man who was working a mining claim 
near Rosland, B. C., lay down under a tree, 
after lunch, to take a nap, and placed his 
hat over his eyes to shelter them from the 
light. He was tired and slept soundly. 
A porcupine came along and ate nearly all 
the leather lining out of his hat before 
the prospector awoke. 
Another quill pig visited W. H. Wright's 
camp one night, and smelled bacon grease 
on the sheet iron stove; whereupon he pro- 
ceeded to gnaw. The racket disturbed 
Wright and his partner, when the former 
got up, took the poker and threw the in- 
truder out. Then Wright went back to 
bed, but within 5 minutes Quilly called 
That time 
he was boosted out more energetically than 
before, and was thrown into the creek, 
which ran near the tent. He floated off 
down the stream, but Wright had only 
got comfortably asleep when the everlast- 
ing rasping was resumed. Then the camp- 
ers grew wrathful, and one of them got 
up and killed the chairman of the investi- 
gating committee. 
Dr. Schavoir and his wife camped in the 
same place the next spring, and during the 
8 days they were there were compelled to 
kill 27 porcupines in order to save their 
grub and clothing from destruction. One 
of their visitors attempted to cross the 
creek one night to reach the tent. He 
walked out on a log that extended part 
way across. When he reached the end of 
it he seemed to dread a cold bath, yet was 
so anxious to get across that he sat there 
and whined several hours. Finally the 
guide got up and killed him in order that 
the campers might sleep. 
The cook employed by this _ party 
hewed out a trough, from a big log, which 
he used as a wash tub. Having for the 
moment forgotten the ravenous appetite of 
the porcupines, he put the washing to soak 
over night, and in the morning found that 
a sleeve had been literally eaten out of one 
of the shirts. It is supposed that the por- 
cupine found some remnant of the salt 
flavor of perspiration in the sleeves; or, 
it may be there was something about the 
soap which suited his taste. 
The members of this party were com- 
pelled to hang up all their food, clothing, 
boots, shoes, saddles, cartridges, belts and 
everything else that had leather about it, 
or that had been Handled enough to have 
any flavor of salt or grease on it. 
Wright developed some photo negatives 
