LONG-TAILED PORCUPINE. 
flesh as soon as their points have entered. 
This last fa6l is merely imaginary, and the 
£rst is as false as the second. The error seems 
to have originated from this circumstance : 
die Porcupine, when irritated, erecls and 
moves it's quills; and, as some of them are 
attached to the skin by a delicate pedicle only, 
they readily fail off, \Vc have examined 
living Porcupines; and, though violently agi- 
tated, vvc never saw them discharge their quills 
like darts. ' It is not a httle surprising, there- 
fore, that the gravest authors, both ancient 
arid modern, as -well as the most sensible tra- 
vellers, should join in giving their suffrages to 
a falshood. Some of them tell us, that they 
iiaverthemselves been wounded by these darts; 
otiiers affirm, that the quills are discharged 
with such violence, as to pierce a plank at the 
divtancc of several paces. The marvellous 
always augments, and gathers force, in pro- 
portion to the number of heads through which 
it passes : truth, on tlie contrarv, loses in per- 
forming the same circuit. Notwithstanding 
the absolute negative," concludes Buffon, 
** which I liavc stamped on these two fictions, 
I am persuaded that it will siill be repeated, 
bv 
