288 
PORCUPINE. 
equal length ; from two or three to twelve inches, 
or more. These are about the thickness of stalks 
of corn, with intermixtures of black and white ; 
they swell towards the middle, and terminate in a 
point. We are told that, when the porcupine is 
attacked, he presents his side to his enemy, erects 
all his darts with a menacing air, and sometimes 
plunges them so deep in the flesh of the creature 
by whom he is assaulted, that several of them re- 
main in the wounds, and are detached from his 
body when he retires. The sockets of these are 
afterwards filled by others, which are enlarged by 
time. The power which travellers have said the 
porcupine possesses, of darting his quills to a di- 
stance, is an error, which probably originated from 
his ability to erect and move them when irritated, 
and from some of them being but loosely attached 
to the skin ; and, therefore, sometimes falling to the 
ground. It was probably some of these loose quills 
that were found by Ellis, at Hudson’s Bay, sticking 
in the mouth of a dead wolf, which was far more 
likely to be the consequence of his voraciousness, 
than of the porcupine’s resentment. 
These animals are hunted by the Americans, from 
whom we learn that they seldom live longer than 
fifteen years ; that the female goes with young seven 
months, and only brings forth one at a time : that 
she suckles it about a month, and accustoms it be- 
times to live, like herself, upon vegetables and the 
bark of trees : that while under her protection, she 
is very fierce in its defence ; but at other times. 
