CHESUNCOOK. 
119 
walls of spruce and firs, a mere cleft in the forest which 
the stream had made, this work went on. At length 
Joe had stripped off the hide and dragged it trailing to 
the shore, declaring that it weighed a hundred pounds, 
though probably fifty would have been nearer the truth. 
He cut off a large mass of the meat to carry along, and 
another, together with the tongue and nose, he put with 
the hide on the shore to lie there all night, or till we 
returned. I was surprised that he thought of leaving 
this meat thus exposed by the side of the carcass, as 
the simplest course, not fearing that any creature would 
touch it; but nothing did. This could hardly have 
happened on the bank of one of our rivers in the east¬ 
ern part of Massachusetts; but I suspect that fewer 
small wild animals are prowling there than with us. 
Twice, however, in this excursion I had a glimpse of a 
species of large mouse. 
This stream was so withdrawn, and the moose-tracks 
were so fresh, that my companions, still bent on hunt¬ 
ing, concluded to go farther up it and camp, and then 
hunt up or down at night. Half a mile above this, at 
a place where I saw the aster puniceus and the beaked 
hazel, as we paddled along, Joe, hearing a slight rustling 
amid the alders, and seeing something black about two 
rods off, jumped up and whispered, “ Bear! ” but before 
the hunter had discharged his piece, he corrected him¬ 
self to “ Beaver! ” — “ Hedgehog! ” The bullet killed 
a large hedgehog more than two feet and eight inches 
long. The quills were rayed out and flattened on the 
hinder part of its back, even as if it had lain on that 
part, but were erect and long between this and the tail. 
Their points, closely examined, were seen to be finely 
bearded or barbed, and shaped like an awl, that is, a 
