by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER THIRTY.
THE BITERS BIT.
"Our next was a fishing excursion. As I have said, Cudjo had alreadydiscovered that our stream contained fish, and had caught several ofthem. They were something like bass, although differing considerablyfrom the common species. Nevertheless they were very delicious eating,and we were all very fond of them.
"We set forth in the morning, but on this occasion we left Pompo and hiscart behind, as we had not far to go--only a short distance down thestream, where Cudjo knew a large pool in which the fish were plenty. Wetook with us lines, made out of the wild flax that grows in the valley,and which, Mary tells us, is found in all countries that border upon theRocky Mountains. Our rods were long tapering canes such as grew inabundance around us. For hooks we used pins bent into the proper shape;and our bait consisted of a variety of worms. All these things werecarried by Harry and Frank, while Cudjo and I took the younger ones inour arms, and Mary was left free to botanise as we passed along. Castorand Pollux accompanied us of course; and Pompo, as he saw us leave thehouse, ran neighing around his enclosure, as if quite vexed at ourleaving him behind. Cudjo, of course, became our guide, taking usthrough the woods to that part of the stream where was his favouritefishing-ground.
"After travelling at our leisure about a quarter of a mile, we were allbrought to a sudden halt by an exclamation from my wife, who stoodpointing at some trees a little to one side of the path.
"`What, mamma!' cried Harry, `another fine tree? Why, the realbread-fruit and the cocoa-nuts will turn up yet, I believe, in spite ofour latitude.'
"`I am sorry for your sake, Harry,' replied his mamma, `as well as ourown, that I have not made the discovery of another fine tree. No, it isquite another thing, and not a very useful discovery. But it may becurious to you; and papa, here, can read you a chapter of naturalhistory upon it. It is in his line. It is a four-footed animal.'
"`Animal!' exclaimed Harry; `I see no animal. Where is it, mamma?'
"`Nor do I,' replied his mother; `but I see indications of the presenceof one, and a very destructive one, too. Look there!'
"As Mary said this, she pointed to a grove of young cotton-wood trees,from which the bark and leaves were stripped off as cleanly as if theyhad been gnawed by goats, or scraped with a knife. Some of the treeswere quite dead, while others of them were freshly peeled, and onlywaited for a little time to go to decay also.
"`Oh, I see what you mean now, mamma,' said Harry. `Some animal hasdone this--but what one? The beavers cannot climb; and I am sureneither squirrels, raccoons, nor opossums, would take the bark fromtrees in that manner.'
"`No; it was none of them. Your papa can best inform you what sort ofanimal has been so destructive to these young trees, which, youperceive, are of the beautiful cotton-wood species,--the _populusangulatus_ of botanists.'
"`Come, Harry,' said I, `let us first find the animal if we can.'
"We all turned toward the leafless grove. We had not walked many stepsin that direction, when the very animal we were in search of appeared onthe ground before us. It was quite three feet long, thick, broad in theback, and arched from the nose to the tail. It was of a speckled greycolour, but with the roughest coat of hair that could possibly beimagined. Its head and nose were very small for the size of its body;and its short, stout legs, with their long claws, were scarcely visibleunder the thick, shaggy hair. Its ears were also buried under the hair;and it looked more like a round tufted mass than an animal. It was downupon the ground; and had evidently perceived our approach, as it wasmaking off through the grass as fast as it could. That, however, wasnot very fast--not faster than a frog could go--for the animal inquestion is one of the very slowest travellers.
"As soon as I caught sight of it, and saw that it was upon the ground--and not among the branches, where I had expected to find it--I turnedround to secure the dogs. I was too late, for these unreasoning animalshad already seen it, and, forgetful of the lesson which the skunk hadtaught them, were dashing forward in full cry. I endeavoured to callthem off; but, heedless of our shouts, both rushed on the strangecreature at once. The latter, seeing them approach, immediatelystopped, buried its head under its breast, seemed suddenly to swellupward and outward to twice its natural size--while its rough thick tailwas brandished from side to side in a furious and threatening manner.
"We could all now see that that which had appeared to be coarse thickhair was nothing else than long bristling spines, and Harry at oncecried out,--
"`A porcupine! a porcupine!'
"The dogs, unfortunately for themselves, did not know what it was; nordid they stop to consider, but lashed upon it open-mouthed, as theyusually do with any strange animal. They did not hold it long; for thenext moment they dropped it, and came running back more open-mouthedthan ever--uttering the most piteous howls--and we saw that their noses,lips, and jaws, were sticking full of the sharp quills! Meanwhile theporcupine again stretched himself out; and, crawling to the foot of atree, commenced climbing up. But Cudjo, who was highly incensed withthe treatment which his favourites had received, rushed after; and,knocking down the animal with his spear, soon despatched him.
"Harry, who had grown much wiser since his adventure with the skunk, wasrather shy of approaching the porcupine--particularly as he had heardthat this animal possesses the power of shooting his quills to somedistance, and sticking them like arrows into his enemies. Frankinquired if this were true.
"`No,' I replied; `it is only one of those fabulous stories which theingenious French naturalist, Buffon, so much delighted to recount. Theporcupine's quills may be pulled out easily by anything which pressestoo rudely against them, such as the mouth of a mastiff; and thisbecause they are very slightly attached by their roots, and have a barbupon their tops that takes hold upon any enemy that may attempt to touchthem. This is the only defence the poor animal has got--as it is soslow of foot that any of its enemies can easily come up with it. But,notwithstanding its slowness, most of the fierce creatures find itbetter to leave the porcupine to himself, and his innocent occupation of"barking" the trees. He generally proves more than a match for any ofthem; and, in fact, neither wolf, panther, nor wildcat, can kill him--asthere is not a spot of his body which they can touch when he prepareshimself for their attack. On the other hand, he frequently kills them--only in self-defence, however, as he never attacks any animal, but livesaltogether on his simple food, the bark and leaves of trees. The cougaris often found dead in the woods,--his death occasioned by theporcupine's quills that are seen sticking in his mouth and tongue. Soalso the lynx has been found, as well as many dogs and wolves.'
"So much of the natural history of this strange animal I related to mycompanions at the time; but, shortly after, an incident was witnessed byHarry and myself which showed us that the porcupine, notwithstanding hisbristling armour, had one enemy, at least, who could master him uponoccasions. Although it occurred some months after our fishingexcursion, now that we are speaking of the porcupine, I shall relateit."