orcupine upon its back. Before the clumsy creature was
able to turn over and `clew' itself, the active weasel had pounced upon
its belly, and buried his claws in the soft flesh, while, at the same
time, his teeth were made fast in its throat!

"In vain the porcupine struggled. The weasel rode him with such
agility, that he was unable to get right side up again; and in a few
moments the struggle would have ended, by the porcupine's throat being
cut; but we saw that it was time for us to interfere; and, slipping
Castor and Pollux from the leash, we ran forward.

"The dogs soon drove the marten from his victim, but he did not run from
them. On the contrary, he turned round upon them, keeping both at bay
with his sharp teeth and fierce snarling. In truth, they would have had
a very tough job of it, had we not been near; but, on seeing us
approach, the animal took to a tree, running up it like a squirrel. A
rifle bullet soon brought him down again; and his long body lay
stretched out on the earth, emitting a strong odour of musk, that was
quite disagreeable.

"On returning to the porcupine--which our dogs took care not to meddle
with--we found the animal already better than half-dead. The blood was
running from its throat, which the marten had torn open. Of course, we
put the creature out of pain by killing it outright; and taking the
marten along with us for the purpose of skinning it, we returned
homeward, leaving the elk-hunt for another day.

"All this, as I have said, occurred afterwards. Let us now return to
the narrative of our fishing excursion.

"As soon as the porcupine had been disposed of, we were reminded of the
sufferings of our dogs, who had ceased their howling, but required to be
relieved of the barbed spines with which their lips were sticking full.
We drew them out as easily as we could; but, notwithstanding this, their
heads began to swell up to twice the natural size, and the poor brutes
appeared to be in great pain. They were fairly punished for their
inconsiderate rashness; and it was not likely that they would run their
noses against another porcupine for some time to come."

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

THE CUNNING OLD "'COON."

"We now continued our journey toward our fishing-ground, Cudjo having
hung the porcupine to a tree, with the design of taking it home with him
on our return. It was Cudjo's intention to skin it, and eat part or the
whole of it,--a species of food, which he assu