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Show vio QuiEs of kV'wA (VIA "I . i been removed the real work of saving the dogs' lives began. We took off our coats, set our guns against a tree and went at the task. One by one the dogs were caught. Sitting upon the animal's crouching body, Carper held the head between his knees, gripping ear and jaw in his powerful grasp, while I pulled out the quills. The main part of a porcupine quill is smooth and white and has the tough, flexible texture of the quill of a bird's feather, but for a distance of about half an inch from the needle-sharp needle-sharp point the quill is hard, black, slender and armed with innumerable barbs. The quills vary greatly in length, thickness and amount of -barbing, the shorter and stouter ones having hav-ing the longest points and most effective effec-tive barbs, the larger, thinner quills gradually merging into the long, coarse hairs of the animal's pelt. A long-pointed quill with the barbed portion fully imbedded in the nose of a dog often resisted the strongest pull that either of us could give, notwithstanding notwith-standing an excellent hold on the body of the quill between the thumb and the bent forefinger. The pain must have been intense. The most resistant resis-tant quills were pulled either by the teeth or by improvised pliers made of a half-split stick, in the crack of which the quill was caught and tightly held. I was assured afterward by an old woodman that an imbedded quill could be removed more easily and with less pain by rolling it between the thumb and finger as it is pulled. To use his expression, the barber point would "unscrew." A minute examination of a quill-point did not show any spiral arrangement of the barbs, but it did show that the barbs are not rigid, but flexible, and I have no doubt .that by twisting as described the barbs would be b.ent to one side and the quill be much more easily withdrawn. The dogs varied in the manner in which they took their punishment. The yellow pup and the young foxhound fox-hound had only a few quills, and they howled when these were pulled. The old foxhound was hard to hold and was inclined to be ugly. Jule complained, com-plained, but allowed the pulling to proceed, although her jaws were reeking reek-ing with blood and saliva. Drum, the brindle pup, showed his bulldog stock by submitting to the long ordeal with barely a whimper. Ranger, the staghound, was in by far the most serious condition of any of the dors. He had more quills in his face than any other, and some were near, though fortunately not in, his' eyes. They were liable at any time to work there, however, through his agonized pawing. We considered shooting him to end his misery, but Carper hated to do it. We concluded to go back to camp, get something to eat and decide the dog's fate afterward. after-ward. On the way back I asked Carper whether the dogs would not learn to let a porcupine alone. He replied that they would not, that the older dogs had been through the experience repeatedly, though he had never seen a pack quite so thoroughly done up, and that if they ran across a porcupine porcu-pine the next day they would undoubtedly undoubt-edly tackle him. Evidently dogs of this fighting quality qual-ity are no more deterred by such an experience than is a bulldog deterred from fighting a second time because he has once before been bitten in a fight. After our meal we decided to give the staghound a chance for his life, though neither of us relished the prospect pros-pect of lacerating his head to do it. His face was beginning to swell and be was dozy until we stirred him up. He was ready to fight us all. We tied him down under a log, and one man held his body, the other his head, while I pulled the quills with the steel pliers. By actual count we took 568 quills out of that staghound. Eighty-one of these were inside the line of his teeth, in his gums, the roof of hi3 mouth and hi3 tongue. At least thirty had been pulled out at odd times before be-fore the count began, and during the following days over twenty more worked work-ed out of his misshapen head at various va-rious points. The staghound lived and fortunately lost neither eye. It was a curious and a fearful weapon that nature had given to this otherwise weak and peaceable porcupine, porcu-pine, with which in defense of his liberty and his life he dealt a terrible retribution to seven powerful enemies, half of whom he would have killed had not still greater odds been matched match-ed against him. |