The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-04-30
A SPORTSMAN'S PARADISE.
The Rapidly with which n wild
Turkey Can Get Out Of sight.

vinita lIndian Tor) Letter 10 Chicago Timesl
Occasionally, away up in the loftier
portion of this region, we came across
lakes OF the purest water, and from a
mile to two or three In diameter One
OF these attracted attention from its
romantic surroundings. On three
sides OF it there rise solid walls
OF rock, which slope away like the floor
OF an amphitheater These massive walls
and their timber-covered heights are re-
Elected in the lmpid water with all the
fidelity of the purest of mirrors, thereby
doubling their extent, and affording a
background above and below the sur
face of the water, which seems solid and
expansive enough to buttress the world.
1t Is in these lonely lakes, as my guide
informed me, that there is now and
then found the swollen and disfigured
corpse of some white stranger, whose
name, residence, destination, manner of
death, nobody knows and nobody cares.
All OF these lakes are covered with wild
fowl, which seem never to have been in
terrupted. L can fancy no more desira-
bic place for hunting party to encamp
than on the banks of one of these isolated
lakes. The waters are full of fish, which
hook, spear or net has never disturbed !;
wild geese and ducke cover their surface
deer are now and then seen feeding in, or
galloping across their adjacent openings
and from out the occasional bottoms vast
focks of wild turkeys are often seen
scampering to the adjacent hills.
Has any one an idea of the time wild
turkey will make in getting over the
ground? have-that is to say, have
faint one. We passed from the sand
hills down to the flat bottom and just
then l caught sight of hundred or more
wild turkeys running up the slope ON
the opposite side. The top of this slope
was not more than twenty-five yards
from its base. AS the turkeys disap-
peared over the crown of this slope,
jumped from the blackboard, crossed
the bottom-a distance of fifty yards,
perhaps-and then ran up the slope and
peered cautiously over, expecting that
the turkeys would be seen Just beyond.
There was not turkey in sight. Beyond
the slope the ground falls little, and
there rises at an angle of rs deg. for
three-quarters of a mile up the bare
sides of rocky ridge, and whose height
ID CONtTeu Will uellSe tlInDeT.
covered the expansc before me with my
glass. To the left and right was a clear
view of grassy plain that had been
swept by fire, and 1 could have seen
them had they gone either of these ways.
While was going not over seventy-tive
yards, they had passed on foot up
the steep hill directly in front and had
gained the timber above. 1 figured the
thing out, and concluded that they ran
1,500 yards while 1 ran seventy-fve, or
twenty times faster than l. / ran at
the rate of five miles an hour, which
would bring their gait up to just 100
miles an hour, or pretty near two miles
a minute. This may be trifie underesti-
mated, but if anybody thinks wild
turkey can't run, let him try to catch
one, as l did, and then he will be apt to
revise his conclusions. When one OF
these birds "gets down to its work, y
the observer cannot see the animal, but
only turkey streak which is from sew
enty-fve to 100 yards in length.