The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-08-12
THE MuD.TuRTLE,

Nb0B b0sshhsy
A description OF the outlines of a
mud.turtle must be something like
the guides description of the bottom
of the Moosehcad Lake.
A party OF New Workers were
crossing the lake, and propounding
various questions to the guide which
he answered with great promptness.
Finally one asked
"What kind of bottom has the
lake?"
To less versatile mind tho ques-
tion might have been poser; but
the guide was equal to the occasion.
He Immediately answered:
SO, sort of hard, rocky, gravelly,
clamshelly, sandy bottom
In like manner it may be said of
the muc-turtle, he is sort of a round.
square, oblong, oval, fiat, irregular
shaped reptile, covered with French
roof.
His legs are as crooked as grape
vine; his head resembles a sore
thumb, and he has the most ridicu-
lous little tail you ever thought Of.
Mud-turtles are generally found when
you are not looking for them. I
would as soon think of looking for
my Eame in rich mans will as
think of finding mud-turtle by hunt
ing for one.
Stories of these reptiles running
races with foxes and rabbits, and
beating them, are lies! A squash vine
that wouldn't grow as fast as one
would run ought to be destroyed,
root and branch. But what he lacks
in speed he makes up in longevity.
/ believe that's the word; anyway,
mud-tnrtles are supposed to live for
ever, unless they die by accident.
/ once saw turtle-I mean a mud
turtle. marked, "Adam G. E." which
probably meant that the reptile was
marked by grandfather Adam in the
garden of Eden. Of course I can't
prove it, but that is the supposition.
Mud-turtles are raised in hills like
potatoes. It is no uncommon sight
TO those who have seen it frequently,
to see hill of juvenile mud-turtles
brush away the soil and march out in
single file like string Of Cinnamon.
Whenever I see mud-turtle trying
to crawl through hole in the fence
or elsewhere, | extend to him my
most earnest sympathies. He can
not understand why he, as well as a
small boy or weasel, can't GO through
any place where his head will go. ]
do not know how many virtues this
emblem of old-fashioned theology
may possess, but he has that of perse-
verance, that / am sure OF. When
ever he makes up his mind to crawl
through the fence, be expects to do
it if il takes all summer. When the
French roof becomes an obstacle te
his progress he begins to try, and
strain, and gyrate his tortuous little
legs, and protrude his evil looking
eyes. and he may even gnash hit
toothless jaws in anguish of soul al
his inability to go through an open
ing half the size of his shell.
Som. times, like halfwhipped
rooster, lie will go away piece, and
then come back ard try it again and
again, and perhaps again. When, a,
last he becomes convinced that he
Has undertaken an impossibility, be
turns about and waddfes of, al
though it were q matter of no con
sequence whether he crawled through
The hole or not. Ascending little
knoll, he will raise his head and
look about him with an air which
seems to say:-"What do I care fol
adorned old hole in the fence? It'i
a derned mean little hole, anyway
There's places 'nough to go Fl don'l
go through therer Then he thinks
the matter alt over carefully, and
goes away to engage in business in
some other leealisy Portland Trans
script.