Vol. XXXIII 



1915 



Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 219 



harie River, "turkeys were plenty." Between this last river and 

 Cuyahoga they took a few small turkeys; at Cedar Point, Lake 

 Erie, and at Sandusky they killed a number of Turkeys. 



Christian Frederick Post in his journal of a trip from Phila. to 

 Ohio shows how the turkey enters the reply of an Ohio Indian : l 

 " Look now, my white brother, the white people think we have no 

 brains in our heads; but that they are great and big, and that 

 makes them war with us: we are a little handful to what you are; 

 but remember, when you look for a wild turkey you cannot always 

 find it, it is so little it hides itself under the bushes." The "Journal 

 of Captain Thomas Morris,. . . .Detroit, Sept. 25, 1764" records 

 turkeys towards the Miami country. When he reaches Miami 

 river he says 2 " We were forced for want of water to stew a turkey 

 in the fat of a raccoon ; and I thought I had never eaten any thing 

 so delicious, though salt was wanting; but perhaps it was hunger 

 which made me think so." In 1765, George Croghan makes a 

 journey from Fort Pitt to Vincennes and Detroit. At the mouth 

 of the Little Kanawha River, 3 "turkeys. . . .are extremely plenty" 

 (May 19) and "turkeys are very plenty on the banks of this 

 (Scioto) River." 



On June 5, 1773, Rev. David Jones 4 "Killed some turkeys" 

 on the Scioto River, and recorded that " This country abounds with 



an abundance of turkeys, some of which are very large " In 



1778, Thomas Hutchins finds that in the Ohio river region 5 "a 

 great variety of game;. . . .as well as. . . .turkies. . . .abounds in 

 every part of this country." In the region from the mouth of Great 

 Kanawaha to Monogohela River turkies "abound" as also in the 

 Lake Erie country. Of this same country at the same period, Dr. 

 Knight writes that 6 " In all parts of the country through which I 

 came, the game was very plenty, that is to say, deer, turkies and 



1 Early Western Travels, Vol. I, p. 215. 



2 ibid., pp. 310, 311, 321. 



3 The Olden Time, Vol. I, 1846, Pittsburgh, pp. 405, 407. 



4 Cist, Charles. Cincinnati Miscellany. Vol. I, 1845, p. 265; Vol. II, pp. 11, 

 232. V 



5 Hutchins, Thomas. A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, and North Carolina London, 1778, pp. 4, 12. 



8 Narratives of the Perils and Sufferings of Dr. Knight and John Slover among 



the Indians during the Revolutionary War 1st edit., 1782, Pittsburgh, 



3rd. edit., Cincinnati, 1867, p. 30. 



