° 1915 J Wright, Early Records of the Wild Turkey. 221 



sought after, and relished by the Indians. There is a species of wild 

 turkies, which are not eatable their flesh having a most disagree- 

 able flavor." In speaking of the dress of Indian men, he says 

 "Formerly these coverings were made of turkey feathers, woven 

 together with the thread of wild hemp, but these are now seldom 

 seen." Two years later, 1790, Chas. Johnston finds that 1 " During 

 the whole march (through Sciota country) we subsisted on bears 

 meat, .... turkeys .... with which we were abundantly supplied, as 

 the ground over which we passed afforded every species of game in 

 profusion, diminishing however, as we approached their villages." 

 About this same time, George Imlay discovers that 2 " The rapidity 

 of the settlement has driven the wild turkey quite out of the middle 

 countries; but they are found in large flocks in all our extensive 

 woods." On Aug. 18, 1793, Andre Michaux 3 "saw several flocks 

 of wild Turkeys" beyond Wheeling. 



The "Struggles of Capt. Thomas Keith in America" (p. 16) has 

 it that in 1794 along the Ohio River, "The wild turkies were calling 

 to each other from the lofty branches of the oak." In 1796, 

 Brackenridge ascends the Ohio. In one case he remarks that 4 

 " once, having encamped somewhat later than usual, in the neighbor- 

 hood of a beautiful grove of sugar-trees, we found, after kindling our 

 fires, that a large flock of turkeys had taken up their night's lodgings 

 over our heads : some ten or twelve of them were soon taken down for 

 our supper and breakfast. But it was not often we were so fortu- 

 nate." In 1796 and 1797, Francis Baily when at Little Miami 

 River, 5 " saw great quantities of wild turkeys ; so that we had not any 

 prospect of extreme want whilst we were here." One other party 

 notes it in this century. John Heckewelder with three companions 

 in the summer of 1797 mentions the turkey in his narrative. They 

 encounter it in a trip to Gnadenhuetten on the Muskingum, and say, 6 



i A Narrative of Incidents Attending the Capture, Detention, and Ransom of 

 Charles Johnston 1790. .... New York, 1827, p. 46. 



1 Imlay, George. A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of 

 North America 2nd edit., London, 1793, pp. 100, 243. 



» Early Western Travels, III, p. 33. v 



4 Brackenridge, H. M. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West. 2nd 

 edit. Phila., 1868, p. 30. 



• Baily, Francis. Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America in 

 1796 and 1797. London, 1856, p. 209. 



• Penn Mag. Hist, and Biog., Vol. VI, pp. 138, 142, 144, 146. 



