180 PASSENGER TURTLE. 



sacks and load horses with them. By the Indians, a 

 pigeon-roost or breeding-place is considered an im- 

 portant source of national profit and dependence for 

 that season, and all their active ingenuity is exercised 

 on the occasion. The breeding-place differs from the 

 former in its greater extent. In the western coun- 

 tries, viz. the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, 

 these are generally in back woods, and often extend 

 in nearly a straight line across the country for a 

 great way. Not far from Shelbyville, in the State of 

 Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one of 

 these breeding-places, which stretched through the 

 woods in nearly a north and south direction, was se- 

 veral miles in breadth, and was said to be upwards 

 of forty miles in extent ! In this tract almost every 

 tree was furnished with nests wherever the branches 

 could accommodate them. The pigeons made their 

 first appearance there about the 10th of April, and 

 left it altogether with their young before the 25th 

 of May. As soon as the young were fully grown, 

 and before they left the nests, numerous parties of 

 the inhabitants, from all parts of the adjacent coun- 

 try, came with waggons, axes, beds, cooking uten- 

 sils, many of them accompanied by the greater part 

 of their families, and encamped for several days at 

 this immense nursery. Several of them informed 

 me that the noise was so great as to terrify their 

 horses, and that it was difficult for one person to 

 hear another speak without bawling in his ear. The 

 ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, 



