TURKEY SHOOTING 427 



who came to our camp that on the mountain north of 

 us I could rind a large drove of wild turkeys. 



"The mountains in that section are very rugged, and 

 heavily timbered, but the woods are rather open, the 

 undergrowth being sparse and small. The timber is 

 white, black and post oak, hickory, beech, walnut, 

 cherry, and a half dozen other kinds, and such timber ! 

 Walnut six feet in diameter, and white oak the same. 

 In fact, nowhere in the South does such a wealth of 

 timber exist. 



"One bright afternoon, taking my shotgun, I climbed 

 the steep mountain for about one mile, to where a 

 beautiful spring bursts from the rocks. I stopped, 

 and was enjoying the solitude of the gloomy, grand 

 old forest, when I espied a yellowhammer on a small 

 tree, and shot him. This disturbed two gray squirrels, 

 that ran to the top of a large wild cherry tree, but two 

 loads of No. 6 put them in my game bag. 



"I then started north along a path, but I had only 

 gone a short distance when I walked out of the path 

 to look down into a grove of post oaks, when I beheld 

 a sight that put my. heart to beating like a trip-hammer. 

 Twenty-six as fine turkeys as I ever saw, not two hun- 

 dred yards distant, were feeding as though nothing 

 could harm them, and paying no attention to the noise 

 I had made killing the bird and squirrels. Armed only 

 with a shotgun and some No. 2 shot cartridges, I began 

 the task of getting in reach of those turkeys. 



"Down on my knees and hands I went, and after 

 forty minutes of hard work I was within seventy-five 



