Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1910 — TURTLE VERY HARD TO KILL [ARTICLE]

TURTLE VERY HARD TO KILL

One Found Alive Embedded. In Clay, but glacial Period Theory Was ■ " Disputed. The weekly meeting of the Faunal Naturalists’ club of West N. *., was enlivened by a debate on the subject, “Resolved, That the turtle M a hlnsect” The negative got the decision, holding that it is a parable. The members of the club work on the Ashokan dam. They were ten feet down in a seam of clay when one of them came upon a rock. With difficulty he persuaded the other men to quit work long enough to look at it After they had viewed It they called the engineers. These men made the laborers dig further; then It was seen that one side of the rock was marked like a turtle shell. When the caked clay had been removed from the other side of the rock the engineers were satisfied that they had found a petrified turtle. They put It Into a pall of hot water. By and by one man said sadly that he guessed “petrified” should begin with “p-u” Instead of “p-e.” The author of this suggestion upset the pail with his foot, and soon the turtle himself settled the question. A seamed and wrinkled head, in which a pair of white eyes blinked, was shoved out from the shell, and then a foot appeared. Tlhe other feet came Into view within a few moments, and the turtle crawled painfully away. The F. N, club eagerly seized upon the discovery as a topic for its next meeting. The members were tired of hearing essays on the hydra-headed monster, which had figured so much in the affairs of the Ashokan dam, and the presiding officer Bad trouble In keeping the debates in order when the new subject was declared open. One engineer told the club that ths turtle had probably become Imbedded In the clay In the glacial period and had been caught in a nap In the winter of. Bay, 34,672 B. C. The argument that won the debate for the negative, however, was that the turtle had been caught the winter before work was started on the Ashokan project. Every requirement of antiquity being met by this theory, which had the added virtue of symbolizing the rate of progress oa the dam work, the judges found accordingly.