They were just huge

Hard and difficult was the life of the wood rafters on the river Vetluga. But on the calendar in 1930. Young country of the Soviets the forest. For billet and alloy are attracted boys and girls from vetluzhskih villages and towns. One of them fuses the wood on the river Vetluga 19-year-old Ivan Sergeevich from the village of Verkhne-Spasskoye.

Drove the rafts to the town of Kozmodemyansk. Ago back different. In that memorable year of the gang of raftsmen came back on the Bank of the Vetluga on foot. The coast was low-lying, swampy. Had to go to the lowland. It was in the evening. Decided to stay and spend the night on the edge of the swamp. Night rafters woke up from loud sounds. A terrible roar came from the swamps. To determine the origin of the sounds could not and experienced rafters, not the first who took the rafts in these locations. The most daring, including Ivan Sergeevich, decided to find out who is so scary roars in the swamp. Moved in the direction of the roar. The night was bright, the sky cloudless. Moved by chain, one after the other. The roar cut the silence of the night very close. The leader of the group stopped and pointed in front of him.

In the light of the moon on a small hill, they could see the silhouette of the animal. Quite a large specimen, craning her neck, uttered a familiar, our intrepid researchers a sound like a roar. At her call said, even a few votes. Apparently, the animal was not alone this swamp. But something alarmed the creature, and it, uttering another roar and took a few clumsy movements, he slipped from the hill in the swampy depths. Stunned by what he saw, the brave participants of the outing were sent to the camp. During the remainder of the night the sounds of unknown animals, strangers inevitably longer worried.

In the morning, exchanging impressions about heard and seen, all the participants of the night raids came to the conclusion that animals, uttering a terrible and incomprehensible roar, was turtle. And they were just huge for the area. This story is not just told his sons Ivan Sergeyevich.

© GP TO ID Vetluzhskiy edge. The names changed. Material published in the newspaper (print edition) dated 2 November 2016

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»