Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-10-26
TERRAPIN, CRABS AND FROGS.
The Season Has Come When They Are
to be Offered Up as Victims.

to be Offered Up as Victims.
DIAMoND-BAcKs RAISED AT PRIVATE HArcHKRrEs
ron THE MARKET-HUNrrNa THEN WITH DOGS
AND rrRE-CATcHINa CRABS WITH LANrERNs-
SIMILAR METHOD APPLIED TO rRoos
"The terrapin season is fairly opened now"
said the fish dealer, calling attention to his big
front window all acrawl with the tortoises so
dear to the epicure. Those there came from
the great pound down on Roanoke Island It
is four acres in extent and three-fourths Of IL
is covered with water, the bottom Of mud and
grass; the remaining acre is Of sand, for the
turtles to climb up on while the tide Gibbs and
flows through the Enclosure. In this way
the natural conditions under which rerrapin
live are initiated nearly as possible. and
from 5000 to 5000 of thsm are kept in
the pen during most of the year: They are
caught in summer. of course. and confined
until cold weather comes with q few bushels OF
J crabs and fish fed to them twice a week to fat
ten upon. There are plenty Of such pounds
along the Chesapeake and. as 1 suppose you
know, they mainly supply the market. Owing
| to the persistence with which the reptiles have
been hunted year after year. they are getting
| scarce along the marshes and estuaries of the
| Chesapeake. So it has come to be the fashion
| to preserve them in crawls and even to breed
|
| kept stocked. to great extent, with terrapin
| Matched on We premises. The mamma terra
| pin climbs up on the sand bank when she il
| ready to lay. scratches shallow hole,
and deposits from eight to twenty eggs.
| which she covers up and then goes back to the
water. Lest the gulls. crows and black birds
| should scratch the eggs up again and eat them.
nets arc spread over the nests. The young are
] Matched about September /, but often remain
bnried until spring. Sometimes the young are
| l.pd in on tl,ax-r Ia,
| a few weeks old and are ready to go into the
water. They grow about one inch year and
at the end of six years they are big enough to
be called counts aud to sell at the highest
| market price. Between five and six inches in
length measuring always by the under shell,
they are 'heifers, and, if smaller than that.
bulls. The females are the desirable sex in
| terrapin. The maAes sell for much less price.
A terrapin is full grown at ten years of age"
"lou are speaking of the diamond-back ter
rapin, l SUPPOSED" ventured The STAR re-
porter.
DIAMoND-BACKs AND ''sLIDERs"
'Of course. The diamond-back is the only
real terrapin, from the epicures point of view,
and most OF the so-called tc-rapin that you see
are fresh-water turtles. There are seven diff
ferent varieties OF fresh-water terrapin and the
commopest of these is the slider which is
found nowhere else than in the streams empty
ing into Chesapeake bay, whereas the diamond
back ranges from Nantucket to Texas and
South America. The principal diamond back
grounds, however. are Chesapeake bay and the
shore of the Carolinas Some very fine ones
come from Egg Harbor, NJ. They live mostly
in the salt marshes and estuarles not far from
shore and there are all sorts OF ways of catch
ing them. One of the most curious methods is
practiced near Beaufort and Morehead City,
where the hunters set fire to the marsh grass,
and the terrapin. being led by the heat to sup
pose that spring Is come, crawl out of the mud.
where they hibernate in winter. and are
caught. Another curious way of capturing
them Is tried very successfully with dogs.
Pointers are used and when the trail Of
female terrapin that has crawled out
on a bank to lay is struck. the prey is as
good as caught. The dogs follow the bank of
stream always. Seines are sometimes
stretched across the streams in summer for
terrapin to walk into, and traps like lobster
pots are baited and placed in the shadows.
partly out of water, so that the victims once
imprisoned, can rise to the surface for breath.
But OF course most terrapin that are caught
are captured with dredges carrying drag nets
with iron meshes. Two or three such dredges
are thrown over the stern of vessel as it sails
along the channels between the mud fats, and
at intervals they are drawn up for inspection.
The terrapin Is not good to eat in summer, but
1T feeds plentifully during the warm months,
and when cold weather comes it crawls into
the mud for winter 3 nap, as fat as butter. If
1t has been kept in a crawl and supplied with
crabs and fish and oysters, with celery to give
an added touch of flavor, it is a morsel for the
gods, properly cooked"
And what is the most approved method Of
cooking terrapin?"
How TO COOK IT.
"There are two styles. According to the
Maryland process the terrapin is thrown alive
into tepid water. the skin and claws are re-
moved, and, after a second immersion, the
| under shell is cut away and the gall-badder
and liver taken ont. The animal is then
stewed until thoroughly cooked and is after
ward garnished with eggs, cream, butter and
spices, some wine being added just before the
dish is served. The Philadelphia style is the
! same, except that the terrapin eggs are added,
and in the Quaker city, which is the greatest
! terrapin market. this item is considered essen
tial But no mere recipe can give a notion of
the cooking of terrapin, which tests to the
utmost the art OF the adept in kitchen science"
Are not terrapin sometimes taken at night,
| with lights?"
CATCHING CRABS.
81 never heard of such thing; probably
you are thinking Of crabs; that is favorite
| way Of taking them along the Chesapeake. You
hold q lantern down close to the surface of
| the water as you 60 along in boat through the
shadows and the crabs are attracted to it in
swarms. All you have to do is to dip them out
| with hand net. The bulk of the crabs for the
| market, however. are captured with 'trot lines
as they are called, each one about half block
long ana hung between TWO posts, with bait
tied on at every few feet The best bait is cells,
but any kind Of meat or fish will serve the pur-
pose. Each fisherman tends several such lines.
| going over them at short intervals, 80 that
the bait shall not be eaten of, and
raising them gently, with the unsuspecting
crabs attached, he slides his hand net under
| meath the game and scoops it in. Annapolis,
| Crisfeld and Norfolk are the shipping points,
whence crabs are sent for thousands of miles in
every direction all over the country. The
Chesapeake affords the great hunting grounds
| for the blue crab of the Atlantic coast of
America, which is the best crab in the world
for eating purposes. The edible crab of
Europe is O much more massive animal and
frequently weighs twelve pounds or more; but
! the latter, in point Of size, is nowhere along
| side Of the great robber crab of the islands in
the Indian ocean, which grows to enormous
| dimensions and lives exclusively upon cocoa
nuts.
THE RoBBER CRABS WAYS.
at opens the nuts by tearing away the husk
| fiber by fiber and finally breaking through one
| Of the eyeholes by hammerng at it with its
| powerful claw. An opening being made in the
| shell, the crab extracts the contents with q
| long and narrow pair Of pincers that i, evil
| IDENTIFY provided for this purpose. The robber
crab accumulates great quantities Of the picked
| fbers OF the cocoanut, which it uses for q bed
The flesh is very good to eat and under the
tail Is q mass Of fat that yields as much q