The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-01-19
HUNTING TERRAPIN.
A Profitable Industry Along
Chesapeake Bay.
Curious Ways of Catching the
ToOthsome Tortoise.


that terrapin from the Chesapeake sold
at $50 a dozen. The correspondent
goes on to say:
The senior member of this firm was
the first dealer to regularly sell terra
pin in Baltimore. That was about
forty years ago, and he received $S
dozen for the best. The difference
between So and $50 shows how much
the terrapin has advanced in public
appreciation.
In fact, the high cash value of the
tcrrapin is modern. The records show
that the Indians caught and roasted
them, but they were looked upon as
very common food. At Yorktown,
| Washington and Lafayette ate a dish
of terrapin because the supplies were
low at the time. In the annals of two
counties of Maryland there are con-
tracts in which it is stipulated that
slaves should noc be fed Oh terrapin
more than twice q week, and they
once rehelled because they were given
tcrrapin instead of pork. Mr.. Clay
ton of Delaware, who was Secretary
of Stale during the Administration of
President Taylor, used to buy them at
81 for an ox-cart load.
The best Of the terrapin, and the
most of them, are found in Chesa-
peake Bay, from which 500 men take
nearly 100000 every year during the
season, which is from November to
April, inclusive. Tho method by
which they capture them is as inter-
esting as the terrapin itself.
Along the bay, which extends nearly
200 miles, with dozens of large rivers
rIlaAiNg into it, are immense marshes,
mud flats and shadows. on many of
which grow the water cress, which
gives to the terrapin and the canvas
back duck the flavor that makes them
so attractive to cultivated appetites.
If you should happen near some of
these places you would probably find
an old colored man wading around
with stick pronged like Neptune's
trident, proddng into the mud and
looking very like a person who had
lost something valuable in q queer
place, without exactly knowing where
to seek it. But so experienced is lie
that the slightest sign of a terrapin
leads at once to quick investigation
below, and generally to q quick trans
fer to the large cotton sack which the
old man carries
This is one way. There are others
the most successful being the dragging
OF loaded scines along the bottom.
Many tcrrapn are also caught in the
oyster dredgcs, and all find their way
| to market.
In the autuma the terrapin begin
TO get ready tor their winter sleep.
| A Maryland man buried twenty-six of
them on the 1st of June, and dug
them up on the lst of December. In
the six months they did not lose an
ounce of weight, and every ono of
them was alive and we'll. You can
take tcrrapin and put it in the cellar
in tho autumn, and without receiving
food or drink it will be all right in
the spring. 1t is, in fact, about the
cheapest boardcr in tho entire animal
kingdom.
Several have tried to raise terrapin
in ponds, but they have not made
much of a success, for the terrapin do
not like captivity. An interesting thing
about them is that they have 50 much
curiosity that when they arc confined
in these ponds they can be trained to
come to the surface when their food
of the crab meat and dough is ready.
Boys along the Chesapeake catch
terrapin. There is not much sport in
capturing them, but they are very
well satisfied with the profits.
Many tcrrapm are caught along the
coast OF North Carolina. One of the
curious mc,hods of catching them
there is that dogs are used, which in
summer track them from the waters
edge to the grass where they go to lay
their eggs. The way in winter is to
burn the grass in swamps. The terra
pin, mistaking the warmth for spring,
come from their hiding places and are
captured. Botn OF these plans, how
ever, are considered baybarous