The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-06-05
CAPE COD TERRAPIN.
Interesting Facts About q Yer!
Popular Reptile.
The diamond Back" Affords = Com
Portable Living TO Those WAC
Are Engaged in Cap
turing 1t.

1t win be great shock 10 the pride O.
Maryland and Pennsylvania to learn
that terrapin are caught on the coast
of Massachusetts, and that they com.
Imand q higher price in the New York
market than those from anywhere else
Where the Massachusetts, diamond
backs" come from or when they come
or whether they are natives of these
waters are questions that have never
been answered. Indeed. naturalists
seem to have entirely overlooked. IN.
til very recently, the fact that the ter
xapin was 10 be found on the MaSsa-
chusetts coast.
When the presence Of terrapin was
brought TO the attention of q few men
who were interested in natural history
it was thought at first that the reptiles
had migrated from the south. But mani
of the terrapin were fully grown, and
as full-grown terrapin is believed 70
be not less than so years old il was con-
Guided that they were probably natives
of Massachusetts,. If this conclusion is
the correct one IL is the more remark
able that the fashionable turtle man
aged to keep himself out OF textbooks
on natural history.
Terrapin were first discovered in Mas
saehusetts by southern negro. Demp-
ster Hill. who happened TO see several
of the diamond backs" summing them
selves on a sandbar. He bad not lived
in the south for nothing. and, recogniz-
ing the value OF his find, he said not 4
word TO anybody, but suddenly devel'
oped remarkable energy.
Like most of his race he did not worry
about the future, and, when he had
caught a dozen or two terrapin, he sold
them aud lived on the proceeds until
his funds needed repletion, when he be-
came again energetic.
Hill made q very comfortable living
in this way for several years before his
white neighbors swoke TO their oppor-
tunities.
This was a number of years ago, and
when Hill died his mantle fell on a
white man, who is now the principal
,errapin fisher on Buzzard's bay.
Terrapin are to be found ali along the
Cape Cod coast as well as in Buzzard's
bay. This year both the diamond
and smooth back terrapin have been
very scarce in these waters or else the
/ fishermen have not had their usual sue.
cess in finding them.
Twelve years ago terrapin were
caught in great quantities in Barnsta
bic, South Wellfleet and other point:
on Buzzard's bay. but most of the fish
ing is now done in East Wareham anC
vicinity, where the most expert "dia
mond back" hunter on the coast lives.
Terrapin are known on Cape Cod a:
"turpin" and the visitor from the city
who gives the word three syllables /,
regarded as hOpelessly ignorant Tn,
native of Maryland prefers 10 speak o.
this delectable inhabitant of a shell a:
bird, possibly because it's flavor ha:
something of a suggestion of the salt
marsh in the early morning.
1t is in the salt marshes bordering
the creeks which have their outlet in
Buzzard's bay that the choicest "tur
] pin" find their homes in the wintel
months. To protect themselves from
the cold they dig down in the sand
sometimes to depth Of five feet, and Ii,
dormrnt until spring. In the interva
they go without food. With the ap
proach of warm weather appetite re
turns, they resurrect themselves from
their sandy graves and until winter
comes again they swim about in tn,
water, catching the oysters. crabs anC
fish on which they subsist or lie summing
themselves on sandbars for hours
! Boston Herald