The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-06-16

they are termed, well-grown terrapins
command one dollar apiece in the home
market, and are worth from forty to six
ty dollars dozen in the New York mar
kets.
The little winding creeks that pursue
their tortuous course through the broad
expanse of marshes, and the narrow in
lets that penetrate the wooded shores,
are the favorite feeding grounds of the
terrapins. They generally congregate in
deep pools and eddies, where they gath
er in great shoals, at the approach of
winter, and bury themselves in the mud.
1t Is frequently the case that the sable
boatman paddles his rude craft along
the inlet until he reaches some dark
eddy where he suspects the terrapins
make their home. No visible sign indi-
Gates the presence of the game, but the
cunning fisher stops his boat and beginS
tapping lightly on the gunWale with the
paddle. In a few minutes there is a
swirl in the water, and a black head
pops up and two steely eyes peer out in
every direction to locate the unwonted
disturbance. The first head is quickly
followed by another and another until
lHS oulletcG VI the pOOl Is hlluDDSd Win
them, and then the fisher knows that he
has discovered rich find. Carefully
the drag-net, with it's heavy sinkers at
tached to the lower edge, is thrown out,
and the boat circles slowly around SO
that the net may surround the terrapins.
The sinkers brighten them, and they
make rush to escape and are caught in
the bag of the net which is quickly
hauled ashore on the mud bank and the
captured terrapins transferred to box
in the boat. In this manner several doz-
en- are sometimes captured at one haul.
The terrapins are graded according to
size. The favorite size is six inches ilr
length but a full-grown terrapn often
measures nine inches. The six-inch ter
rapin, however, is the standard grade.
and after the fisherman has secured
load he paddles his boat to the nearest
crawl" and disposes of the catch to
the proprietor, The regular price has
been fifty cents apiece until the storm,
but since then high prices have been the
rule.
The owner of the "crawl" has d high
picket fence erected across the outlet Of
some little creek, the upper and lower
ends, below high water mark, being pro-
tected by wire netting, so that the tide
may circulate freely. Inside this inclo-
sure he has a huge box. thirty or forty
feet in length and the breadth of the
creek, In which the terrapins are placed.
They are fed once a day with scraps of
fish, the smaller fry being purchased
from the fishermen for that purpose, and
they soon become so tame that when the
signal for feeding-time is given by tap
ping on the planking of the box, gene
raj scramble ensues and the terrapin
will wriggle up to the edge of the crawl
and take the bits Of fish from the hands
of their owner just like pet chickens.
They grow very rapidly in confinement,
and in the early spring and summer
they creep out on the banks and lay
their eggs, which are Matched by the
sun, so that in a few weeks the 'crawl'
will be alive with young "cooters,"
many of them not bigger than silver
dollar. The little fellows keep pretty
close during the helpless days of their
infancy, before their shells harden, as
they are a prey In their natural state,
to raccoons, offers and larger fish of va
rious kinds. In their native haunts they
creep ashore at night and deposit their
eggs in the warm sand, frequently so
close to the margin of the bluff that it is
a source of wonder that they do not lose
their hold and tumble back into the wa
ter
When the shipping season opens. the
terrapins are carefully packed in bar
rels and loaded on the big steamers for
northern markets The terrapins are
very sensitive to heat and cold, and in
slowing them away great care must be
exercised to secure an even temperature
for if the air around them is too hot
they suffocate during the voyage, and IL
too cold they die from the chill
The catching of the genuine diamond
back terrapins has been followed so per-
sistently along the coast that they are
not nearly so plentiful as they were some
years ago. before the coast traders dis
covered that they were in such demand
in northern markets. But a couple of
skilled fishermen, at present prices, are
now enabled to make from one to two
hundred dollars month catching them
during the season, and one dealer whose
Crawl was destroyed by the october
storm lost two thousand terrapins,
which he valued at five thousand dol
lars, showing that the shipper finds the
business lucrative, even after paving
good price to the shermen.-Georgia
Letter in the New York Evening Post.