The Savannah morning news., 1900-11-18
DIAMOND BACK TERRAPIN.
LARGE NUMBERS OF THEM SHIP
PED FROM SAVANNAH.

Several Terrnpin Crnwls Near SaNan-
nah-That OF Messrs. Bnrbee &
Handy at isle OF Hope One Of the
I.argcst-Hundredso of Dozens of the
Creatures shipped Each winter.
How They Are Caught and Cared
For.
Terrapin stew Is dish that IS widsly
known and highly esteemed BY counois-
seurs tho worl dover. but doubtless only
a small percentage Of those that relish
Che product know anything OF the habits
or habitat Of the creature that GOES 20
furnish the de,ectablo soup
IL is made from the diamond back. Ct
salt marsh tcrrapln (malaclemmys palus-
triD, OF which the most famous for he
purpose Of soup-making are caught In
the Chesapeake bay. though the same
species. and In equally good condition.
are caught an along the coast Of the
Southern states.
AZ a number Of towns situated on
salt water. not far from Savannah.
the business Of terrap.n fishing and ship
ping Is Of considerable importance. though
O. is carried on by only q few psrsons.
one OF the largest businesses In this line
Is conducted by Messrs Barbee & Bandy.
az Isle Of Hope where they have extern
sive torrapin crawls. from which they
snip annually hundreds OF dozens OF the
creatures, the principal markets for them
being Philadelphia. which ranks as the
best Washington. Baltimore and New
York.
a sketch Of the capture AMI care OF ter
rapiu will not be- without interest Mcssrs.
Barbeo 81 Bandy gather them as far down
The coast as Fernaudina. good sized
sloop being used almost entirely for this
work. and making trps every Few weeks.
The tcrrap,n are gathered from fishermen
AZ various points along the coast they
catching them from day 70 day and
keeping them ln what might be termed
smaller crawis until the sloop makes a
VISIT.
Tho creatures are caught by means OF
a seine usually three hundred feet long
The fishermen. in a small boat 60 10
what they consider promising ground for
their GONE usually the mouth OF a creek
Qua then begin To- drum on the sides Of
tho boat Curiosity with the terrapin. as
undoinE Tor n any be within tho sound OF
the drumming on the boat they viii I'm
mediatcly make their presence known by
lifting their heads from the water In an
enaeavor 20 see what causes the. 10 ,hen
strange sound. should only one head an
pear the fishermen are satisfied. Tor they
know that there are others In the neigh
borhood and they 40 once set about en-
meshlnv she creature. making, with the
seine. WIDE defour around the spot
where Tho au NAL was seen The results
o. these h1uls are nm hy any means Ger
tain. sometimes the seine proving 10 be
empty when drawn up but usually hav-
ing one or more 81 the animals.
There is a VASE omouns % difference be-
tween tho male and female terrapln botn
i1 size and value the male suffering by
comparison in both cases. The females
usually dcs.gn7 - merely as "terrapin'
when edible range from about five TO
seven inches though the latter sized arc
rare. comparatively The standard slze
Il Elk inches measured along the lenrfo
q the under shell and terrapln OF tnls
size are called IN the trade "eour,a' ara
are the standard by which al sales are
lnaoe Terrnp.n larger than six inches
orlns no better price than counts" while
nose smaller between I'VE ana a half
ineaea and six inches. are called three