212 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 



But I have some evidence — though it is true only of a negative char- 

 acter — which would seem to indicate that they do not feed on carp of 

 any considerable size ; and as even this ill-favored, ill-tempered reptile 

 is entitled to its due, I will give it. At the close of the summer of 1882 I 

 placed my carp, then 40 in number, in my ponds, they having attained an 

 average length of 13 inches and an average weight of 1 pound and 7 

 ounces. Knowing that snappers abounded, I gave special attention to 

 their destruction, and during the summer following captured 40 of 

 them, varying in weight from 3 to 10 pounds; and yet when the water 

 was withdrawn in October, all the carp were there save one, which a 

 fish-hawk was seen to capture. At the close of last summer, though 

 many snappers had escaped tlje warfare made upon them during the 

 previous season and continued the past summer, not one fish was miss- 

 ing. How many young carp they may have eaten, of course, I have no 

 means of determining — enough doubtless to satisfy their hunger, but 

 they evidently had no taste for large fish. 



It is not so difficult to capture snapping-turtles as is generally sup- 

 posed. Though the muscles which control the movement of the jaws 

 are of great strength, yet since the cutting edges do not exactly corre- 

 spond, they cannot bite in two an ordinary piece of twine. I have known 

 one weighing 30 pounds to be caught on a piece of twine no larger than 

 a stout fish line. Ordinarily strong twine, with regular snapper hooks 

 attached, will hold them, care being taken not to let the.bait (a piece of 

 salted eel being the best) come so near the bottom that they can reach 

 it when hooked with all four feet. If they can do this a large one will 

 be likely to straighten out the hook or to break the line holding it. 

 Besides this method of capturing them there are others quite as effective. 



There being a considerable demand for them in market, they might 

 be raised with profit were it not from the fact of their very slow growth. 

 The female lays her eggs in the sand, with only a light covering over 

 them, and as skunks are fond of them and make careful search for them, 

 where this animal abounds snappers are not likely to multiply very 

 rapidly. 



Kaising .frogs for table use. — To those who have tried them, 

 frogs' legs, when properly cooked, are a great delicacy ; and, judging 

 from our market reports, the demand is quite up to the supply. Can 

 they be successfully cultivated as an article of food as other animals 

 are cultivated, and, if so, will it pay? Some years ago I thought of 

 establishing a froggery, and wrote to persons whom I supposed most 

 likely to be posted on the subject, but could hear of no one who had 

 had experience in this kind of culture. The great difficulty seemed to 

 be to know what to feed them. With the tadpoles there was no trouble, 

 as they are vegetable feeders, and abound in our carp ponds. Last 

 spring I took 2A bushels from one of my ponds, they having gone safely 

 through the winter; and in the fall took from the same pond five times 

 as many. It seemed a great pity that there was no better use for them 



