BIOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 221 



What has been said about market values was more generally applicable 

 before World War I. The war, with its immediate inhibitions in respect to 

 luxury foods, and prohibition, with its discouragement of gourmanderie, 

 came together, but the latter long outlasted the War. At any rate, the use of 

 terrapin stew as the gourmet's delight has never come back in full force and 

 the fancy market for terrapin seems not to have had a complete revival. By 

 those who know, however, the superior flavor of the meat of select terrapin 

 is not generally questioned.^ Consequently, there remains the possibility 

 that diamond-back terrapin will sometime come back into high favor, if not 

 to its former place of topmost esteem. In the North Carolina fishery at this 

 time the terrapin is without significance.^ 



Emphasis has been placed upon size in respect to price. Larger terrapin 

 have greater weight, of course, but the higher value of large terrapin is 

 based not so much upon poundage as upon presumed quality. It has always 

 been assumed, whether correctly or not but probably correctly, that quality 

 of meat and its flavor improves with age and size. Either younger or smaller 

 terrapin, although highly toothsome, are relatively inferior in flavor. All 

 male terrapin, being small, are thus excluded from the selects. The largest 

 male of record in the terrapin experiments at Beaufort was reported as 

 having a length on the bottom shell of 4^ inches, and the largest wild male 

 found measured 4^ inches. The average undershell length of males was 

 about 4 inches, a substantial proportion being smaller. It is doubtful if any 

 male ever attains the "legal" minimum length for capture and sale — 5 

 inches. 



It is a long time since there was in North Carolina a particular fishery 

 for terrapin (Coker, 1906). Occasional individuals are taken by chance in 

 seine hauls or sighted in passing. At the time of the beginning of the experi- 

 ments in terrapin breeding at Beaufort (1902), there was only one man in 

 the Beaufort region known particularly as a "terrapin hunter." Working in 

 a small skiff he would pole his boat through the creeks and marshes, look- 

 ing with keen eyes for a terrapin under water or a head projected above the 

 water and capturing terrapin now and then with his dip net. In his own 



2. Not everything served as "terrapin stew," or even as "diamond-back stew," is made from 

 diamond-back terrapin. "Sliders," and sometimes even "chicken," may be substituted for the more 

 expensive diamond-backs. 



3. In the Government statistics for 1945 (Anderson and Power, 1949), diamond-back terrapin 

 were reported as marketed from the following States: 



Maryland 370,000 pounds $108,000 



/ Virginia 27,500 " 6,875 



North Carolina 2,700 " 675 



South Carolina 500 " 125 



Georgia 7,500 " 5,625 



Florida 5, 400 " i)3So 



Obviously, the price per pound to fishermen is figured at 25 cents, except for Georgia (75 



cents) and Maryland (about 29 cents). 



