14 FRESH-WATER TURTLES. 



The most probable reason for the exceedingly limited use, one 

 might almost say the noniise, of the terrapin within the Mississippi 

 Basin is the iinfamiliarity with them. They rarely stray any dis- 

 tance from considerable bodies of water and are not often seen by 

 the general population. To the frequenters of river and lake shores 

 they are, however, the most commonly seen of turtles. 



Other features that have prevented their coming into use are 

 their relatively small size, 2 pounds being about the average, and the 

 amount and hardness of shell, making the percentage of meat rela- 

 tively small and difficult to get at. So long as there is a great 

 abundance of other forms of game and fresh food the only reason for 

 resorting to them would be the superior flavor of the flesh, and they 

 would be sought after as luxuries rather than necessities. Their 

 appeal would be to the taste rather than to the satisfaction of hunger. 

 There is, of course, the deep-seated feeling that nothing common can 

 be a luxury, as is indicated by the old contracts that servants should 

 not be fed shad too frequently and by the fable about the farmer 

 and crayfishes. 



That the terrapin is of excellent flavor would appear from the 

 testimon}'^ of those who have tried it and from the fact that it can be 

 successfully substituted for the diamond-back. As a rule, it inhabits 

 clean waters. The different species of terrapin differ in their food 

 and feeding habits, and doubtless in their flavor, to a corresponding 

 degree. 



METHODS OF CAPTURE. 



Because of their habits, the manner of the capture of the terrapin 

 is entirely different from that of the snapper. They do not crowd 

 together in hibernating places during the winter and can not, there- 

 fore, be taken in numbers during that season, as the snappers are. 

 In the summer they are gregarious, crowding together in great 

 numbers on projecting logs and banks. They can be easily taken in 

 traps, a number and variety of which are known along the Illinois 

 Elver. By simply sinking a box in a place full of snags and brush, 

 a goodly number of terrapin will manage to drop in. A fish dealer 

 reported that one man had a waterproof box sunk in water by weight- 

 ing it with stones. He visited it daily, removing 30 to 40 turtles. 

 Another form consisted simply of a box with an inclined board for 

 a slide leading up to it. The turtles climbing up the slide to bask 

 crowded the end ones into the box. A still more complicated form 

 had the slide so placed on a pivot that if one or more turtles got 

 beyond the pivot and overbalanced the lower end they were dumped 

 into the box. The success with which an old sunken boat on a bar 

 in Lake Maxinkuckee was observed to catch terrapin indicates the 

 effectiveness of any of these devices. The gunwale of the boat would 

 be crowded with the basking terrapin ; and upon anyone's approach 

 they would plump at once into the water, about half of them landing 

 in the boat. The boys in the region, out of sport, caught 50 or 60 

 of the animals in one afternoon in this manner. 



A method used in trapping the "slider," a species of terrapin in 

 the southeastern part of the T'^nited States, doubtless would also 

 prove efficacious. A projecting log is chosen and a heavily leaded 



