THE TERRAPIN FISHERY. 501 



In this pound from 3,000 to 6,000 terrapins are kept. They are fed twice a week with 6 or 8 

 bushels of crabs and fish. The young are raised from the egg and kept until -of marketable 

 size. About the first of June the females come out of the water and deposit their eggs in the sand, 

 each laying from eight to twenty. It is found necessary to protect the eggs from crows, blackbirds, 

 and gulls, by spreading a net over the ground above them, otherwise they would be scratched out, 

 and destroyed. The young hatch out about the 1st of September, but often remain buried in the 

 sand until the following spring. When first hatched they have a diameter of about half an inch. 

 They seem to fear the water, and will not go into it willingly until several weeks old. The owner 

 of the pound sometimes packs the young in boxes filled "With straw, and keeps them in a barn 

 during the first winter of their existence, turning them loose again in spring. Careful experiments 

 seem to show that these terrapins grow about 1 inch each year, "counts," therefore, "being at least 

 six years old. 



The method of keeping terrapins in pounds has been strongly objected to by certain persons, 

 who claim that it tends to decrease rather than increase their abundance. Fishing is encouraged 

 at a time when the terrapins are breeding, and the nests are badly broken up. Furthermore, the 

 pound-owners will buy the young at small prices, and thus cause the destruction of immense num- 

 bers of them when their value is less then a twentieth of that of the full-grown terrapin. Again, 

 the pound-men reap an unfair proportion of the profits of the business, because, hav4ng facilities for 

 keeping the terrapin, they can buy them iu summer, when there is no market and the price is 

 almost nominal. 



The pound-owners, on the other hand, claim that they are really increasing the abundance of 

 the species, since they protect the eggs and young from birds and other destructive animals. 

 Some urge also that in buying terrapins iu summer, when other branches of the fisheries decline, 

 they are directly benefiting the fishermen, who otherwise would be unable to support their families. 



BEAUFORT AND MOEEHEAD CITY. An extensive trade in terrapins has recently sprung up. 

 Most of the methods of capture employed are similar to those already described. The terrapins 

 are caught in winter in dredges, introduced many years ago from Roanoke Island; they are tracked 

 to their nests in breeding season, or they are searched for in shallow water, and secured iu dip- 

 nets. A method peculiar to this locality is that of burning the grass in the swamps in winter. 

 The terrapins which have hid themselves for the winter, feeling the warmth, are deluded into the 

 notion that spring has arrived, and come out in considerable number, when they are immediately 

 captured by the fishermen. Several pouuds, also, have been constructed. The summer fishing 

 begins about the 1st of May, and is prosecuted by children and a few men. 



The average annual shipment of terrapins from this locality is about 10,000, of which number 

 one-third are sent to New York, one-third to Philadelphia, one-sixth to Baltimore, and the rest to 

 Norfolk, Richmond, and the interior towns generally. About two-thirds of the entire number are 

 bulls, and the remainder is equally divided between counts and heifers. About 2,000 terrapins are . 

 eaten by the people of the locality. The price received by the fishermen in winter for counts 

 is $10 per dozen. In summer the price for counts is about 40 cents apiece; for heifers, 10 cents 

 apiece ; for bulls, 15 to 40 cents per dozen. The value of the products of the fishery at this local- 

 ity, therefore, is about $3,500. 



Prior to the war there was no shipment of terrapins from this point, and the local demand also 

 was very small. Most of the terrapins caught were eaten by the fishermen. 



WILMINGTON. The terrapins in the sounds about Wilmington, N. C., are said to be compara- 

 tively small, not one in twenty measuring 6 inches in length. There has never been any extensive 

 trade in this locality, although many terrapins are eaten here. The first shipments were made in 



