PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
357 
and are a total loss. As an illustration of the uncertainty of tlie husiness and of the risks which the 
dealers have to run at times, it may he stated that of .3,200 craijs pnreh.ased bj' aiirm one day in .Tuly, 
1888, no less than 3,000 died before shipment. This, of course, is an unusually great loss, and is not to 
be taken as a basis, .although the individual dealers estimate their losses at from 10 to 30 percent, 
and even as high as 50 per cent during certain periods. A few crabs die after leaving the hands of 
the shippers on the way to their destination, but this element of loss is being overcome by greater 
care and experience in packing the crabs prior to shipping them. A comparison of the total catch 
with the .aggregate shipments for 1888 gives a difference of 628,760 crabs, with a market value of about 
$23,600, which figures represent the mortality and conseipient losses. The death rate in 1887 was even 
higher th.an in 1888, being 21 per cent, as against 16 per cent in the latter year. It is impossible to 
determine with accuracy the number of crabs which die during shipment to market. There seems to 
be no remedy for this state of affairs. Although the se.ason of 1888 showed a small but gr.atifying 
imi)rovement over the previmis year, it can hardly bo hoped that the mortality will ever be reduced 
below a somewhat high limit, owing to the methods of capture and handling, and to the normal vicissi- 
tudes of the molting process, increased as they are by the unnatural surroundings and conditions to 
which the cr.ahs are subjected. 
The crabs are shipped to market in crates or boxes. Tlie crates used in the 
Ohesaiieake region are about 4 feet long, 18 to 24 inches deep, and the same in widtli, 
and are provided witli closely litting trays, in which the crabs are carefully packed 
side by side, with their legs well folded up and their bodies lying obliquely, so that 
the moisture may not run from their mouths, in rows between layers of cold seaweed, 
on which finely crushed ice is sometimes placed. The capacity of each crate is from 
8 to 10 dozen, and as the crabs possess little tendency to move when once iiacked in 
position, they remain quiescent for a long time. The principal markets for soft-shell 
crabs are New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, but the demand from 
the interior is increasing. In some localities the crabs are carefully placed in stout 
boxes in rows and tiers or layers separated with cold, moist seaweed, and with crushed 
ice in the top of the box over all, the entire contents being so arranged that the 
respective positions of the crabs can not be disturbed. 
TERRAPIN AND TURTLES. 
Among fishery products that are nearly always marketed alive are the various 
species of edible terrapin and turtles. These reptiles are remarkable for their tenacity 
of life; with very little care they may be retained alive for six months or more. In 
the Middle Atlantic States terrapin caught in summer or fall are usually placed in 
dark inclosures, as in cellars, with a quantity of seaweed or grass, into which they 
may burrow, and without food or water they are kept in excellent condition until the 
following spring. 
It may be remarked incidentally that terrapin and certain kinds of fresh-water 
fish, as catfish and ])ike, may be frozen alive in a block of ice, and kept there for 
several days at least, and on thawing the ice the animals are found to be unharmed. 
I am not aware that experiments have been made to determine how long they will live 
nnder these circumstances or the lowest temperature they will stand. 
There are numerous inclosures along the Atlantic coast where terrapin are con- 
fined throughout the year for growing and breeding purposes, but this interesting 
feature of our fisheries is scarcely within the scope of the present chapter. 
