"Boil your terrapin for two hours, until the skin on the legs peels off; the pick the terrapin out of the shell and remove its gall-sac; then stew, by adding a quarter of a pound of butter, a taste of red pepper and the squeeze of a half lemon; put as much water as will stew, pour in a dash of sherry, and leave the rest to nature"

Thus "Tommy" Boylan, of Guy's, in Baltimore, to the artist and the writer, and there is no better authority on terrapin from Savannah to the Patapsco River.

Turtle may be fit for aldermen, but terrapin is food for princes, and a terrapin-stew might be served by Hebe to the immortal gods in high Olympus.

Terrapin are caught from Savannah and Charleston up to the Pa-tapsco River at Baltimore, while the genuine "diamond-back" is only to be found in the upper Chesapeake and its tributaries. A diamond-back never measures less than seven inches in length on the under shell, a seven-inch being known as a " count terrapin," while anything under the length of a " count" does not count. Ten inches long and eight pounds in weight is reckoned a very large terrapin, the seven-inches weighing, on an average, four pounds.

During the season, terrapins sell for $30 to $38 per dozen; while "sliders" - common river turtles, principally caught in the James River - which sell at from $6 to $8 per dozen, are palmed off by skillful restaurateurs as genuine diamond-backs on unwary but ambitious guests, at a dollar and a half the dish.

The male terrapin is known as the "bull," the female as the "cow," the lady being more in request on account of her thirty eggs, which are used to garnish the delectable dish.

The artist and I having consigned our lives and limbs to the custody of the darkest darkey my eyes ever alighted upon, and to the most rickety of crazy skiffs, were paddled up a small tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, situated at about six miles from Annapolis, on a terrapin-searching expedition. Having quitted the sanctuary of the boat for the more genial atmosphere of the mud, our darkey, who was armed with a long, thin pole, commenced to probe the bottom - he was wading waist-deep - or, to use the technical term, to "sound" for terrapin. His practiced sense of touch tells him when he taps terrapin, and if they are numerous, he marks his prey, and returns to grab them with a net.

On this occasion the "birds" - as bon viveurs love to call them, although terrapin is used as fish by the most devout Catholics in the severest or Lenten time - were plentiful, and our darkey, having put us ashore, very soon returned with a boat containing his mate, nets, sounding-poles, rakes and other impedimenta of his calling, a business that pays the catcher, according to luck, from $5 to $50 a week.

The haul, which was watched by a luckless fisherman with considerable envy, proved a good one, the ground being literally cut from under the feet of the terrapin, and there were vast expansive grins, accompanied by chuckles loud and deep, as the well-laden boat rowed back with its precious freight to the quaint old capital of Maryland.

Terrapins are jealously guarded by the law, and a stringent Act exists which protects diamond-back terrapin in the waters of the State of Maryland. The fishing opens on the first of November and terminates on the thirty-first of March. It is unlawful to catch any terrapin of a size less than five inches on the bottom of the shell, or to interfere with or destroy the diamond-back terrapin's eggs. It is stated that thirty years ago the dealers found it difficult to sell terrapin at $6 a dozen, and now the difficulty lies in obtaining them at any price. Their numbers are rapidly decreasing, and unless some effective protective means are forthwith taken, a terrapin will indeed prove a rara avis in terris.

Sliders are plentiful in the tributaries of the Chesapeake, as also are "snappers." Turtles are fished for in this way: The fisherman plants poles, sometimes a hundred, in the middle of the stream; to each pole he fastens a line, to which is attached a hook baited with salted eel. The snapper grabs bait and hook, and is hauled up, always vicious and desperate.

The fishermen around these tributaries take a thousand pounds' weight of turtle a week, which they sell at ten cents a pound. The snappers' eggs, about the size of marbles, are considered a great delicacy.

Apropos of turtle and terrapin, the following is the menu of a perfect Maryland dinner, as arranged by "one of the knowing ones":

"Four small oysters from Lyn-haven Bay; terrapin a la Maryland; canvas-back ducks; a small salad of crab and lettuce. Vegetables - baked Irish potatoes; fried hominy cakes and plain celery." - Magazine,