THE GREAT TURTLE EXODUS 

                                 by	 
                           F. W. Chesson 
 
    It was hot back in the Good Old Days, too.  So hot, in fact, that 
in 1896, there occurred in Bantam Lake, Connecticut's largest fresh-
water body, a mass migration of its resident snapping turtle population.
 
    The August 27 edition of the Litchfield Enquirer copied an item 
from the New York Sun, which had apparently escaped local reportage. 
  
               Litchfield, Conn., August 21, 1896. 
 
    "There has lately occurred a great Turtle Exodus from Bantam Lake.  
Henry Stiles caught 83 snapping turtles in three weeks along the east 
shores of the lake, while summer resident Norman Belden caught 75 more. 
 
    "The reptiles crawl out on the beaches and make a bee-line for the 
surrounding swamps, with most seeming to head for the Shepaug Valley. 

    (This is indeed an unusual occurrence, as normally only the female 
snappers leave their home ponds, when they dig nests and lay their 
eggs, and then usually in late spring.)
 
    "Farmers catch the turtles and put them into barrels of swill, so 
they will fatten up for the market or home table. 

     "One man brought a 37-pounder to Wheeler's Hotel, where it will 
provide a bounteous supply of turtle soup. The snapper's shell will then 
be polished and suitably inscribed to mark the singular event. 
 
    "The proposed reason for the exodus is that the shallow lake water 
has been heated to a degree unacceptable to the turtles."  

    (Or perhaps polution of the lake from increased numbers of summer 
residents was also to blame...!)
 
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