HUMAN FOODS 23 



the dormant younger stages of certain parasites which, when 

 the fish are eaten by the birds or seals, come to hfe again and 

 grow to their full size in them. In the Baltic region and in 

 parts of Asia infection of man in this manner is not rare. 



Let us now consider the humbler animals without backbones 

 that serve as human food. Any one familiar with the animals 

 along our shores must have noticed the strange creatures called 

 sea-urchins or sea-eggs, the star-fishes, and the sea-cucumbers. 



Wherever sea-urchins are common they are greatly prized 

 as food; they are eaten by the Indians in the northwest and 

 on the Alaskan coast, in southern Patagonia, in the West 

 Indies, especially at Barbados, and in the Mediterranean 

 region. They are taken at the spawning season, and it is the 

 eggs that are eaten. These are very good, either cooked in 

 various ways or raw. When I was in the West Indies I fre- 

 quently depended upon these things for lunch, bringing in a 

 dozen or two from the reef and then breaking them open and 

 scooping out the contents. In the Bering Sea the sailors on 

 the ''Albatross" became very fond of them and would look 

 for them in the dredge as it came up. 



The local value of the sea-eggs is sometimes quite consider- 

 able. For instance when I was in Barbados the fine for taking 

 them from the water out of season was five pounds sterling. 

 At the time I had a valet to whom I paid one shilling weekly. 

 Had he misbehaved himself in this respect it would have taken 

 nearly two years' salary to pay his fine. 



The commercial value of the sea-cucumbers in the Pacific, 

 where they pass under the name of trepang or beche-de-mer, 

 runs into the millions annually, but elsewhere they are not 

 used to any great extent. They are eaten at Naples and at 

 other places in the Mediterranean region, but only by the 

 lowest classes. In America they are not regularly eaten any- 

 where, though in the West Indies they are gathered to some 

 extent for the eastern markets. A few of the large star-fishes 

 are sometimes eaten, but none are sufficiently abundant to be 

 of great importance; besides, they are difficult to open, have 



