6l A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEAS 



as they are built up. Although so soft and apparently 

 helpless the Sea Cucumbers swallow masses of coral 

 fragments and dissolve them into mud within their bodies. 

 One species even swallows large fragments of coral 

 rock and later throws them up as castings of pulverised 

 limestone. 



Sea Cucumbers swarm on the surface of the Barrier Reef, 

 and at low tide immense quantities are gathered for the 

 Eastern markets. Innumerable subspecies and grades are 

 recognised by the people of the East, to whom the cucumber 

 or Becbe de Mer is as great a delicacy as the oyster is to 

 occidentals. The animals are taken ashore in baskets, 

 split open, gutted, washed and spread out in the sun 

 to partially dry. There follows 24 hours smoking, at the 

 end of which time the 2-ft. long sea cucumbers are reduced 

 to some 10 inches in length, and suggest charred sausages, 

 and in this condition they are sent to their innumerable 

 consumers. When boiled they swell to huge proportions 

 and are highly gelatinous, a quality which is much appre- 

 ciated in the East, where any food of a glutinous nature 

 is deemed a source of virility. 



Starfishes, whilst in general form conforming to the 

 accepted pentagonally-rayed pattern, still present endless 

 variations, all of which, are however, fundamentally alike 

 in structure. Before reviewing the true Starfishes, how- 

 ever, attention is directed to the Crinoides or Feather 

 Stars. 



The group is of immense geological age and was at 

 one time world-wide in distribution, whereas to-day a 

 few species only are known of relatively small size and 



