No. 4 (1917) INDIAN BECHE-DE-MER 12/ 



rinse the cleaned product is put a second time into the boilers with 

 enough sea-water to cover it and once again brought to boiling 

 point. Thereafter it is laid out on mats and either dried wholly 

 in the sun, or after partial drying it may be transferred to a 

 very primitive and wasteful form of smoke-house and dried to 

 completion over wood smoke. I should here mention that eviscera- 

 tion is effected naturally, the animals doing so after the approved 

 Holothurian fashion through the vent, either when lying on the 

 beach awaiting the curer's attention or when heated en masse 

 in the boiler. No slitting open of the body is practised or 

 needful. 



Now this is not the method in use in Australia and Malaysia. 

 There the process as described by Saville-Kent {he. eit., page 226) 

 is as follows : — 



" Immediately on their arrival at the depot or curing station, 

 they are placed in large iron cauldrons and boiled for twenty 

 minutes. They are next taken out ; split up longitudinally with a 

 long, sharp-pointed knife ; gutted; and exposed on the ground in 

 the sun until the greater portion of the moisture has evaporated. 

 The largest specimens, such as prickly and teat-fish, are frequently 

 spread-open, so as to dry more readily, with small transversly- 

 inserted wooden splints. The greater amount of moisture having 

 been got rid of, the fish are transferred to the smoke-house. This 

 is usually composed of corrugated iron 10 or 12 feet high and 

 fitted in its upper half with two or three tiers of wire netting upon 

 which the beche-de-mer are laid. The wood most in favour for 

 the smoking process is that of the red mangrove. Twenty-four 

 hours is the usual period for which beche-de-mer are left in the 

 smoke-house. By the end of that time they have for the most part 

 shrunk to a length of six inches or less, and in aspect they may be 

 likened to charred sausages. They are then ready for bagging up 

 and despatch to the nearest market." 



The Chinese who evolved the method now practised in India, 

 showed great resource in adapting their methods to the treatment 

 of a refractory subject and rendering valuable a material which 

 otherwise would have been unprofitable to fish and cure. As 

 showing how local the practice of this ingenious method is and 

 how unknown it is further east, we have not only Saville-Kent's 

 account as quoted above, but also the following extract of a letter 

 received by me this year (1917) from Mr. Alvin Scale, lately 

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