PHOTOTYPE PLATES NOS. XXXV. AND XXX IP. 57 



Its muscular tissues are at the same time, as in the above-named species, so thinly developed that 

 it yields no profit to the curer. A coloured illustration of the anterior portion of this species, with 

 its characteristic primrose tentacles, is given in Chromo plate No. XII. 



The second or lower figure in Plate XXXV. illustrates one of the largest and most remark- 

 able of the Barrier series. The specimen when photographed from life was in a contracted state, 

 and is represented less than one half of its natural size. When fully expanded and distended with 

 water it is not unfrequently three or four feet long, and some six or seven inches broad. Its 

 whole dorsal and lateral surfaces are beset with somewhat rosette-shaped or stellate outgrowths 

 of the substance of the integument ; these, in their attenuated and flaccid condition, when the 

 animal is lifted freshly from the water, impart to it a fleecy aspect, which renders the organism 

 appropriately comparable to a washed-out strip of a sheepskin doormat. On contraction, as 

 shown in the illustration, these fleshy appendages exhibit clearly an irregularly stellate contour, 

 and are of the same leathery texture as the integument from which they spring. When dried and 

 cured, these appendages assume the aspect of short pointed thorns, and the species is hence 

 known in the trade by the suggestive title of " Prickly " or "Red Prickly-fish," the longer name 

 serving to distinguish it from an allied form denominated " Green Prickly." Stichopiis I'an'ci^afiis 

 is the scientific appellation of the Red Prickly-fish, and was conferred upon it with relation 

 to specimens originally collected in the South Sea Islands. The colours of this Beche-de-mer, 

 while subject to an extreme range of variation, are usually associated with a distinctly reddish 

 ground tint, as particularised in the chapter dealing specially with this animal group. Reference 

 may be also made to that chapter for an account of the incident which led to this Beche-de-mer, 

 once the most valuable of the Barrier Reef species, commanding of late years a very low figure 

 in the Chinese market. 



PLATE XXXVI. 



NITIVES OF WARRIOR ISLAND, TORRES STRUT, PREPARING BECHE-DE-MER 



FOR THE CHINESE MARKET 



This plate constitutes a fitting accompaniment to the descripti\-e account given in a subse- 

 quent chapter of the processes employed in preparing and curing the famous Barrier Reef 

 Trepang or Beche-de-mer for the Chinese market. The scene is at Tud or Warrior Island, once 

 noted for the warlike prowess of its native chieftains, and now one of the most important head- 

 quarters of the Beche-de-mer fishing industry. Situated a little to the north of the centre of 

 Torres Strait, it commands access to the productive Warrior reefs, which extend to within 

 ten miles only of the New Guinea coast. Among the apparatus and appliances conspicuously 

 visible in the accompanying illustration may be noticed the two large cauldrons in which the 

 "fish" are boiled — literally "stewed in their own juice." From the cauldrons they are ladled 



out with the long-handled net lying on the ground in front of them. The fish are then ready 



I 



