BECHE-DE-MER EISHERIES. 229 



reached No. 5 Island of the Ilowick group, where there was no water, and where they must have 

 perished from hunger and thirst. This was only too surely proved by the discovery, only a 

 few days later, of their bodies, together with a scrap of Mrs. Watson's writing, giving the broad 

 details of the episode. 



Little or nothing has as yet been accurately ascertained concerning the breeding habits and 

 rate of growth of Beche-de-mer. Fish of approximately the same size, and these mostly of adult 

 growth, are almost invariably found upon any reef. Such reef, if apparently cleared of fish 

 one year, is found in another year to be tenanted by fish of a similar adult growth ; and 

 it would appear from the evidence so far available, that these are continually migrating from deep 

 water to the upper strata of the reefs. On none of the reefs investigated by the author, on 

 which red, black, and teat-fish were collected in some abundance, were any small or young 

 individuals obtainable, and only in the case of lolly-fish were specimens of about one-half of 

 the adult dimensions found mingled with the others. From one informant only was evidence 

 obtained concerning the observation of well-developed spawn, or roe, being found inside any of 

 the commercial species of Beche-de-nier. This observation related to the surf-red and teat 

 varieties, in which masses of yellow spawn, resembling beef suet, had been noticed during 

 August and September. With the majority of Beche-de-mer, or Holothuridas, known to 

 science, the young are liberated in the form of multitudes of microscopic ciliated larvae, which 

 float, like oyster spawn, for some time on the surface of the water. In a few rarer and more 

 exceptional deep-sea varieties, the young Beche-de-mer are produced in a form resembling that 

 of the adult on a miniature scale; and these remain clinging, like the young of the female scorpion, 

 to the parent's body for a considerable period. No such phenomenon has as yet been observed 

 in the commercial species ; and it would appear that the floating embryos settle into deep 

 water to undergo their metamorphoses, and only make their appearance on the superficial reefs 

 on approaching the adult state, when they are in a fitter condition to cope with the strong 

 tides and heavy seas that circLilate through and break upon these areas. 



As intimately connected with the investigations prosecuted concerning the breeding phe- 

 nomena of Beche-de-mer, their rate of growth, and the habitats of the different varieties during 

 successive stages of their existence, the question naturally arose whether regulations were neces- 

 sary, or desirable, for prohibiting their collection or exposure for sale below any appointed size. 

 From the knowledge so far available, the institution of any such regulations would appear to be 

 premature. A careful examination of the minute epidermal spicules of all the leading varieties 

 of Beche-de-mer with the aid of a microscope demonstrated the fact that these differ from 

 one another, in separate species, to an appreciable extent. It was by this means found that the 

 fish placed upon the market, chiefly from New Guinea, as small-black fish, was not, as com- 

 monly believed, an immature ordinary-black fish, but an entirely distinct species. Subsequent 

 inquiries elicited the fact that this variety never grows to a large size, and that it was collected on 



