BECHE-DE-MER FISHERIES. 



successfully.-, the precaution is taken, by experts, to slit open and eviscerate the fish before 

 boiling. It, on the contrary-, the boiling process is, as customary- with the better sorts, first 

 practised, the organism shrinks up to a mere hollow skin. A similar plan of treatment would 

 not improbably be found efficacious for the curing of many additional species of Beche-de-mer. 

 Regarding the "Sand-fish," which occupies the lowest position on the commercial list, the 

 most detrimental thing about it is the thick encrustmcnt of minute calcareous spicules with 

 which its integument is filled. These are so abundantly developed that it is possible to 

 utilise the dried bodies, like chalk, for marking purposes. When mixing the Sand-fish 

 with other more valuable types, the subterfuge is not unfrequently resorted to of dyeing 

 their bodies a deep red-brown in a decoction of the bark of the red mangrove, Rlnzophora 

 mucronata. Thus treated, they are not easilj* detected, when mixed in bulk, from the poorer 

 descriptions of ordinary red-fish. 



Spirit-preserved specimens of all of the leading varieties of Barrier Reef Beche-de-mer 

 were brought to England by the author, and have been contributed b}' him to the British 

 (Natural History) Museum collections. At that institution the series has been carefully worked 

 through by Professor F. Jeffrey Bell, the specialist in charge of the Echinoderm Department, 

 so that it is possible in these pages to publish a complete list of their scientific as well as 

 their vernacular designations. The Beche-de-mer contained in the collection examined and 

 identified by Professor Bell number no fewer than fourteen distinct species. To these, several 

 supplementary forms, either previously identified by the author, or represented by photo- 

 graphs or sketches in his note-books, are here added, swelling the series of edible Barrier species, 

 and their near allies, to twenty. The list in its complete form is herewith subjoined. — 



GREAT BARRIER REEF BfiCHE-DE-MER. 



Popular Name. 



1 Red Prickly-fish 



2 Green Prickly 



3 Yellow Prickly 



4 Stone-fish 



5 Ordinary Red-fish 



6 Surf-Red 



7 Deep-water red 



8 Black-fish 



9 Black or Ordinary Teat-fish 



10 White Teat-fish 



11 Grey Sand-fish 



12 White Sand-fish 



1 3 Brown Sand-fish 



Technical Name. 



Sticliopiis variegatns 

 ,, chloronotus 

 ,, lutca, n.sp. 

 Actinopyga Iccaiiora 

 , , obcsa 



,, luauiitiaiia 



,, cchiiiitcs 



,, polyuiovpha, n.sp. 



Holotliitria niaiiniiifcra, n.sp. 

 ,, iiiariiiorata, n.sp. 



fiisco-cincrca 

 , , ediilis 



,. irupatiens 



H H 



