170 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
prepared, they fetch about 470 a ton. The chief mode of using 
them is in soup; cut into shreds, and boiled with certain condiments 
suggested by culinary artists, they produce a soup not inferior in 
delicacy to that of the turtle. 
An edible species is found in the Mediterranean, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Naples, where it is esteemed a great delicacy; it is 
the Holothuria tubulosa, which is peculiarly interesting from the 
little parasite fish, the /verasfer Fontanesii, which does it the 
honour of abiding with it. 
There is an animal analogous to the holothuria—indeed, it is 
MALAYS FISHING FOR TREPANGS, 
a member of the same family, and a very near relation—the 
Synapta. It is distinguished from the holothuria chiefly by the 
fact that it has no ambulacral organs—it is footless. The skin 
is transparent, so that we can see the internal economy of the 
creature. The microscope reveals a great number of spicule, 
which are peculiarly arranged in the tentacles. The synapte live 
upon peaty bottoms, and they seem to subsist upon the organic 
matter they find there. 
The Syxapta Duvernea, which was discovered by Quartrefages 
at the Isle of Chausey, is the most singular member of the family. 
Imagine a cylinder of rose-coloured crystal as much as eighteen 
inches long, and more than an inch in diameter, traversed through- 
