264 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



the appearance of a great slug or leech, and like most other 

 marine animals of the same type, lives by suction, and upon 

 microscopic animalculse. Its anatomical structure is simple. 

 It has the form of an elongated sac, of a gristly consistence, 

 traversed internally by strong muscles; the rest consists of 

 intestines, which are perfectly transparent, and, on close ex- 

 amination, appear to contain nothing but water and sand of 

 the latter a very large proportion, although what part so in- 

 digestible a substance can play in the economy of its organism 

 may be known to the creature itself, but certainly is a puzzle 

 to me. When disturbed it swells itself up very considerably, 

 and takes in a great quantity of water, which much increases its 

 size. It is so elastic, that if slung by the middle across a pole 

 it will, by its own weight, stretch to several times its normal 

 length. 



The mouth of the beclw-de-mer is triangular, with three teeth 

 like those of a leech. It has no appearance of eyes. Its 

 powers of locomotion are limited, so much so, that one could 

 not perceive it move except by observing its relative distance 

 from any neighbouring object. Its normal condition is that of 

 repose ; perhaps it is a very harmless creature, but its degree 

 of usefulness when alive seems very circumscribed. It has 

 few enemies, with the exception of the turtle, which only 

 molests it in the days of its youth, and at certain seasons of 

 the year. Crawling along the mossy coral of the snow-white 

 bottom of the lagoon, it leads a curious sort of life of passive 

 enjoyment, which, as far as I could ever make out, seems to 

 consist in taking water and sand in at one end, and squirting 

 it out at the other. 



There are four kinds of beche-de-mer the grey, the black, 

 the red, and the leopard. The grey kind is the most valuable, 

 but it is only found where the hawk's-bill turtle is found ; that 



