294 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



which could be lowered on to the bridge at will by means of a hinge ; 

 they carry the ordinary sail ; the anchors are of wood, for iron is 

 rarely used by the Malays ; their cables are made of ratan fibre ; the 

 crew of each bark consists of about thirty-seven, each shore-boat 

 having a crew of six men. At the moment of our visit they were 

 all occupied in fishing operations, some of them being anchored very 

 near to us. Seven or eight of their number, nearly naked, were 

 diving for trepang ; the padrone alone was unoccupied. An ardent 

 sun darted its rays upon their heads without appearing to incommode 

 them, an exposure which no European could hold up under. It was 

 near mid-day, and the moment, as our Malay captain assured us, most 

 favourable for the fishing. In fact, we saw that each diver returned 

 to the surface with at least one animal, and sometimes two, in his 

 hands. It appears that the higher the sun is above the horizon, the 

 more easily is the creature distinguished at the bottom. The divers 

 were so rapid in their movements, that they scarcely touched the 

 boat, into which they threw the animals, before they dived again. 

 When the boat was filled with them, it proceeded to the shore, and 

 its place was supplied by an empty one. I followed one of these, to 

 witness the process of curing which they adopted. 



" The Holothuria of Raffles Bay is from five to six inches long; 

 and about two in diameter ; it is a gross fleshy mass, somewhat 

 cylindrical in form, but no external organ is visible. The mollusc 

 glues itself to the rocks at the bottom of the sea, and, as it can only 

 move very slowly, the Malay divers seize it readily. The greatest 

 merit of a fisherman is to have a practised eye, to distinguish the 

 animal at the bottom, and to dive directly to the spot where it lies. 

 To preserve them, the fishermen throw them, while still living, into a 

 cauldron of boiling sea water, where they are stirred about by means 

 of a long pole, which is supported upon another pole fixed in the 

 earth, but having a forked end, which acts as a lever. In this process 

 the trepang gives up all the water it contains, and is withdrawn at the 

 end of two minutes. A man armed with a large knife now extracts 

 the entrails, and it is thrown into a second cauldron, having only a 

 small quantity of water, seasoned with mimosa bark. The object of 

 this second operation is to smoke the animal, in order to preserve it 

 the better, for the bark is consumed in the process. The trepang is 

 now placed upon hurdles and dried in the sun. When sufficiently 

 dried, it is stowed away in the hold of the proa. 



" It was about two o'clock in the afternoon when the divers ceased 

 their labours and came ashore. My tent was soon surrounded. I 

 recognised the captain of the proa among those who had previously 



