THE INDIAN OCEAN. 



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cucumber, whence they are sometimes termed Sea- 

 cucumbers; in the water, however, the body is often 



Sea-cucumbers (Holothuria). 



greatly lengthened, and, on being touched, is sud- 

 denly contracted so as completely to alter the form. 

 The mouth is at one end of the animal, furnished 

 with shelly teeth converging to a centre, as in the 

 Star-fishes, and surrounded by numerous tentacles. 

 Mr. Crawfurd describes it as " an unseemly-look- 

 ing substance, of a dirty-brown colour, hard, rigid, 

 scarcely possessing any power of locomotion, nor 

 appearance of animation." The usual length is 

 eight or nine inches, the diameter about an inch, 

 but some are two feet in length, and seven or eight 

 inches in girth. They frequent the shallow waters, 

 on reefs and in lagoons ; often exposed on the rock, 

 but sometimes nearly buried in the coral-sand, their 

 feathered tentacles alone appearing and floating 

 loosely in the water. The large kinds are often 



