356 THE OCEAN. 



obtained by spearing them upon the rocks in shallow 

 water ; but the ordinary mode of obtaining them is 

 by diving in from three to five fathoms, and collect- 

 ing them by hand. A man will bring up thus eight 

 or ten at a time. They are prepared for the mar- 

 ket by being split down one side, boiled, and pressed 

 flat with stones : then, being stretched on bamboo 

 slips, they are dried in the sun, and afterwards in 

 smoke, and packed away in bags. In this state it 

 is put on board the junks, and is in great demand 

 in China for the composition of nutritious soups, 

 in which that singular people so much delight. The 

 quantity of this article of food, annually sent to 

 China from Macassar, amounts to 8333 hundred- 

 weight ; the price of which varies, according to the 

 quality, (for there are upwards of thirty varieties 

 distinguished in the market,) from thirty shillings 

 sterling to upwards of twenty guineas per hnndred- 

 weight. The extent of the traffic may be inferred 

 from the number of vessels employed in it: Captain 

 Flinders was informed, when near the north coast 

 of New Holland, that a fleet of sixty proas, carrying 

 a thousand men, had left Macassar for that coast 

 two months before, in search of this sea-slug; and 

 Captain King was informed that two hundred proas 

 annually leave Macassar for this fishery. They sail 

 in January, coasting from island to island, till they 

 reach Timor, and thence steer for New Holland, 

 when they scatter themselves in small fleets, and 

 having fished along the coast, return about the end 

 of May, when the westerly monsoon breaks up. 

 The periodical change of the direction of the 



