THE INDIAN OCEAN. 



337 



have some resemblance in form to a cucumber, 

 whence they are sometimes termed Sea-cucumbers ; in 

 the water, however, the body is often greatly length- 



SEA-CT7CUMBEP8 (Holothurice). 



ened, and, on being touched, is suddenly 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 Sea-urchins, and 

 surrounded by numerous tentacles. Mr. Crawfurd 

 describes it as " an unseemly-looking substance, of a 

 dirty-brown colour, hard, rigid, scarcely possessing 

 any power of locomotion, nor appearance of anima- 

 tion." 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 fre- 

 quent 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. 



