Ji38 THK OCEAN. 



The large kinds are often 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 collecting them by hand. A man 

 will bring up thus eight or ten at a time. They are 

 prepared for the market 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 the trepang 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 

 8,333 hundredweight ; 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 hundredweight. 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 



