XII, D, 4 Seale: Sea Products of Mindanao and Sulu 205 



these islands, but because the Samals, or water Moros, who do 

 most of the fishing, live near these places. There is more trepang 

 in Davao Gulf than in any other place I have visited, but there 

 is no trepang fishery at that place, because there are no fisher- 

 men who understand the gathering and preparing of trepang. 



The revenues derived from the trepang fisheries could be con- 

 siderably increased by the spread of a little information that 

 would lead to the opening of additional fisheries and to the im- 

 proving of the methods of preparation. 



This information could be disseminated in the most practical 

 manner through certain schools. The students could be easily 

 taught to recognize, cure, and market the various grades, thus 

 providing a small income for themselves and at the same time 

 improving the quality of the prepared grades of trepang. 



Trepang from the Philippine Islands is put on the market 

 in the poorest condition and brings the lowest price of any tre- 

 pang — almost a third lower than the price obtained for Celebes 

 and Australian trepang, although the species are the same. The 

 need for more careful preparation of this product is obvious. 



LOCAL NAMES, VARIETIES, AND VALUES OF TREPANG 



Trepang (Malay, tripang) is a commercial product consisting 

 of the dried bodies of various species of echinoderms of the family 

 Holothuriidse. The name is also applied to the living animal. 

 Trepang is widely known under the name beche de mer. The 

 English names for the animal are sea cucumber and cotton-spin- 

 ner. The Moro name is bot. There are many other local names, 

 such as balat, balatan, balate namaco, hi sam, and munsang.^ 



There are about sixteen principal varieties and forty-seven 

 commercial grades in the Philippines. In color they range from 

 white to black. Some are smooth ; others are covered with prick- 

 les. In life their length is from 12.5 to 45 centimeters or more, 

 but when dry they are seldom more than 20 centimeters in length 

 and from 2.5 to 8 centimeters in diameter. When properly 

 cured, they look like a bologna sausage and should be dry enough 

 to "rattle like walnuts in a bag." 



Each species of commercial trepang is divided into three 

 grades: namely, large (toa), medium (tiong), and small (How), 

 with their corresponding values. Thus the three grades of the 

 oh nyeow are toa oh nyeow sam, valued at 150 pesos per picul; 

 tiong oh nyeow sam, valued at 100 pesos per picul; and liow oh 



' A check list of Philippine holothurians will be found in This Journal, 

 Sec. D (1911), 6, 312. 



