178 On Cyrtoma, a new genus of Fossil Echinida. 



depend on its size, but upon some peculiar property quite 

 unknown to those who have been long and extensively en- 

 gaged in the trade. In shallow water the animal is caught 

 with the hand, but in deep water it is either speared or 

 brought up by divers. It is then gutted, dried in the sun, 

 and smoked over a wood fire. The fishery is carried on 

 from the western shores of New Guinea and the southern 

 shores of Australia to Ceylon, and within late years it has 

 been extended to the shores of the Mauritius, and might be 

 carried on successfully both in the Persian Gulf and Bay of 

 Bengal, as we learn from Capt. Lloyd the animal abounds on 

 all the sandy parts of the beach, between coral reefs in 

 particular, on the Tenasserim coast, and adjoining islands. 

 The whole produce goes to China. In the market at Macassar 

 not less than thirty varieties are said to be distinguishable 

 by well known names, and varying in price from five Spanish 

 dollars per picul (13o| lbs.) to fourteen times that price. 

 The quantity of Trepang sent annually from this port alone, is 

 said by Mr. Crawford to be 7000 piculs, the price varying 

 according to the species from 8 to 1 10 and 115 dollars per 

 picul. There is also a considerable export of Trepang from 

 Manilla and other ports. The first knowledge of this traffic 

 appears to be due to Capt. Flinders, who in 1803 fell in with 

 a fleet consisting of sixty proas, manned with a thousand 

 men, on an expedition from Macassar to the Australian coast 

 for Trepang, where Capt. Flinders had seen them in vast 

 abundance. The Trepang, Capt. Flinders observes, is carried 

 to Timor and sold to the Chinese, who there meet the proas 

 on return from the expedition. Capt. Flinders remarks 

 there are two kinds of Trepang, white and black ; the black is 

 sold to the Chinese at forty dollars the picul, the white or 

 grey is worth but half that sum. The black sort was found 

 by Capt. Flinders on the coral reefs near Northumber- 

 land islands, and were a colony established there in Broad. 

 Sound, or Shoal-water Bay, it might derive great advantage, 

 he thinks, from Trepang. In the Gulf of Carpentara he ob- 



