340 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



number of which, when they are complete, is always a multiple 

 of five. They all have the power of changing their shapes in 

 the strangest manner, sometimes elongating themselves like 

 worms, sometimes contracting the middle of their bodies, so a* 

 to give themselves the shape of an- hour-glass, and then again 

 blowing themselves up with water, so as to be perfectly globular. 

 The great Sea-cucumber is the largest of all the known 

 European species, and probably one of the largest Cucumerice in 

 the world, measuring when at rest fully one foot, and capable 

 of extending itself to the length of three. Under the influence 

 of terror, it dismembers itself in the strangest manner. Having 

 no arms or legs to throw off, like its relations the luidia and the 

 brittle-star, it simply disgorges its viscera, and manages to live 

 without a stomach ; no doubt a much greater feat than if it 

 contrived to live without a head. According to the late Sir 

 James Dalyell, the lost parts are capable of regeneration, even 

 if the process of disgorgement went so far as to leave but an 

 empty sac behind. Considering the facility with which the 

 sea-cucumber separates itself from its digestive organs, it is the 

 more to be wondered how it tolerates the presence of a very 

 remarkable parasite, a fish belonging to the genus Fierasfer, 



Fierasfer. 



and about six inches long. This most impudent and intrusive 

 comrade enters the mouth of the cucumber, and, as the stomach 

 is too small for his reception, tears its sides, quartering himself 

 without ceremony between the viscera and the outer skin. The 

 reason for choosing this strange abode is as yet an enigma. 



The Holothurice, which in our part of the globe are very little 

 noticed, play a much more important part in the Indian Ocean, 

 where they are caught by millions, and, under the name of 



Trepang or Biche de mer, brought to 

 the markets of China and Cochin- 

 China. Hundreds of praos are annually 

 epang. fitted out in the ports of the Sunda 



Islands for the gathering of trepang ; and sailing with help of the 



