THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF AUSTRALIA. 325 



Of the Beche-cle-Mer Fisheries, Mr. Saville Kent gives a very 

 interesting account (pp. 225 — 242), from which we extract the 

 following : — 



" Beche-de-mer, Sea-slugs, Sea-cucumbers, or Trepang, as the reef- 

 frequenting animals dealt with in this chapter are variously designated, 

 represent an ordinal group, that of the HolothuridcB, which belongs 

 systematically to the class of the invertebrate sub-kingdom which is 

 distinguished by biologists under the title of the Echinodermata. The 

 term Beche-de-mer, by which the organisms are now most generally known 

 in trade circles, is the French form of the older title of Bicho-domar, 

 signifying a sea-worm or sea-slug, which was suggestively applied by the 

 older Portuguese navigators to that marine produce which from the earliest 

 times has constituted so important an article of commerce in China and 

 the Malayo-Polynesian region generally, where it is better known under the 

 colloquial title of Trepang. Sea-slugs and Sea-cucumbers are Anglo-Saxon 

 titles, having reference to the general shape of the animals, and they have 

 been applied popularly to various allied species, mostly smaller, and having 

 no commercial value, which are indigenous to British waters. 



" The class Echinodermata includes, in addition to the original group 

 of the HolothuridcB, or Beche-de-mer, all the innumerable varieties of Star- 

 fishes and the spine-bearing Sea-urchins or Echini. The fundamental 

 structure iu each of these orders is identical. This may be most readily 

 understood by an examination of their organs of locomotion, which are 

 found, in each of the allied groups mentioned, to consist of a series of 

 extensile tubular organs, ■ ambulacra,' which terminate in adhesive 

 suctorial disks, and are not possessed by any other class of the animal 

 kingdom. The representatives of the Holothuridce, or Beche-de-mer, are 

 distinguished from their allies, the Star-fishes and Sea-urchins, by their 

 elongate, somewhat cucumber- or sausage-shaped bodies, which, in all the 

 commercial forms, are capable of great contraction aud extension. The 

 mouth, which is situated at one extremity of the body, is surrounded by a 

 series of plumose or tufted tentacles ; a circular or pentagonal aperture at 

 the opposite end is the vent. 



" The food of Beche-de-mer consists chiefly of the microscopic 

 calcareous-shelled animals known as Foraminijera, which are swallowed in 

 combination with a large percentage of sand and broken fragments of 

 shells and corals. The process of feeding, as observed by the author in a 

 large number of varieties, is iu all cases identical and somewhat remark- 

 able. The tufted, mop-like tentacles are one by one swept over the 

 surface of the ground or reef upon which the animal is feeding, aud iu 

 corresponding order they are recurved towards the mouth, and thrust with 

 the adherent food-matter down the creature's throat ; in reverse order they 

 are extended to annex more pabulum. 



