112 
IIP®, IN ITS LOWER FORMS. 
the long body of the animal, begins to exhibit the same 
peculiarities as the okl one, though longer time be required 
to attain perfection. Other species of the Ilolothuria divide 
spontaneously through the middle into two or more parts, 
all becoming ultimately perfect by the development of 
new organs. The animal may even lose and regenerate 
its organs more than once. 
The Sea-cucumbers are mostly small with us;* but in 
the shallow seas of the tropics they attain the size of the 
juicy vegetable after which they are named. They are 
esteemed as delicacies by the omnivorous Chinese ; and 
the fishing for them, with the subsequent processes of pre- 
paring and bringing them to market, forms an important 
branch of commercial industry in the Oriental seas. Some 
of the species are two feet in length and seven or eight 
inches in circumference, but others are much less. The 
larger sort are sometimes 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 article, now called tre- 
pang, 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 
* Cucumaria frondosa , — the “King of the Sea-cucumbers,” — is occasionally 
taken in tho Shetland seas, a foot and upwards in length. 
