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Another group of worm-like or snaky creatures common on a coral-reef are the sea-cucumbers or beche-de-mer. In my experience the most singular branch of the family is at once the longest and thinnest, for it resembles a snake so closely that at first sight the observer subconsciously assumes an attitude of hostility. There seem to be two varieties of the species.
In the second place on the Barrier Reef is found the 'Holothuria', from which the 'beche-de-mer' is prepared. It is a kind of sea-slug, averaging from one to over two feet in length, and four to ten inches in girth. In appearance, these sea-cucumbers are more repulsive, looking like flabby black or green sausages, and squirting out a stream of salt water when pressed.
"The creatures the natives are collecting are the holothurians, or sea-cucumbers," answered the naturalist. "There are a great many species of these creatures; but, I believe, those found on banks of coral sand are the most valued." Emily and Grace, however, when they saw the creatures, could not help expressing exclamations of disgust at their appearance.
No bed of flowers, they say, can be more brilliant than the corals, as you look down on them through the clear sea. Fancy, again, growing among them and crawling over them, strange sea-anemones, shells, star-fish, sea-slugs, and sea-cucumbers with feathery gills, crabs, and shrimps, and hundreds of other animals, all as strange in shape, and as brilliant in colour. You may let your fancy run wild.
On this particular morning they sailed over sandy openings among the rocks, where Bostock drew attention to the abundance of those peculiar sea-slugs known in commerce as sea-cucumbers. "Why not try some o' them cooked one of these days, Master Carey?" said the old sailor. "Pah! Horrid! You never ate one, did you?"
In the water the animals resemble huge cucumbers, and they are therefore sometimes called "sea-cucumbers." They are found clinging to the rocks below low-water mark, and are from one to four feet in length. Their food consists of microscopic shell-fish which live upon the coral rocks. The trepang exported from this section requires considerable care in preparation.
And then it was he began to cock his comb at me and give himself airs, and show signs of a nasty temper.... "At last came a time when my fishing had been rather unlucky, and he began to hang about me in a queer, meditative way. I thought he might have been eating sea-cucumbers or something, but it was really just discontent on his part.
"There might be some in the bottom of the sea!" "I don't think so, Paul. Mr. Collier told me on the steamer that in the very deepest parts of the ocean there were no fish, only worms and sea-cucumbers and things like that." "If you'll listen a minute, sah," said the boatman, "yo'll heah somefin' wo'se than eveh come from de bottom ob de sea." "Worse?" "Worse!"
Also, it contained more than a dozen brown, unhealthy-looking, membranous things, shaped like long coin-purses, lined with rows of suckers, and with mouths at one end. "Sea-cucumbers! I've seen a trap full of 'em, almost to the door. They're after the bait, like everything else." Trap after trap was pulled, with varying success.
The fish bit at the newly baited hooks from which their brethren had just been taken, and Tom Platt and Long Jack moved methodically up and down the length of the trawl, the boat's nose surging under the wet line of hooks, stripping the sea-cucumbers that they called pumpkins, slatting off the fresh-caught cod against the gunwale, rebaiting, and loading Manuel's dory till dusk.
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