WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 285, 1 December 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

BECHE-DE-MER. A CHINESE DELICACY.

(By A. T. PYCROFT.)

That Chines© delicacy popularly known as beche-de-mer, or trepang, is a holothurian, or sea cucumber, ( and is an elongated or worm-like creature with a mouth at one end and a vent at the other. The skin is leathery, and contains a comparatively small amount of calcareous matter. Holotliurians are of interest as furnishing' a food known as beche-de-mer, from the French "sea spade." "Trepang," the other popular name, is of Malay origin. Some holothurians live in mud, but one species lives in the East Pacific, on the surface of the ocean. There are many species, but all are not of commercial value. Holotliurians have no means of offence, but protect themselves for the most part by assuming the colour of their surroundings. One 6pecies, which reaches a length of 6ft, has a liabit when taken in tlie hand of squeezing the fluid contents of its body towards the portion that is grasped till it becomes too big to hold. Some, when much irritated, seem to fade away and dissolve by breaking up their tissues, while others' have an objectionable liabit of shooting out a part of their intestines in long viscous strings, and it is owing to this that a common British form lias gained the name of cotton spinner. E. J. Banfield refers to the beclie-de-mer as rough and repulsive in appearance and sluggish in liabit; it lias great power of contractibility. It may assume a dumpy oval shape, and again drag out its length until it resembles an attenuated German sausage, black in colour. Its "face" may be obtruded and withdrawn at pleasure, or rather will, for what creature, says Banfield, could have pleasure in a face like a ravelled mop. Beche-de-mer, though called fish by tradesmen, neither swims nor floats, neither does it crawl, nor wriggle/ nor hop, skip nor jump. It simply moves on the ocean floor, when not reposing in apparently absolute and unconscious idleness. Nor does the creature possess any means of self-protec-tion. Some species are rough and prickly, and are said to irritate tlie hand that grasps them. Others, either in nervousness or a result of shock to the system, or to amaze and affright the beholder, shoot out interminable lengths of filmy, cottony threads, white and glutinous, until one is astonished that a small body should contain such a quantity of yarn ready spun.

Methods of Securing and Curing. Th© "fish" are collected by the black boys on the coral reefs, dived for, picked up with spears from punts, or by hand m shallow water. Some prefer to fish at high water, for then they are less shy, and emerge from nooks in the rocks and coral, and in the limpid water are readily seen at considerable depths. Thin the boys dive or dexterously secure tlic fish with their slender but tough spears four fathoms long. At the curing station, frequently aboard the owner's schooner or lugg-jr, they are boiled, the "fish" supplying nearly all the water for tlieir own cooking. Then each is cut open lengthwise, with a sharp knife, and its interior js exposed by a thin skewer of wood. on wire-netting trays, in series, the ' fish are smoked or desiccated in a furnace heated preferably with mangrove wool, and finally exposed to the sun to eliminate dampness, which may have been absorbed on removal from the smoke house. When the "fish" leave the smoke house they have shrunk to small dimensions, and resemble pieces of smoked hide, more or less curled and crumpled. In this condition they are sent away to China and elsewhere to be used in soup. This delicacy is now being used in Australi-; it is said to be very strengthening, though without elaborate cooking It i* almost tasteless. It is merely a substantial foundation, or stock, for a more or less artistic culinary effort. Among parasites of holothurians should be mentioned a little fish that inhabits the intestines of some species, and has its food provided for it by the holothurian. There are some half score species of these very small eel-like parasitic fishes; they are interesting on account of their curious mode of life; they frequent the hollows in the bodies of jelly fish, the breathing chambers of star fishes and holothurians, and sometimes insinuating themselves between the layers of the mantle of pearl mussels or other bivalve molluscs.

Life On the Great Barrier Reef. Space will only permit of brief reference to other forms of life, besides beche-de-mer, to be seen on the Great Barrier Reef. There are clams both large and small. Each of these, irrespective of size, when affected by the visitor's shadow or nearby presence, spouted a jet of water into the air when in the act of withdrawing into its impregnable fortress, when, with shells locked, it frustrated further, investigation. Cowries are numerous. The soft animals, exquisitively coloured, cover their shiny shells, but when frightened they contract into these beautiful shells. The egg cowry, ovula ovum, whose jet black animal lives in a shiny, pure white shell, is to be seen on the living coral, an unusual situation for a mollusc. This white cowry is used by the Solomon Islanders for decorating their canoes. The melon or bailer shell may also be found on the reef. It some times measures fourteen inches by twelve, and is sometimes used as a bailer for small boats. A large whelk, the shell of which is fringed with long curved finger-like spines, is common. It is popularly known as the spider shell. The pearl button shell, or trochus, is a cone-shaped pink and white shellfish, which lives amongst rocks in moderately deep water. Tons of these shells are used annually in the manufacture of pearl buttons. There are many other kinds ot shells, hundreds of species, to be collected. Now and again an octopus will be seen; one species can change its colour like a chameleon. Various kinds of sea urchins are much in evidence. Like the beche-de-mer they are sand feeders. The greatest care is needed when examining the needle-spined urchin because of the foot-long spines arriied with a needlelike point. Should the observer be so unfortunate as to be pierced by these poisonous spines the wound is aggravated by tlia brittle points breaking oft in the flesh. Anemones a foot or more across are to be seen. Some are a ne emerald green, and present a fin® S 'S * with their hundreds of _ „ rnflsS to gently swaymg in their^ come in contact with species, food. Others, even of the • -a g may . brUltat..toctn* "»• ming unharmed s D olDe times found laden tentacles a-o ce ;., ike gaily-coloure p jously mentioned, KX .» " "tapcrvlou. to .tuck i f r om their hosts.