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Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 19

QUAINT HARVESTS FOR THE EPICURE Long before Captain Cook landed on our shores Malays from Macassar fished in our northern waters for beche-de-mer, that marine product which from the earliest times has constituted so important an article of commerce in China and the _ Malayo-Polynesian region, where it is better known as trepang (writes Frank Reid, in the Melbourne ‘Argus’). At first the Malays procured the sea slugs in the vicinity of Java, and upon a ary shoal lying to the south of llottea, but later on one of their proas was driven by a northwest monsoon to our northern coast, somewhere in the vicinity of Caledon Bay. Finding beche-de-mer abundant they afterwards returned and fished for the slugs until recent times The first white man to place the industry on a solid footing in Australian waters was a Melbourne sailor named James Aickin. _ He found beche-cle-pier near Lady Eliott Island in 1844, but it has never been plentiful in these southern waters. Most of .it has been found within the Barrier Reef, between Mackay and Thursday Island, and on the, west coast of Cape York Peninsula.

In Torres Strait the industry is carried on by means of small luggers of five or six tons burden. These make daily voyages from the curing station to the neighbouring reefs, winch are exposed at low water; or a 'fleet of them may remain in the vicinity of the reefs, one or more acting as tenders to convey the fish to the curing station, and. to bring back supplies A fewlarge schooners or other ships, from twenty to fifty tons, are fitted out from both Thursday Island and Cooktown, which carry with them sme Icehouses, small boats and all the appliances requisite for collecting and curing. These craft shift their anchorage from place to place among the reefs, sending their boats in all directions to collect the fish.

The crews employed in gathering trepang consist . chiefly of mainland aborigines, with an admixture of Torres Strait and South Sea Islanders. The natives of Papua were _ formerly employed extensively in this fishery, and they proved to be very industrious and profitable workmen. For the craft licensed from Thursday Island the aboriginal crews are recruited to a large extent from the mainland mission stations and the Batavia River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. 1 The collecting of trepang is accomplished during the low tides in the new and full phases of the moon, and eight or ten days in 'eabh lunar month are thus profitably employed The greater portion of the trepang is simnly nicked off the reefs when the water has receded, but the finest fish are obtained by diving, during the same low tides, from a depth of two or threw fathoms. A DEADLY FEAST. There are about fourteen varieties of trepang. That known ,as “red prickly pear ” is the most highly prized on the Chinese markets, but many years ago a fisherman at Cooktown used a copper boiler. Several Chinese epicures died after partaking of soup prepared from the fish treated in this boiler, and the “ red prickly ” was for a time credited with poisonous qualities The consignment was traced to its origin, and popular opinion at the time was that the boiler had, unknown to the proprietor of the station, induced verdigris. All trepang is now cooked in iron vessels, the bottom half of a malt tank being a common boiler. Touching on these ’ trepang tanks hrimrs to mind a sad tragedy/ in a fishing camp some thihtv yoarij agp| in which a tribe of wild aborigines/were the aggressors. The trepang'Camp in. this instance was established on Lizard Island, and ! was worked, by a man named Watson, who resided there with his wife'and family. During his absence one day with all hands, excepting a Chinese gardener -natives from the mainland attacked the camp. Mrs Watson and the Chinaman bravely defended it, and ultimately forced the blacks to retreat. In the night, fearing that a more serious attack was contemplated. Mrs Watson, with her infant and the Chinaman, embarked in an old trenanrr tank, aff the boats being absent, and floated away in the hope of being seen and picked up by one of the passing steamers. They ulimmtelv reached No. 5 Island of the Howick group, whsro there was pp drmjcinp* water, and where they perished from hunger and thirst. A few days later when the bodies were found n diary which had been kept by Mrs Watson gave the broad details of the enisode. Both diary and tanks aro now exhibited in the Brisbane Museum. ~ ABORIGINES AND SHARKS.

' I wotked for two years on a beche-de-mer lugger, and one of the first things 1 noticed was that the aborigines were not greatly afraid of sharks. A direr may lose a leg or an arm, or be carried off bodily if a shark approaches unseen. Fairly warned, he will dive to the bottom, disturb the water, and thus elude the attack, and if the shark impolitely interrupts him at a critical moment he will give fight. I recall two stories of narrow escapes. One concerns a dusky beche-de-mer diver, who was taking a crayfish to the surface and suddenly found himself in a furious engagement. It was foolish of the diver to have a crayfish in his possession, as sharks are very fond of them. He came out of the encounter with a lacerated thigh and one arm missing. The other story refers to an aborigine named ** Treacle,” who was swimming naked and abstracted close to a reef in search of the slugs. He awokb to an amazing situation. His head was actually in the shark’s wideopen mouth. The diver acted sharply. He withdrew his head in a flash, having at the same time “ punched ” the shark, as he expressed it, to distract it, and rescued himself after a brisk tussle. ' Ho lived to prove the adventure with a terribly scarred face, and for many years was one of tbs most remarkable characters at Thursday Island. Ho died two years ago on one of the islands in Torres Strait. A few months ago two divers on the-beche-de-mer lugger Viking had narrow escapes from death as a result of being attacked by sharks. When the lugger was anchored in the vicinity of the Barrier Reef, seventy miles from Bowen, an aboriginal diver named Bob, while seeking the sea slugs, was attacked by a Targe shark. The monster tore a large piece of flesh from his hip, but as it turned to attack him again the other aborigines, with knives in their teeth, dived to the rescue. A movement from the shark sent the knife spinning out of one man’s hand, but his companion thrust his sharp blade deep into the monster’s stomach, killing it almost instantly. The injured diver was brought to Bowen and admitted to hospital. Then the lugger returned to the Barrier Reef, hut two days later when Taked, the Japanese captain, was 20ft below the surface a shark grabbed his wrist in its jaws, stripping the flesh from the bone. The monster was travelling so swiftly that it went past the diver, and before it could turn he had been dragged into a dinghy. Later on ho was taken to Mackay and he underwent an operation in hospital. During the 1929 cyclone which caused so much damage to Cairns and

other towns in North Queensland, ft' Japanese skipper of a lugger which was operating on a beche-de-mer bed off Cooktown was swept overboard at midnight. Owing to the roar of the wind his screams did not reach the ears of tho crew. . Tho skipper fortunately managed to grip a rope which was trailing behind the lugger, but the rough sea prevented him climbing on board. When rescued at daylight the rope had almost cut through both hands, and they had to he amputated when the lugger reached port. THE TERROR OF THE REEF, Naked beche-de-mer divers fear the huge Barrier Reef groper more than anything else. One of these giant cod caught near Mackay some months back measured 6ft 2in in length, with a girth :of 4ft Sin. Its weight was about 4}cwt. The late Mr Lee, wellknown Queensland crocodile hunter, also caught one near Prosperine which measured 7ft lin in length, Bft in girth, and weighed More than Scwt. Several. trepang divers have 'lost legs and arms as a result of meeting one of these- huge fish under water. Aborigines have told me' that sharks will circle around their prey several times before attacking, and thus_ offer a chance of escape, but that the groper, hiding in a rocky cavern, makes one dash at a naked diver and never misses.

The experiment of introducing beche-de-mer to the local market was tried some years back. An enterprising firm began to preserve trepang m tins, th» contents of which, when boiled and seasoned with the proper ingredients, furnished a delicious soup; This experiment, however, did not ’ meet! with much success, and at present' very few. Australian firms number -tinned-; tr*. pang among their goods.