ers enable them to replace the organs so summarily
disposed of; for, wonderful as it may seem, teeth, stomach, digestive
organs, and all soon grow again. Moreover, these stomachs have digestive
powers that are not to be despised, far surpassing even those popularly
ascribed to the ostrich, for the sea-cucumber actually seems to feed
upon coral, and even granite has been found in its stomach.

[Illustration: SEA-CUCUMBERS.]

[Illustration: GATHERING SEA-CUCUMBERS.]

Sea-cucumbers, as they are popularly called, are also known by the name
of trepang and sea-slug. Scientific people call them _Holothuroideae_,
but why, no one has ever been able to find out, since the name has no
meaning. Sea-cucumbers are considered a great delicacy by the Chinese.
Thousands of Chinese vessels, called junks, are fitted out every year
for these fisheries. Trepangs are caught in different ways. Sometimes
the patient fishermen lie along the fore-part of vessels, and with long
slender bamboos, terminating in sharp hooks, gather in sea-cucumbers
from the bottom of the sea, so practiced in hand and eye that the catch
is never missed, and is discerned sometimes at thirty yards' distance.
When the water is not more than four or five fathoms deep, divers are
sent down to gather these culinary monsters, as seen in the
illustration, the boat and junk remaining near to receive the harvest.

[Illustration: THE PROCESS OF SCALDING.]

As soon as the trepangs are collected they are carried to the shore,
when they are scalded by throwing them alive into large iron pots set
over little ovens built of stones. Here they are stirred about by means
of a long pole resting upon a forked stick, as seen in the illustration.
In these vessels they remain a couple of minutes, when they are taken
out, disemboweled with a sharp knife, if they haven't already thrown up
their stomachs, and then taken to great bamboo sheds containing still
larger boilers. In these latter is water seasoned with mimosa bark. A
busy scene now ensues; all is bustle, noise, and activity. The bubbling
of the great caldrons, the incessant chatter of those engaged in the
work, the dumping of fresh loads of sea-cucumbers into the vessels, and
the removal of others to hang in clusters on the ropes above, or be
deposited on hurdles to dry in the sun, make "confusion worse
confounded," and give the spectator a new and realizing sense of the
confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel.

[Illustratio