'A Scotchman,' was the reply. 'Well, then,' replied the Yankee, I guess I pity you more than a little. I cannot take you away, but here's a sheathknife and a plug of James River cavendish, of which I make you a present; had you been an American, I would have had you tied up to the gangway and have given you a dozen with the cat-o'-nine-tails.' The Scot did not understand what he could have been guilty of to deserve this punishment, and asked the American to explain. 'Because,' retorted the commander, 'had you been a citizen of the United States I should have counted you a disgrace to humanity for letting yourself run wild among a lot of scalping savages; but seeing you are a Britisher, and there is not room enough for you all in your over-crowded country, I pity you from the bottom of my soul-I dew.' There are extraordinary industries as well as extraordinary men in Coral Lands. A chapter is certainly due to bêche-de mer. CHAPTER XXX. WHAT BÊCHE-DE-MER IS, HOW IT IS CAUGHT, AND WHAT IS DONE WITH IT. ALL the lagoon islands of the Coral Seas are famous for the production of bêche-de-mer, a kind of sea-snail, which is one of the most important articles of commerce obtained in the Pacific. Bêche-de-mer, called by the Chinese Tripang, by the Polynesians in the South Sea Rodi, and in the Caroline Group Menika, is that species of mollusc classed as the Holothurides. It has Christianity; and it was on account of some of these people that a Lord High Commissioner of Western Polynesia was appointed. If the Anglo-Saxon race is prepared to accept the responsibility that undoubtedly belongs to it in the Southern Seas, beachcombing, as beachcombing has been understood for years, will be a thing of the past. It was the 'mean whites' of the Southern States who ill-treated the negroes when they had the chance, and then stirred up the negroes to rebel against their masters. The beachcombers of the South Pacific are, taking them as a class, of a superior order to the almost extinct American caste referred to; but they will have to rise with the rise of Polynesia, or seek some other 'islands at the gateways of the day.' Face to face with an organisation having a higher end than mere money-making, and backed by the imperial power of Britain, the vast majority of the beachcombers would, I feel convinced, accept the situation, serve themselves and advance their nationality and race. The majority of these men are of British stock, some of them with good yeomen's blood in their veins, but they could not be persuaded by any human inducement to return to the old world. One of them at Samoa used to say: 'Sir, I wouldn't go back to Britain now if you would give me £1000 a year; yet I will say that when I came here first, more than fifty years ago, I had a fashion of sitting on the stones by the seaside of a night, and crying to myself for the home and friends I should never see again. I know better now, and have done so many a year.' When Commodore Wilkes's exploring expedition visited the Navigators' Isles our friend went on board the Porpoise, dressed in savage mats, and begged the captain to take him away. 'I don't want any men,' was the answer; 'but what countryman are you?' 'A Scotchman,' was the reply. Well, then,' replied the Yankee, 'I guess I pity you more than a little. I cannot take you away, but here's a sheathknife and a plug of James River cavendish, of which I make you a present; had you been an American, I would have had you tied up to the gangway and have given you a dozen with the cat-o'-nine-tails.' The Scot did not understand what he could have been guilty of to deserve this punishment, and asked the American to explain. 'Because,' retorted the commander, 'had you been a citizen of the United States I should have counted you a disgrace to humanity for letting yourself run wild among a lot of scalping savages; but seeing you are a Britisher, and there is not room enough for you all in your over-crowded country, I pity you from the bottom of my soul-I dew.' There are extraordinary industries as well as extraordinary men in Coral Lands. A chapter is certainly due to bêche-de mer. CHAPTER XXX. WHAT BÊCHE-DE-MER IS, HOW IT IS CAUGHT, AND WHAT IS DONE WITH IT. ALL the lagoon islands of the Coral Seas are famous for the production of bêche-de-mer, a kind of sea-snail, which is one of the most important articles of commerce obtained in the Pacific. Bêche-de-mer, called by the Chinese Tripang, by the Polynesians in the South Sea Rodi, and in the Caroline Group Menika, is that species of mollusc classed as the Holothurides. It has the appearance of a great slug or leech, and like most other marine animals of the same type, lives by suction, and upon microscopic animalculæ. Its anatomical structure is simple. It has the form of an elongated sac, of a gristly consistence, traversed internally by strong muscles; the rest consists of intestines, which are perfectly transparent, and, on close examination, appear to contain nothing but water and sand-of the latter a very large proportion, although what part so indigestible a substance can play in the economy of its organism may be known to the creature itself, but certainly is a puzzle to me. When disturbed it swells itself up very considerably, and takes in a great quantity of water, which much increases its size. It is so elastic, that if slung by the middle across a pole it will, by its own weight, stretch to several times its normal length. The mouth of the bêche-de-mer is triangular, with three teeth like those of a leech. It has no appearance of eyes. Its powers of locomotion are limited, so much so, that one could not perceive it move except by observing its relative distance from any neighbouring object. Its normal condition is that of repose; perhaps it is a very harmless creature, but its degree of usefulness when alive seems very circumscribed. It has few enemies, with the exception of the turtle, which only molests it in the days of its youth, and at certain seasons of the year. Crawling along the mossy coral of the snow-white bottom of the lagoon, it leads a curious sort of life of passive enjoyment, which, as far as I could ever make out, seems to consist in taking water and sand in at one end, and squirting it out at the other. There are four kinds of bêche-de-mer-the grey, the black, the red, and the leopard. The grey kind is the most valuable, but it is only found where the hawk's-bill turtle is found; that is to say, not much to windward (eastward) of the 180th meridian. It reaches usually when at maturity to about 18 inches long, and somewhat less in circumference. The colour is a slatey grey, and it is distinguished from the other species. by having upon either side a row of little protuberances like teats. It frequents the flat reef and the sandy bottom of shallow lagoons. The black bêche-de-mer lives only on clean sandy bottoms, at a depth from knee-deep at low-water down to 10 fathoms. It grows large, sometimes as long as 30 inches, and as thick as a man's leg. On the back and sides it is jet black, smooth and bright like enamelled leather; the underside is a bluish, slatey grey. When very old it becomes encrusted with small shells. The red kind is the smallest, and of least value; it seldom attains more than a foot in length, usually less. It lives upon the coral reef, in the greatest profusion towards the outer edge, where the surf is continuously breaking. In this respect it differs essentially from the beach kind, which delights in quiet waters and smooth sand, and will not live either near noisy waves or on rough coral rocks. The leopard kind grows as large as the largest of the black; it is of an olive-green colour, variegated with green spots, surrounded by an orange-coloured rim, hence its name. It has another peculiarity all bêche-de-mer are harmless when laid hold of but this one. When touched it ejects a quantity of slender filaments, something like white cotton lamp-wick; it can produce several hanks of it, so to speak. It is glutinous, and whatever it touches, it attaches itself to it in the most tenacious manner. * This would not signify if it were merely : * It is probably furnished with the same adhesive apparatus peculiar to the anemones of our own shores—each tentacle of which is equipped with myriads of minute javelins which are darted out the instant anything comes within their touch, each javelin being connected to the tentacle by a fine thread. |