They are also very frequently employed in the bêche de mer or trepang fisheries among the islands to the south.

I want to know what a coral reef really looks like, and if you saw any trepangs upon them?

Let us have the trepangs first.

Account of the Trepang Fishery on the coast of New Holland.

Trepang, a species of Holothuria (Priapulus sp., Lam. iii. 76), an animal collected by the Malays for the Chinese market.

The trepang were found about the rocks on the beach in great numbers, as they were also on the South Island.

One of the proas soon afterwards passed by with Dutch colours displayed, to which its crew repeatedly pointed, at the same time hailing us in an unintelligible jargon, of which Macassar and Trepang were the only words that were distinguished.

Account of the Trepang Fishery on the coast of New Holland.

The method of curing the trepang is thus described by Captain Flinders: "They get the trepang by diving, in from three to eight fathoms water; and where it is abundant, a man will bring up eight or ten at a time.

A thousand trepang make a picol, of about 125 Dutch pounds; and 100 picols are a cargo for a proa.

"There are two kinds of trepang.

The baatoo seems to be what we found upon the coral reefs near the Northumberland Islands; and were a colony established in Broad Sound or Shoalwater Bay it might perhaps derive considerable advantage from the trepang.

The value of the trepang in 1822 was much less; the price had fallen to twenty-five dollars the picol.)

The whole of this gulf is admirably formed for the trepang fishery and the animal is extremely abundant among the reefs.

In tribal wars the enemy laid a sea-slug at the heart of the maori, and, its foe unseen, the tree perished from the corruption of the hideous trepang.

VASHON HEAD has a considerable shoal projecting from it, and extending into the bay to the westward which was called TREPANG BAY.

On examining the reef fronting the island, which is a more perfect specimen of a lagoon than any we had yet seen, we found that the outer edge consisted of a wall higher than any of the parts within, rising at low-water, to an elevation of ten feet, while inside, pools or holes existed, three or four feet deep, containing live coral, sponges, sea-eggs, and trepang.

On the 28th of March, six Malay proas came in and were soon followed by others, their owners soliciting permission to erect their establishments for curing trepang under the protection of the British flag.

At sunset, we passed a small detached coral reef, and then steered for the Arru Islands, in the hope of being able to gain some information from the traders who frequent them, for the purpose of procuring the birds of Paradise, trepang, pearls, etc. which are found in their vicinity.

The large boats they have brought from the Ki Islands having been thatched over, and fitted with mat sails are then despatched through the various channels leading to the eastward, under the charge of a Chinaman, to trade for trepang, pearls, pearl oyster-shells, edible birds-nests, and birds of Paradise, in return for which they give chiefly knives, arrack, tobacco, coloured cottons, brass wire, ornaments for the arms, etc.

The trepang obtained here is only considered as third-rate; that from the Tenimber group second, and from Australia first-rate.

The produce of the Arrou Islands consists chiefly of pearls, mother-of-pearl shell, tortoise-shell, birds of paradise, and Trepang; but the trade of Dobbo is not dependent on the productions of the Arrou Islands alone.

This establishment had been put up by the crew of a small vessel from Sydney, and several such have at various times made voyages along this coast and in Torres Strait, collecting trepang and tortoiseshell, the latter procured from the natives by barter.

When the Bugis paid their annual visit to the coast several prahus remained to fish for trepang under the protection of the settlement.

Formerly bark canoes were in general use, but they are now completely superseded by others, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, which they procure ready-made from the Malays, in exchange for tortoise-shell, and in return for assistance in collecting trepang.