The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-01-27
Sea-CucuInbers.

The sea-cucumbers, or as theyare known
in the scientific world the hOlOthJDid, are
extraordinary looking creatures, which
vary in size from two or three inches in
length, to more than yard. They bear
some resemblance to q cucumber, being a
long wOTm-ike cylinder open at one end.
Their exterior is Tuffled with little pro-
jectiOns, which are usually armed with
minute sharp hooks, by which the animal
can hang on TO foreign bodies for few
seconds.
Many of the species are able to produce
from their external pores q NEST irritating
lluid, which causes the hand that touches
them to itch intOlerably. But the creature
possesses q most wonderful power: when
from any cause it fears death, it can eject
all its teeth, its stomach, its digestive ap-
paratus, and reduce itself to a simple mem
braneOus sac. DR.. Johnston kept one Of
these animals in an aquarium; for some
reason or other he neglected to feed it, and
when after some days he visited it, he
found all its internal apparatus thrown
out on the floor of the vessel, and the hOlO-
thuria itself was q shrunllen, dilapidated,
and empty tube. Yet it was alive, and in
three months had reproduced all its organs
NuGM- LAlOL4Cl olLl+,l44tAA LiAoBN4LJ eAANsy
possess is that of being able to divide them
selves into two parts, each part becoming
4 separate creature. When this phenOme-
non is in progress, the middle Of the anF
NAL begins to contract, and the eXtreml-
ties to enlarge. This goes on until the
center is but thread; at last 1t snaps, and
forms two distict creatures, which IN time
furnish themselves with all the necessary
organs. Our fishermen throw away the sea-
cuCumbers, which are sometimes brought
I'D in their nets, and the SOuth-sea Island
ers cannot even look upon them without
lOathing. But this is not universally the
case. The Chinese relish them greatly,
and "trepang," as they call the hOlothuTia,
forms q very prominent article in all the
Chinese markets. The great trepang fishers
are the Malays. The eXpeTtness with which
they capture these creatures is marvellous.
By long experience they can see q trepang
at a depth of thirty yards. They then
poise a harpoOn made of a long bamboo,
and seldom or never miss their aim. To
prepare it the fish is boiled, then beaten
fat with stones, and finally dried in the
sun. 1t is said that q soup can be made
with it, little if at all inferior 10 that made
from The turtle.
The syHqpta, a peculiar genus Of the hoIO-
thurias, is a native of the English Channel.
1t is a beautiful creature, 4 cylinder of
which seems as if it were made OF rose
COlOred crystal, and passing through this
tube appears five narrow ribbons Of white
silk, which mingling together form the
head. The tissues are finer than the thin
est gaUze; and yet this creature lives on q
sandy bottom, and it is gorged from one
end to the other with sand; the sharp an
giles of the grains can be seen with the
naked eye, and yet they do not injure the
fine membranes through which they pass.
The synapta has also a peculiar mode of
meeting famine; just as q general turns
out Of a beleagUered city all the useless
so dees this creature cut off the
useless parts of its body. 1t effects this by
first forming a compression or ring, which
gradually tightens until all that part of
the cylinder which is below it drops off.
A synapta has been known to continue this
until only the head was
left, and in that head resided the life, which,
as soon as food was supplied to it, began to
the body it had so unceremO-
niOusly rejected.