Trepang

Trepang, the Malay name for species of Holothuria, principally H. edulis and H. nigra, much esteemed in China as a food delicacy. It passes also under the name of 'bêche de mer,' or sea-slug. The ordinary kind resembles a prickly cucumber; but they vary in colour when dried, being black, white, or red. There are no less than thirty-three different varieties enumerated by Chinese traders. It is gutted, boiled, split open, and smoke-dried. The average size is about 8 inches long, but some are found 2 feet in length. In the commercial form it is very hard and rigid, but when boiled down into a kind of gelatinous soup it is much esteemed. The fishing is carried on extensively on the northern coast of Australia, in India, Fiji, Tahiti, Macassar, Sumatra, and New Caledonia. Although there are so many varieties, only about five kinds have any great commercial value—viz. brown, large and small black, red, and white: these rank in importance in the order given. The average annual imports into China of trepang of late years are some 50,000 cwt., valued at about £250,000. It is only in China (where it is valued as an aphrodisiac) that this marine food-substance is appreciated; some is shipped annually from India to Hong-kong, and a little also from Japan.