Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/115

Rh on a wound or scratch, or into the eye, it caused intense pain, and sometimes resulted in temporary or even permanent blindness.

The sea-slugs were of all colors—black, red, gray, and two or three varieties of green. The most dangerous is an olive-green one marked with orange spots, and hence called the leopard. When it is disturbed it throws up long filaments like threads or strings, which adhere very tenaciously; and wherever they touch the skin they raise a burning blister.

Most of the sea-slugs are caught in still water by divers, who use forks with long prongs, with which they secure their prey. There is one variety, the red one, which is taken in the surf, but all the others prefer quiet nooks. When a canoe has been filled with these repulsive-looking objects it proceeds to the drying establishment on shore. There the creatures are thrown into a kettle of boiling water sufficiently long to kill them; then they are cleaned, and stewed for half an hour, and then placed on racks of sticks for smoking and drying.

The smoking must be kept up for three days, and longer if the weather is damp, and then the leathery substance is ready for packing in palm-leaf baskets for transportation to China. Great care must be taken to have it thoroughly dried, as the least remaining moisture will spoil it during its long voyage in the hold of a ship.

Sometimes fishes are found inside the sea-slug, and it seems to be well established that they live altogether in this contracted sea-water tank. When taken out and placed in clear salt-water they soon die, in spite of every precaution.

While looking over the side of the boat Fred saw a large clam, and immediately coveted it. The guide engaged a diver who was near by, and for a small reward the man went below for the prize.

The clam was lying with his mouth open, and evidently enjoying his morning bath of sea-water. The diver inserted a sharply pointed stick into the flesh of the mollusk, and the shell closed upon it instantly. Then he severed the filaments which attached the clam to the rock, and with one hand below the shell and another holding the stick, made his way to the surface.