ken as
being only about one-tenth part as valuable as the white.

Tortoise-shell they collect and sell at very high prices, the bulk of
it going over to supply the China market with that article, a small
quantity only being annually sent to Europe.

Beche de mer, or tripang, is a sort of fish or sea-slug, found on the
coral reefs, &c., of the neighbourhood, which, when cured and dried,
is generally shaped something like a cucumber.

It is minced down into a sort of thick soup by the Chinese, who
are extremely fond of it,--and indeed with some reason, as when well
cooked by a Chinaman, who understands the culinary art, the tripang is
a capital dish, and is rather a favourite among many of the Europeans
at Manilla.

There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese
traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to
Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market,
it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it,
and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty
dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.

The slug, when dried, is an ugly looking, dirty brown-coloured
substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water and a very
lengthened process of cookery, after which it becomes soft and
mucilaginous.

Sometimes the slugs are found nearly two feet in length, but they are
generally very much smaller, and perhaps about eight inches might be
the usual size of those I have seen, their shape, as before mentioned,
strongly resembling a cucumber. After being taken by the fisherman
they are gutted, and then cured by exposure to the rays of the sun,
after which they are smoked--over a fire, I believe--when the curing
process is completed.

Shark fins, and the muscles of deer, are also exposed for sale by
the Sooloo people to their Chinese visitors, by whom they are eagerly
purchased for their countrymen's cookery, both of these articles being
very favourite delicacies. The first I have never tasted, although
the flesh of a shark, if cut from some particular parts of his body,
is far from being bad or unsavoury, if dressed by a China cook. As
for the sinews of deer, they are very good, and occasionally met
with at Manilla on the tables of Europeans who enjoy the reputation
of having good palates.

Mother-of-pearl shell is so well known in Europe, that it is quite
unnecessary to remark upon it, more than that those coming from Soolo