In his voyage to the South Pole, Captain Dumont d'Urville, in traversing the Chinese seas, had an opportunity of assisting at this fishery, which he has described very graphically. We quote the passage in which the French navigator relates what he witnessed at this curious scene. While the ships were lying quietly at anchor, "we saw," he says, "entering the bay, four Malay proas, bearing Dutch colours, which dropped their anchors about a cable's length from Observatory Islet. The padrones or captains of these vessels soon presented their salutations, and informed me that they had started from Macassar at the end of October, with the western monsoon, and that they came to fish for Holothuria (trepang) along the coasts of New Holland, from Melville Island to the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the east wind met them and assisted their return, when they revisited all the points of the coast, anchoring in every bay where they hoped to find fish. We were in the first days of April; the east monsoon was definitively established; the Malay fishermen were returning in their circuit, and, in passing, they came to exercise their industry in Raffles' Bay. An hour after their arrival they were all at work, and the laboratory for the preparation of their fish was established within our view. The roadstead had no longer the aspect of a vast solitude: wreaths of smoke crowned the summit of Observatory Island, where, as if by enchantment, several large sheds had sprung up, while numerous vessels, supplied with divers, were proceeding to fish for Holothurias, which were passed immediately to the furnaces erected for curing them. In the course of my voyage I have often remarked little walls constructed of dry stones, consisting of several half-circles joined one to the other. I had often, but vainly, tried to discover the use of these little structures: I was now enlightened. The Malays arrived. Their boats were scarcely anchored when several large boilers, in the shape of a half-sphere, the diameter of which might be about forty inches, were placed upon the stone walls of which I have spoken, and now served as improvised furnaces. Near to them are sheds, composed of four strong posts driven into the earth, supporting roofing covered with hurdles, on which it is probably intended to dry the Holothurias. During their sojourn in this bay, the fishermen, having fine weather, made no use of these sheds, having probably only prepared them as a precaution.