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Literary and Cultural References

"I wish a were a Holothuria, and could get on without my viscera. I should do splendidly then."

Thomas Henry Huxley, 1886, commenting on the dissapointingly chilly weather in Bournemouth, "'England's Naples,' so called," in a diary entry dated 23 February. No other details. From p 131, volume II, "Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley" in two volumes by his son Leonard Huxley, 1900, D. Appleton, NY.

"The slimy disgusting Holuthuriae (allied to our star-fish), which the Chinese gourmands are so fond of, also feed largely, as I am informed by Dr. Allan, on corals; and the bony apparatus within their bodies seems well adapted for this end. These Holuthuriae, the fish, the numerous burrowing shells, and nereidous worms, which perforate every block of dead coral, must be very efficient agents in producing the fine white mud which lies at the bottom and on the shores of the lagoon."

Charles Darwin. 1860. A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World: Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of H.M.S. Beagle under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N. With illustrations by R. T. Pritchett of places visited and objects described. John Murray: London.

"Why do men, sitting at the microscope, examine the calcareous plates of a sea-cucumber, and, finding a new arrangement and number, feel an exaltation and give the new species a name, and write about it possessively?"

John Steinbeck, circa 1950, discussing the seldom considered similarity between writing poetry, fiction and science. From Steinbeck, J. 1951. A Log from the Sea of Cortez. Viking: New York. 288 pages. [as reprinted and repaginated on page 751 of Steinbeck, J. The Grapes of Wrath and other Writings 1936-1941. The Library of America: New York. 1067 pages.]

"The dominant species on this beach was a sulphury cucumber* [*Holothuria lubrica], a dark, almost black-green holothurian which looks as though it were dusted with sulphur. As the tide dropped on the shallow beach, we saw literally millions of these cucumbers. They lay in clusters and piles between the rocks and under the rocks, and as the tide went out and the tropical sun beat on the beach, many of them became quite dry without apparent injury. Most of these holothurians were from five to eight inches long, but their were great numbers of babies not more than an inch in length. We took a great many of them."

John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, 1940, upon arriving at Espiritu Santo Island in the Sea of Cortez. From Steinbeck, J. and E. F. Ricketts. 1941. Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research. Viking Press: New York. 598 pages. [as reprinted and repaginated in Page 825: Steinbeck, J. The Grapes of Wrath and other Writings 1936-1941. The Library of America: New York. 1067 pages.]

"We flew over the water. And such water!--clear as the clearest spring-water, and crystalline in its clearness, all intershot with a maddening pageant of colours and rainbow ribbons more magnificently gorgeous than any rainbow. Jade green alternated with turquoise, peacock blue with emerald, while now the canoe skimmed over reddish purple pools, and again over pools of dazzling, shimmering white where pounded coral sand lay beneath and upon which oozed monstrous sea-slugs. One moment we were above wonder-gardens of coral, wherein coloured fishes disported, fluttering like marine butterflies; the next moment we were dashing across the dark surface of deep channels, out of which schools of flying fish lifted their silvery flight; and a third moment we were above other gardens of living coral, each more wonderful than the last....The canoe grounded on a shallow shore, twenty feet from land, and we waded out on a soft bottom where big slugs curled and writhed under our feet and where small octopuses advertised their existence by their superlative softness when stepped upon."

Pages 203 and 204 in Jack London. 1918. The Cruise of the Snark. The MacMillan and Co.: New York. 376 pages.