FISHERIES OF THE COASTAL WATERS OF FLORIDA. 39 



quality in making up the different bunches, but the main point in view- 

 is to put on just enough damp sponges to fill the string. 



The use of the Mediterranean diving system in the Florida sponge 

 fishery has been experimentally tried. This was suggested by the neces- 

 sity for extending the operations into comparatively deep water and 

 by the possibility of finding sponges in abundance in water too deep to 

 be reached with poles. In 1884, Mr. E. J. Arapian, of Key West, 

 engaged three Greek sponge-divers to come to Florida and try the same 

 methods employed in the Grecian Archipelago and elsewhere in the 

 Mediterranean Sea in taking sponges. An experienced diver from New 

 York was also employed in conjunction with the Greeks. It is reported 

 that a thorough test of the feasibility of this method was made and 

 that it it was fouud impracticable, although the evident disloyalty of 

 the foreign divers to their employer may have had considerable effect 

 on the outcome of the experiment. The principal reasons for abandon- 

 ing this attempt to introduce improved methods into the fishery are said 

 to have been as follows: (1) The expense of maintaining a crew of 

 divers (the salary of each being $150 per month) was out of proportion 

 to the value of the sponges taken. (2) It is stated that sponges were 

 not found anywhere in very dense beds, and that a hooker could secure 

 more sponges than a diver on the same grounds and in the same time. 

 (3) The uneven character of the bottom is reported to be unfavorable 

 for divers. (1) The heavy and cumbrous diving apparatus had the 

 effect of destroying the growth of young sponges, a result that had 

 been observed in Europe and in Turkey, and had led to the passage of 

 a law prohibiting the use of the diving method on the sponge-grounds. 



In 1889, a law was enacted by the Florida legislature, which is still in 

 force, forbidding the taking of sponges by diving either with or without 

 diving suits. 



The discovery of a method of utilizing the sponge-grounds now beyond 

 the reach of the hookers in water, say, from 50 to 75 feet deep, would 

 prove a great boon to the sponge industry. Not the least important 

 outcome of such a discovery would be the opportunity afforded the 

 shallower grounds to recuperate by the diversion of the spongers 1 opera- 

 tions. In this connection, attention may be drawn to the advisability 

 of experimenting with an apparatus constructed on the principle of the 

 so-called "deep-water oyster tongs," by means of which oyster-beds 

 beyond the reach of the ordinary tongs become readily accessible. 



The tongs in question, of which there are several types, consist essen- 

 tially of two curved iron bars riveted together near the middle, to permit 

 free motion. These are attached on one extremity to the teeth and 

 cradles, and on the other to the ropes by means of which the apparatus 

 is lowered and raised. Beneath the crossing point of the two arms a 

 weight is suspended. To the upper bar of one side an iron link or loop 

 is attached by means of a staple, and on the lower bar, just below the 

 link, is a small iron peg or stud, over which the link fits when the teeth 

 are separated to their widest extent. When oystering begins, the arms 



