THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



407 



trunks the canoe is hauled to the shore. The open avenues 

 were extremely useful in affording an easy road into the forest 

 for collecting purposes. 



Cebu Island, January 18th to 24th, 1815. — The ship Mas 



anchored for some days in the harbour of the town of Celai, in 

 the island of the same name. The special interest of this place 

 lay in its being the locality from which the well-known delicately 

 beautiful silicious sponge, called Venus's Flower Basket {Ewplec- 

 tella aspp.rgillum), was first obtained. The sponge is dredged up 

 from a depth of about 100 fathoms in the channel between Cebu 

 and the small island of Mactan. 



The fishermen use, to procure the sponge, a light framework, 

 made of split bamboo, with two long straight strips, about eight 

 feet in length, forming its front, and meeting at a wide angle to 



MACHINE USED AT CEBU TO DREDGE UP EUPLECTELLA ASPERGILLUS!. 



form a point which is dragged first in using the machine. The 

 long straight strips have fish-hooks bound to them at intervals 

 all along their length, the points of the hooks being directed 

 towards the anole of the machine. 



The whole is very ingeniously strengthened by well-planned 

 cross pieces, and is weighted with stones. It is dragged on the 

 bottom by means of a light Manila hemp cord, not more than 

 Jth of an inch in diameter of section, which is attached to the 

 angle. A stone attached to a stick is fastened just in front of 

 the angle to keep the point down on the bottom. The hooks 

 creeping over the bottom and sweeping an area nearly 14 feet 

 wide, catch in the upright sponges and drag their bases out from 

 the mud. These sponges, once so rare and expensive, were a 



