62 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



with the fact that whenever an overhanging ledge was met with, 

 the under-surface supported a luxuriant growth of sponges, and 

 formed the opinion that such sheltered situations are much more 

 adapted to the furtherance of sponge-life than more exposed 

 positions. 



Mr. J. Brice, in a Report on the Fish and Fisheries of the 

 Coastal Waters of Florida,^" gives an account of the sponge in- 

 dustry at Key West, Florida. The following quotations are 

 from it: — "The sponge fishery is carried on with vessels of 

 a schooner or sloop rig, ranging from five to forty-seven tons 

 (averaging about thirteen tons), which resort chiefly to the grounds 

 in the Gulf of Mexico; and with smaller vessels, mostly sloops of 

 less than five tons' burden, which make most of the catch on the 

 grounds about the keys of the southern and eastern Florida coasts. 

 The larger vessels carry from five to thirteen men, the smaller 

 ones from three to five. Two men go in each of the dingies or 

 small boats from which the sponging is done, the odd man of the 



crew being left in charge of the vessel Sponges are taken 



by means of a three-tooth hook, attached to a long pole. Poles 

 of various lengths are used, to correspond with the different depths 

 of water in which the sponging is done. Before the depletion of 

 the shoal grounds, comparatively short poles were employed, but 

 as the spongers have extended their operations into deeper and 

 deeper water, longer poles have been required, until at the present 

 time the limit seems to have been reached in a length of fifty or 

 fifty-two feet. . . . The only other apparatus required in taking 

 sponges is the very simple but effective watei'-glass. This is an 

 ordinary water-bucket, the bottom of which has been replaced by 

 glass. By means of it the sponger is able to distinguish objects 

 on the bottom with great clearness, even in comparatively deep 

 water, and he finds it an essential article in all of the sponging 

 now carried on, except in shallow water. One glass is the com- 

 plement of each boat. While one man is steadying or propelling 

 the boat with an oar, the other member of the crew leans over 

 the side of the boat and manipulates the water-glass and pole, 

 and as the sponges are brought into view by aid of the glass, he 

 detaches them by inserting the hook beneath them and pulls them 

 to the surface. . . When first taken from the water, the sponges 

 are black and slimy. The essential treatment they subsequently 

 receive before being sold consists (1) in exposing them to the 

 action of the sun and air, on the vessel's deck, until they are 

 killed, which usually requires several days; (2) in placing them 

 for about a week in the 'crawls' or pens where the decay of the 

 'gurry' or animal matter, that began on the vessel, is continued; 

 (3) in beating the sponges, while wet, with a wooden paddle to 

 drive out the decomposed animal matter, and in scraping with a 



10 U.S. Commissioner's Report Fish., 1896 (1898), p. 299. 



