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SUPPLEMENT TO 



Report on the Sponge Fishery of Florida and the 

 Artificial Culture of Sponges.* 



By 



E. J. Allen, B.Sc. 



Hon. Secretary of the Marine Biological Association, and Director of Plj-mouth 



Laboratory. 



Since the Eeport on the subject of the Artificial Culture of Sponges was 

 published, some further information of importance relating to the 

 subject has been courteously supplied by the Acting Commissioner of 

 the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. This information 

 is in the form of a letter to the United States Commission from 

 Mr. Ealph M. Monroe, of Cocoanut Grove, Biscayne Bay, Florida, to whom 

 the Acting Commissioner refers as "an intelligent and energetic man, 

 whose statements, we think, can be given entire credence," wherein this 

 gentleman gives a detailed account of some experiments conducted 

 by himself at Biscayne Bay, during the years 1889, 1890 and 1891. 



The letter, which is published by permission of the Acting Com- 

 missioner, is as follows : — 



"Cocoanut Grove, Dade Co., Flokida, 



March 20th, 1895. 



" U. S. Fish Commission, Washington, D. C. 



"Dear Sirs, — Agreeably to request made by you for a brief 

 report on my experiments in sponge culture, I am pleased to submit the 

 following : 



Having had my attention called to the possibilities of sponge culture 

 by Mr, J. Fogarty, of Key West, a gentleman of much experience as a 

 buyer and packer of the article, and who hud a few years previously 

 successfully grown a few samples from cuttings, I began work in the 

 same line in November, 1889, at Biscayne Bay, a place admirably 



* This Journal. Vol. iv. p. 188. 



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