SPONGES 47 
always in moderately strong currents, where they could receive a constant sup- 
ply of fresh water. 
When first taken from the water, the Orange Tube Sponges are quite firm, 
but as soon as they are dead they soften considerably, and in order to dry them 
in a natural form they must be laid perfectly flat and turned frequently. Un- 
less the cylinders are very short they cannot be dried in an upright position, as 
they are lable to bend. 
This species has a peculiarly sweetish odor, not as disagreeable as in many 
other sponges and this is retained in the dried specimens to a great degree ; this 
odor is particularly noticeable upon wetting a dried specimen. When thorough- 
ly soaked, the dried sponge returns in a great measure to its former elacticity 
and becomes somewhat smooth, and then the incurrent orifices can usually be 
found. 
Judging from my experience with this sponge, it is extremely local in dis- 
tribution as it requires peculiar conditions for growth. The depth of water 
must be sufficient to protect the cylinders from any great wave agitation, for 
they break quite easily, as I have myself seen when gathering them with a 
sponge hook, and the large number of detached cylinders which I found on the 
cliff at _Inagua also shows that they are easily broken off by any unusual dis- 
turbance of the water in which they live. It is evident that the zone inhabited 
by this sponge is in between twenty-five and thirty feet of water, and as this is 
not below the action of wave agitation during ordinary tempests, in order to 
exist unbroken, the Orange Tube Sponge must seek the protection of either 
land locked or reef locked harbors, in which the water is of the proper depth, 
and through which moderately flowing currents constantly sweep. 
The Filamentous Sponge, a small species with long filaments, appears to 
be one of the most local in distribution of any of the members of the genus Ver- 
