55 



become exhausted, and whether to guard against such an 

 untoward eventuahty it would not be desirable to institute 

 a periodical close time for their protection, such period to 

 be made coincident with their reproductive season. It is 

 not anticipated by the writer, that so long as the sponge 

 fisheries in the Bahama Islands are conducted upon the 

 present primitive method, the sponges being individually 

 transfixed with a hook or spear, that there is any likelihood 

 of the beds being injuriously depleted ; for by the method 

 now pursued, it is only the larger sponges that are of a 

 mercantile value that are fished up, the young individuals 

 being overlooked or left to grow to a marketable size. 

 Before attaining to this condition, sponges freely evolve 

 their reproductive gemmules, so that the constant restock- 

 ing of the beds is effectually provided for. If, on the other 

 hand, the present mode of fishing should be superseded by 

 the use of the dredge without restriction, and to such an 

 extent that the entire area of the ground would be syste- 

 matically swept clean of all sponges, great and small, the 

 complete exhaustion of the sponge beds would doubtless 

 be only a question of time. To provide against such an 

 emergency, the following precautionary measures might be 

 adopted : — The dredging operations should be restricted to 

 a certain distance from the coast line, leaving a wide in- 

 shore margin, in which the sponges could freely propagate. 

 Dredging operations should not be permitted over the 

 same sponge beds for a number of years in succession, but 

 portions of the entire area in turn should be allowed a 

 more or less extensive resting time, during which interval 

 a new crop of sponges might establish itself or grow to 

 maturity. Certain favourable areas might be separated off 

 permanently as stock beds or nurseries, either naturally 

 productive of, or artificially planted with the best kinds of 



