7*4 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



limits. The cutting should be done rapidly either with a common knife 

 or — which Mr. Buccich found to be more advantageous — with a blade 

 resembling a fine saw, which is less liable to be injured by the many 

 foreign bodies inclosed in sponges. In cutting, the sponge had best be 

 laid on a small board moistened with sea water. The size of the cut- 

 tings is generally about 2C square millimeters. It is well if every piece 

 has as large as possible a surface of intact outer skin. The cuttings 

 should immediately be fastened to those objects where they are expected 

 to grow. 



A healthy piece of sponge soon grows firmly on any object with which 

 it is brought in close contact. Sponges which have been cut will again 

 grow together. Those cuttings which have only a single cut surface 

 will soonest grow fast to their new base, stone, wood, &c. Mr. Buccich 

 thinks that during a calm lasting 24 consecutive hours cuttings could 

 simply be sowed on a rocky bottom and would soon grow. He has seen 

 pieces laid ou gently slanting rocks grow fast to them during a perfect 

 calm. Induced thereby, and also by the natural occurrence of sponges, 

 Mr. Buccich tried flag-stones, about 53 millimeters thick, as a basis. He 

 bored holes in them and fastened the cuttings by means of wooden pegs, 

 which were driven into the holes; but it soon became apparent that the 

 mud aud sand of the bottom, perhaps also the excess of light, was inju- 

 rious to the further growth of the sponges. Experience has shown 

 that light and mud are among the worst enemies of the sponge, and 

 their influence must by every possible means be avoided or limited. 

 Stones form the natural basis of sponges 5 they are cheap and are not 

 attacked by the Teredo. 



Originally, Prof. O. Schmidt used wooden boxes closed on all sides 

 but perforated, to whose inner sides the pieces of sponge were fastened 

 with metal or wooden pegs. This exceedingly simple arrangement 

 did not prove efficient; because the boxes when let down into the deep 

 water became full of mud, and the holes being stopped up no light 

 whatever could enter. The sponges began to look pale and sickly. It 

 is not good to fasten them with metal pegs, for it seemed to retard their 

 growth. The rust which forms very soon causes the pieces of sponge 

 to become loose, and will ultimately destroy them. Laths or boards 

 placed obliquely, on whose upper side there were floating contrivances 

 in the shape of tables, to whose lower side the sponges were fastened, 

 were bkewise used. 4 "With the former, the want of covering was keenly 

 felt ; and with the latter, the rays of the sun proved injurious, as well as 

 all the different little objects floating on the surface of the water which 

 may be grouped together under the collective name "dirt." Mr. 

 Buccich at first prepared an apparatus consisting of two boards cross- 

 ing each other at right angles with a third board serving as a sort of 

 lid, and after this had proved unsatisfactory he adopted the apparatus 



4 Prof. O. Schmidt also entertained the idea, which was never carried out however, 

 of merely putting the cuttings on suitably arranged strings. 



