THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 425 
less rolled ear-shaped or fan-shaped plate from % to1inchthick. (Pl._Lxv1.) The 
oscula are confined to the inside of the cupped forms or the concave faces of the 
lamellate specimens, and are arranged in groups of 4 to 6, surrounded by tufts of 
fibers longer than on the rest of the skeleton. These groups are generally in 
radial and concentric rows and the whole of the oscular surface of the skeleton 
often has more or less the appearance of being radially grooved, owing to the 
linear arrangement of the rows of fibrous tufts which cover it. The outer or 
convex surface of the sponge is more uniformly covered with soft fibrous tufts, 
though these tend to radial arrangement near the rim, and there are sometimes 
radial ridges or thickenings of irregular length extending from the base toward 
the margin. This sponge is very fine, soft, and durable, being equal in those 
respects to the Turkey toilet sponge. It is used for fine toilet purposes, for which 
its shape makes it desirable; for surgical purposes, and in the medical application 
of electricity, by potters, fine leather workers, jewelers, cane makers, hatters, and 
other artisans requiring a smooth, fine, soft, and durable sponge. 
It is found commercially on the coasts of Provence and Dalmatia, in the 
Greek archipelago, on the coasts of Egypt, Tunis, and Algeria, and about the 
Balearic and Lampedosa islands, and the variety is known zoologically from the 
north coast of Australia. 
A similar but much denser and harsher sponge is found near Jolo, Philippine 
Islands. In the few specimens that I have seen the fibers are heavily laden 
with sand grains, which makes them useless commercially, but it is possible that 
better grades may be found. 
IV. THE FLORIDA SPONGE FISHERY. 
The Florida Keys first received permanent settlement about the time that 
the present State was erected into a Territory upon its cession to the United States 
in 1821. Key West, the first and for many years the sole center of the sponge 
industry, was settled in 1822, and it is probable that the early inhabitants soon 
learned, from the specimens thrown up on the beaches of the keys, of the presence 
of several species of useful sponges in the surrounding waters. It is known 
that long before these became an article of commerce they were in limited domestic 
use among the inhabitants, but it was apparently not until 1849 that they were 
given a commercial value. In that year a cargo of sponges was sent to New 
York on a venture, probably as the result of knowledge of the recently discovered 
commercial value of the sponges in the Bahamas, which islands furnished the 
majority of the early settlers of Key West and have since maintained with it 
close social relations. Before this time the entire sponge supply of the United 
States was derived from the Mediterranean, though of later years a few sponges 
may have come from the Bahamas, which had begun to export seven or eight years 
