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THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 437 
With the extension of the fishery into the deeper waters of the channels 
and some of the ‘“‘lakes,’’ as the spongers term the broader expanses between 
and behind the keys, the old method of sponging became inadequate. Poling 
became laborious if not impossible, and, moreover, a man standing upright 
in the boat was unable to see the bottom with sufficient distinctness. To 
overcome this difficulty the ‘‘sponge glass”’ or “water telescope”? was intro- 
duced, at first a square wooden box or tube with a pane of glass in one end, 
but afterwards an ordinary wooden pail with a glass bottom substituted for 
the wood. The device is said to have been employed first about 1870 or a 
little before, and correlated with its use came other changes. It was now 
necessary to have two men in the boat, one to propel it and the other to search 
for and take the sponges. The skiffs and miscellaneous small boats previously 
employed were displaced by the present type of dingeys, yawls about 14 or 
15 feet long and about 414 feet beam, light, strong, and handy, with a sculling 
notch at the stern. The latter is an oak board notched at the top, sometimes 
fixed but frequently sliding between guide pieces so as to be removable when 
the boats are hauled aboard the vessel. 
Large vessels also came into use, especially after the development of the - 
fishery on the Bay grounds, where the work is carried on often at a distance 
of 20 to 30 miles from shore. The smaller vessels, many of them under 5 tons, 
are employed among the keys where shelter in case of bad weather is usually 
close at hand. The registered vessels range from 5 to about 50 tons, most of 
them being under 15 tons measurement. The majority are rigged as schooners, 
but many of the smaller ones are sloops, as are practically all of the boats 
measuring less than 5 tons employed in the fishery among the Keys. Practi- 
cally all of the boats and most of the vessels have been built at Key West, 
but some, especially the larger ones, have come from other places. 
In the boat fishery from one to five men constitute the crew, the usual 
number being about three. A man working by himself must confine his 
operations to poling in shoal and smooth water, but two or more men, if occa- 
sion demands, may work in rougher and deeper water by using the water glass. 
The vessels carry crews of from 5 to 13 men, according to size, the usual number 
being about 7 or 9, the captains even of larger vessels objecting to crews of 
more than 11 on account of the difficulty of controlling the men. ‘The number is 
usually odd on account of the distribution of duties as hereafter explained. As 
a rule the best men get together, as the proceeds of the trip go into a com- 
mon fund from which each man receives his share according to his duties, and 
the presence of an unskilled or lazy man in the crew lessens the catch of the 
vessel and consequently reduces the profits of his fellows. 
When a vessel reaches the sponging grounds, if the weather be favorable 
and the water sufficiently clear, a bar is located by means of the lead or by 
