444 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
discouragement of low prices for sponges and the demoralized condition of the 
labor problem, some of the diving outfits were withdrawn from service and 
tied up, while others recently built or acquired never went into commission. 
Other owners, unable to deal efficiently with crews speaking an alien tongue, 
gave up the attempt to operate directly and chartered their boats and outfits 
to Greeks, who have thus gradually assumed a practical monopoly of the diving 
operations, though under the navigation laws it is necessary for them to 
employ citizens of the United States as nominal masters of the living or deposit 
boats. 
There was also about this time a change in the quality of the product. 
Previously there had been but few small sponges and the large ones were per- 
fect forms, but in May, 1906, there were many small ones in the cargoes and 
many of the large ones were old, ragged, and inferior, about 30 per cent of 
the whole being packed as cuts and seconds. One typical cargo packed as 
follows: 
Sizes. 4 Weight. Per cent. 
Pounds. 
DE oo So a PRS ee ee eR Stan a pe aren ene ye ee ee em a 2 ae ek re es See = Sn Ba = ye 4 25 + 
Qnes to:twos._ . .5=.=* 139 S270 
Twos to threes 140 8.33 + 
‘Threesto fours... .2-..-- 2-2. 160 9.52+ 
Fours to sixes__- ~~~ 
Sixes to eights 500 29.76+ 
Bights to\tens-=--...=-.--- eee ae eee eee ee ER ee J 
Aor OW adh yet (<a ee EE tee SS a Oe fee ee ye ee | 180 10.71 + 
Cuts and seconds_ -------- Pe epee eB SE ee rk oR eee Per. Cho ete ek ee, | 520 30.95 + 
“otal 3 oe ns So ee ed eee cos ee eee re ee es ee 1,680 100.00 — 
The depreciation in quality was apparently due, in some degree at least, 
to a change in the locality of the fishery. The Greeks, feeling that they were, 
in a measure, interlopers, at first treated the prejudices of the hookers with 
considerable respect and carried on their work far offshore, on virgin or little 
worked beds, where the run of sponges was large and the quality good. It 
was stated that some cargoes came from a depth of 14 fathoms and there were 
reports, never properly authenticated, of diving in still greater depths, but 
there is no doubt that the major portion of the catch came from depths of 
between 40 and 60 feet. As it became more apparent that the divers were 
not to be seriously molested, despite the loud threats of some of the hookers, 
they became more confident and encroached more and more on the beds in 
shoaler water, where, of course, they took the same class of sponges brought 
in by the hookers. The arduousness of diving and its physical perils increase 
with the depth of water, and the divers will not work in deep water if they 
can get sponges in the shoaler. 
