THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 485 
the bottom is reached the stone is dropped, the diver retaining hold of the cord 
to prevent floating, while he gathers the sponges within reach, which are depos- 
ited in a net bag attached to his waist. His desire to come up is signaled by 
jerkirig on the cord. 
The nude divers are not attacked by the serious maladies to which the 
machine divers are subject, and despite the arduousness of their calling are able 
to follow it for years, but owing to the brevity of their stay beneath the water 
and the length of the intervening rests their actual working time is short. 
This method of sponging is followed to best advantage on uneven bottom 
too rough for the dredge, where the sponges are in crevices or under overhanging 
ledges which make them invisible to the harpooners or where the rocks are so 
sharp as to make the use of the scaphander dangerous, owing to the liability of 
injury to the suit and hose. Most of the finest ‘“‘cave”’ sponges of the 7i#gean 
are taken by this means. 
Nude diving is carried on from small boats, the crews of which are gener- 
ally paid wages, while the diver works on shares. On the African coast this 
fishery is carried on during the fall and early winter, when the bottom is com- 
paratively free from marine vegetation, but in the AYgean and the Levant it is 
conducted during the warmer months of the year. 
Harpooning.—This, historically the third method of sponging, has been 
used in the Mediterranean for many years and is still employed on practically 
all of the sponging grounds where the water is not too deep. It is practically the 
same in its general features as the hooking on the Florida coast, and the condi- 
tions of wind and weather necessary for its success are the same. The instru- 
ment employed is essentially a trident, though it may have other than three 
barbed points or tines. The Tunisian fouchga has two barbed points, the 
Sicilian fuscina, fuscia, or fiocino has three points, the Greek kamaki has four, 
while the Dalmatians use a five-pointed instrument. These all differ from the 
hooks of Florida and the Bahamas in having the tines straight instead of 
recurved. 
The water telescope, practically similar to that used in Florida and the 
Bahamas, is now generally employed in all parts of the Mediterranean, but it 
was not used on the African coast until introduced by the Greeks about 1875. 
The boats employed are various, each nationality having its preference, 
those of the Sicilians resembling New England dories; but they are all small, 
and are manned by two or sometimes three men, one of whom is the harpooner. 
The boats used by the Greek harpooners are similar in shape to the diving boats 
elsewhere described. ‘The harpooner stands in a small circular hatch forward 
and, with a cushion placed beneath his chest, leans over the bow to scan the 
bottom through his water glass. The nomadic Greeks and Sicilians use large 
living and deposit boats, while the native spongers of the various regions have 
