THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 493 
view to establishing a fishery, but it is understood that the results have not been 
encouraging. Honeycomb and reef sponges are reported to occur in New 
Zealand. 
OTHER PACIFIC OCEAN LOCALITIES. 
The horny sponges of the Pacific islands are known practically from the 
Challenger collections only, those of the various expeditions of the Albatross 
not having been studied. 
In the Sandwich Islands there occurs a sponge which somewhat resembles 
the sheepswool in appearance, but the single specimen upon which the report 
is based was hard, very weak of texture, and of little, if any, commercial value. 
A reef sponge from the Fiji Islands and a grass sponge from the Gilberts, both 
of doubtful value, practically complete the record for this region, although 
the Carolines are stated to produce a soft, fine sponge, probably not unlike the 
Sitanki sponges of the Philippines. 
INDIAN OCEAN. 
I have recently received inquiries in regard to a toilet sponge from the 
coast of Madagascar. It is stated to ‘look like the Mandruka toilet sponge,”’ 
but to have a poor texture and to be lacking in durability. This is possibly 
the sponge which Cotte says is taken at the southern end of the island about 
Cape St. Marie. The American consul at Tamatave in response to inquiries 
reports that sponges occur on the west of the island from Cape St. Marie to 
Ambohibe, a distance of 340 miles. About 1902 5 Greek divers were employed 
by 2 merchants and in 1907 some Ceylonese were employed by another con- 
cessionaire, but both experiments proved failures and excepting a few sponges 
taken by natives there is at present no fishery. The price received by native 
fishermen is about $1.15 per hundred pieces, the sponges being very badly 
cured. None were exported in 1908. 
Lendenfeld records several varieties of the common toilet sponge, the 
velvet, and several other species of horny sponges from Mauritius, but nothing 
is known of their economic value. 
Sponges also occur in the Seychelles, and the government of those islands 
has recently taken steps to determine their commercial value. 
In Ceylon a variety of the toilet sponge is found in abundance, and Hornell 
believes it to be of commercial value. Euspongia irregularis pertusa, which 
includes the yellow sponge of the Gulf of Mexico, is also recorded from the 
island, but nothing is known as to its commercial characteristics and value. 
MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN. 
Weil states that there are beds of excellent sponges lying in deep water 
about the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores, and that in quality and general 
characteristics they are intermediate between those of the Mediterranean and 
