ABUSE OF THE SCAPHANDER IN THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 531 
the eastern prefecture (Lasithi) and the islands belonging to it. Since 1898, 
the revenues obtained from licenses for sponge fishing fluctuated between 7,833 
franes 40 centimes in 1903, and 26,360 frances in 1902. The naked divers and 
those using the dragnet paid in 1907, up to November of that year, 230 francs 
for each sailing vessel and since that date 250 francs, while the hook fishermen 
paid 90 francs, now roo francs, for each bark. The working season in sponge 
fishing is considered on Crete from March 1 until February 28. The Cretan 
statistical data do not give, unfortunately, any information as to how many, 
whence, or on how many vessels sponge fishermen arrive, how many of them 
use the three proper modes of fishing, nor the quantity and value of the catch 
of each. 
The first action against machine diving on the sponge banks of Crete was 
obtained in 1899, and consisted of a law of complete prohibition. The sponge 
beds flourished in consequence, and soon became a great temptation to the 
greedy machine divers of Greece and Turkey, who sought repeatedly, from 
1g01 to 1907, to have the law repealed. Failing in this they circumvented it 
by fishing secretly on the coasts of Crete on their return from the African banks, 
and in 1905 enlisted even a few Cretans in this illegal enterprise. I at once 
took steps in the matter, and had the satisfaction of seeing the four protecting 
powers—Great Britain, France, Italy, and Russia—send their war ships to seize 
the culprits. Unfortunately, however, proper punishment was not inflicted, 
and the situation became an open scandal. In government circles it was 
claimed that enforcement of the law was impossible because Crete owned no 
revenue cutter. But there were guilty Cretans who could have been appre- 
hended without any revenue cutter, and the license fees from the sponge fish- 
eries would have built a revenue cutter long since. The contention between 
the friends and opponents of the diving machines kept the question embarrass- 
ingly alive to the Government and Parliament of Crete, and finally brought 
about action in the fall of 1907, whereby a limited number (10) of diving machines 
were permitted for ten years to a syndicate under certain specified conditions. 
These conditions, however, were purposely made so difficult that no such syn- 
dicate could be found, nor ever can. Another provision of the law was for the 
payment of damages to the families of divers who died as a consequence of the 
use of the scaphander. Thus the law has been saved; but the lack of a revenue 
cutter in Crete is a disadvantage that calls for prompt remedy. 
The cause of the sponge divers in Crete received a further signal support 
in 1908, when the French Government, at the request of the Cretan Govern- 
ment, ordered its war ship Faucon, stationed at Suda, to apprehend the sponge 
divers fishing illegally in the waters of Hierapetra, which are under French 
control. The Faucon captured 7 boats, with 80 men, from Kalymnos and 
Syme. The remainder escaped in a heavy gale, and three were wrecked, with 
