SPONGES. 



A SPONGE when brought to the 

 surface by the diver is a fleshy- 

 looking substance covered with 

 a firm skin whose openings 

 appear and disappear at intervals. 

 When the diver cuts it the interior 

 looks like raw meat with numerous 

 canals and cavities. The first thing 

 they do is to remove the flesh, and 

 this must be done at once, since 

 otherwise putrefaction would set in, 

 which would destroy the elasticity. 

 This leaves merely the skeleton of the 

 animal which has to be further cleansed 

 before it is ready for the market. 



The skeleton is nearly related in 

 structure to silk, and this helped to 

 settle the ancient dispute as to whether 

 sponges were animal or vegetable. 

 Their stationary life gave reason to the 

 belief in their vegetable nature, while 

 they multiply, like plants, by over 

 growth and budding. They puzzled 

 scientists for centuries, and one author 

 ity regarded them as worms' nests. In 

 reality the sponge is a colony of little 

 animals called polyps which occupy a 

 sort of apartment house together, rear 

 ing families just as other animals do. 



The surface of a sponge is covered 

 with little holes, as you have observed, 

 that are larger at the top than at the bot 

 tom, while the whole mass contains a 

 system of channels. When the animal 

 is alive water is kept flowing constantly 

 through these channels by means of 

 minute, hair-like appendages, which 

 the little polyps agitate. The water 

 thus drawn in brings with it the food. 

 ^ The finest sponges come from 

 Tripoli, and along the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, the possessions 

 of Turkey being the best field, the 

 Spanish, French, and Italian coasts 

 being, strange to say, devoid of 

 them. The coarser kinds of sponges 

 are found in the West Indies and off 

 the Florida coast, none of the finest 

 grade existing in American waters. 

 The average value of Florida sponges 

 is 80 cents a pound, while those from 

 the Turkey coast are often worth 

 as much as $50 a pound. There are 

 many sponge beds along the coast of 

 Florida, at well-protected places 



fenced in with natural fortifications and 

 dams. They are carefully watched until 

 reaching maturity, and are finer than 

 those living wild in the sea. 



After three yea'rs the sponges are 

 ready for harvest. The choicest then, 

 the full-grown ones, are pulled up, the 

 others being left to reproduce until of 

 larger size. Every year the value of a 

 sponge farm increases, and enormous 

 crops are yielded. It is easy to gather 

 sponges here, for the water is clear and 

 they are easily raised with a pole or 

 tongs. 



It is not so in Tripoli, however. 

 There the work has to be done by 

 divers, and as the fisheries have been 

 so well worked, it is necessary for the 

 divers to go deeper and deeper for 

 them every year. Only the most des 

 perate men are willing to undertake 

 the task, notwithstanding they are paid 

 ten times the usual wage paid to men 

 in that country. Out of 600 divers em 

 ployed, 150 to 200 die each season, 

 either from asphyxiation, paralysis, or 

 cuts from the knives. The diver in 

 Tripoli seldom has diving-bells or 

 suits such as are used in Europe 

 and America. He goes down into 

 the ocean, sometimes to the depth 

 of 100 fathoms, taking with him a 

 flat piece of stone of a triangular 

 shape, with a hole drilled through one 

 of its corners. A cord from the boat 

 is attached to this stone and he uses it 

 to guide him. Upon reaching the grow 

 ing sponges he tears them off the rocks 

 or cuts them with a sharp knife, places 

 them under his arms, and then pulls at 

 the rope, which gives the signal to the 

 men in the boat to haul him up. The 

 work is said to be done not so well by 

 means of a diving-bell, the utmost care 

 being necessary that the delicate organ 

 isms should riot be torn. Sponges ob 

 tained by dragging are torn and sell 

 for low prices. Those secured at such 

 risk are the best and are used by 

 surgeons in delicate operations. They 

 do not grow as rapidly in the Mediter 

 ranean as in our water, an ordinary 

 bath sponge, measuring about a foot in 

 diameter, being ten years old. 



E. K, M. 



138 



