192 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



the same way struck into the second, and so on. Neither 

 the Arabs nor the Sicilians avail themselves of either 

 of the above methods of using the harpoon or of the wave 

 tube. 



The sponge fishery is considered to be capable of great 

 development, and the danger of exhausting the supply is 

 not great, as a new sponge is said to take the place of one 

 removed within twelve months. 



The following table shows the imports of Turkey and 

 Mediterranean sponges into the United Kingdom for a 

 series of years : 



The imports have not been officially recorded since. 



The supplies are received principally through the four 

 channels of France, Greece, Turkey proper, Italy, and 

 sometimes from Malta and Egypt. 



The sponges shipped are of three qualities fine, common, 

 and coarse. In the fine qualities there is but one in ten of 

 the first or superior quality ; the rest are of a second or 



