78 THE SEA. 



animal existence, and that so close to the confines of the vegetable world that it was 

 considered difficult to some species to determine whether they were on the one side or the 

 other. " Several of them, however," says Mr. Gosse, " if viewed with a lens under water 

 while in a living state, display vigorous currents constantly pouring forth from ceitain 

 orifices, and we necessarily infer that the water thus ejected must be constantly taken in 

 through some other channel. On tearing the mass open, we see that the whole substance is 

 perforated in all directions by irregular canals leading into each other, of which some are- 

 slender, and communicate with the surface by minute but numerous pores, and others are 

 wide, and open by ample orifices; through the former the water is admitted, through the 

 latter it is ejected." 



At the present time sponge fishing takes place principally in the Grecian Archipelago and 

 the Syrian coasts. The Greeks and Syrians sell the product of their fishing to the western 

 nations, and the trade has been immensely extended in recent times. Fishing usually com- 

 mences towards the beginning of June on the coast of Syria, and finishes at the end of October, 

 But the months of July and August are peculiarly favourable to the sponge harvest, if we may 

 use the term. Latakia furnishes about ten boats to the fishery, Batoum twenty, Tripoli twenty- 

 five to thirty, Kalki fifty, Simi about 170 to 180, and Kalminos more than 200. The boat's- 

 crew consists of four or five men, who scatter themselves along the coast for two or three miles, 

 in search of sponges under the cliffs and ledges of rock. Sponges of inferior quality are 

 gathered in shallow waters. The finer kinds are found only at a depth of from twenty to 

 thirty fathoms. The first are fished for with three-toothed harpoons, by the aid of which they 

 are torn from their native rock, but not without deteriorating them more or less. The finer 

 kinds of sponges, on the other hand, are collected by divers ; aided by a knife, they are care- 

 fully detached. Thus the price of a sponge brought up by diving is much more considerable 

 than that of> a harpooned sponge. Among divers, those of Kalminos and of Psara are 

 particularly renowned. They will descend to the depth of twenty-five fathoms, remain down a 

 shorter time than the Syrian divers, and yet bring up a more abundant harvest. The fishing- 

 of the Archipelago furnishes few fine sponges to commerce, but a great quantity of very 

 common ones. The Syrian fisheries furnish many of the finer kinds, which find a ready market 

 in France ; they are of medium size. On the other hand, those which are furnished from the 

 Barbary coast are of great dimensions, of a very fine tissue, and much sought for in England. 

 Sponge fishing is carried on at various other stations in the Mediterranean, but without any 

 intelligent direction, and in consequence it is effected without any conservative foresight. At 

 the same time, however, the trade in this product goes on yearly increasing ; but it is only a 

 question of time when the trade shall cease, the demand which every year clears the submarine 

 fields of these sponges causing such destruction that their reproduction will soon cease to be 

 adequate. 



The finer varieties of toilet sponge produce a high price, often as much as forty shillings 

 the poimd weight for very choice specimens, a price which few commercial products obtain, and 

 which prohibits their use, in short, to all but the wealthy. It is, therefore, very desirable 

 that attempts should be made to carry out the submarine enterprise of M. Lamiral. With the 

 assistance of the Acclimatisation Society of Paris, some experiments have already been made ia 

 this direction. 



