HOW SPONGES ARE PROCURED 



breeding sponge on scientific lines, which merely means 

 that they avail themselves of the natural reproductive 

 instinct of the animals which it contains. In the autumn 

 the seeds or gemmules which occur in the interior of the 

 sponge body begin to form themselves, and gradually 

 every seed develops into a sponge particle, which during 

 the following summer becomes an ovum ; and this, on be- 

 coming fertilised, as often as not separates from the main 

 body of the sponge, attaches itself to some rock or other 

 object, and, little by little, grows into a separate colony 

 of animals. By experiments, scientists have proved that 

 a small bit of sponge torn from the main bulk will, if 

 circumstances are favourable and if there are sufficient 

 gemmules contained in it, quickly increase in size through 

 the breeding of its occupants ; and now the rearing 

 of sponges is as much a recognised industry as oyster 

 culture is. 



From the coast of Florida to the Bahamas there 

 stretches a long and from a seaman's point of view 

 very dangerous chain of islands, mostly of coral formation, 

 and known as the Florida Keys. Some of the islands are 

 just below sea-level, others just above ; others have been 

 slowly worn down by the action of the water and remain 

 at varying heights below the surface. On and about these 

 reefs it was accidentally discovered that sponge had been 

 breeding very freely, probably for many centuries ; and so, 

 during the last sixty years the horse-sponge trade has 

 grown up mainly on the Bahamas side of the reef; and 

 so profitable has it become that the islanders are now ex- 



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