HOW SPONGES ARE PROCURED 



porting sponge to the annual value of nearly a hundred 

 and twenty thousand pounds. The beds extend over 

 several thousand square miles, and are, in all reasonable 

 probability, inexhaustible. 



Here sponge-diving is almost unknown ; what need, 

 when in many cases the sponges grow so close to the sur- 

 face that it looks as if you could gather them with your 

 hand ? Instead, the fishermen use the harpoon, or a 

 hooked form of it ; a three-pronged rake, we might better 

 term it. Every week a fleet of schooner-rigged boats, of 

 any size up to twenty-five tons, sets off from the shores 

 of a few of the islands, each carrying several two-men 

 dinghies or dories, like those used by the Newfoundland 

 cod-fishers, and manned largely by negroes. While the 

 ships lie at anchor the little boats pull about over the 

 reefs, the sponge-hooker lying over either stern or bows, 

 and snatching at everything that looks promising. 



Hooking here requires far greater care and skill than in 

 the Mediterranean, for everybody knows how soft horse- 

 sponge is, and how easily torn. The aim is to slide the 

 rake immediately between the rock and the root of the 

 sponge, and so wrench it bodily off. 



At the end of the day the dinghies pull back to their 

 schooner, and the sponges are stowed away on board. 

 After a week of good catches the fleet is able to return 

 and land the cargo, if " land " may be allowed to mean 

 bringing the sponges in to shore by the boat-load and 

 throwing them straight into the "crawl," as the West 

 Indians call the staked enclosure such as has been 

 described. Here the sponges lie a few feet under water 



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