284 SPONGE FISHERIES. 



ESTHER. 



They are. This animal is a native of the equatorial seas; 

 but, by adhering to the bottom of ships, it has been trans- 

 ported to Holland, where, independent of the injury it causes 

 among the ships, it has been most destructive to the piles of 

 the dykes, by which it has more than once threatened that 

 country with destruction. Commerce has naturalised this 

 animal in England, and you must have often seen old ship 

 timber covered with its perforations. As they grow larger 

 they bury themselves deeper, and line their passage to the 

 opening, with a kind of calcareous crust which exudes from 

 them, and forms a sort of tubulous shell. Here is one of 

 them. The pinna, chama, and other large shells I keep in 

 this lower drawer; but mamma has already given us a full 

 account of most of them in one of our former conversations.* 



HENRIETTA. 



This drawer is full of sponges. 



ESTHER. 



Yes; I am beginning a collection of sponges and corals, 

 but as yet it is very small. 



HENRIETTA. 



Where does the common sponge come from? 



ESTHER. 



The fishery for them is chiefly carried on in the Mediter- 

 ranean, particularly in the Grecian Archipelago. The finer 

 sponges come from Constantinople; the larger from the vicinity 

 of Tunis and Algiers. The collecting of them is attended 

 with danger, as they are fixed to the rocks at the depth of 

 several fathoms, so that the sponge fishers must be excellent 

 divers. The ancients, who did not cover their tables with 

 linen cloths, used to clean them with sponges; as they did 

 their hands, after their meals, with pieces of bread, which they 

 afterwards threw to the dogs, as we learn from Homer, and 



* Chapter Xf. 



