Sponges 35 



placed in wire-netting enclosures where 

 they die gradually. Having been dried 

 in the sun and beaten daily for some 

 weeks with the object of liberating the 

 soft, rotting parts, the sponges are ready 

 for exportation. Sponges are sold by 

 the weight, so after the removal of the 

 soft parts the fishermen often fill the 

 skeletons with sand in order to make 

 them heavier and thereby obtain a 

 higher price. The bath sponge, which 

 was an article of commerce in the days 

 of Aristotle, was used by the ancients 

 in their helmets and boots to act as 

 an absorbent. In its living state it 

 presents a blackish mass. It is a very 

 slow grower, a cutting the size of an 

 orange taking about seven years to attain 

 to marketable size. 



The fig-sponge of our shores which, as 

 its name implies, assumes a fig-like shape, 

 is addicted to covering the whelk shells 

 tenanted by hermit crabs. In such 



