56 



SPONGES 



Prepara- 

 tion for 

 market. 



corals, is fatal. A favourable situation is a sheltered bay 

 with a rocky bottom overgrown with green seaweed and 

 freshened by gentle waves and currents. So favoured, 

 the cuttings grow to a sponge two or three times their 

 original size in one year, and at the end of five to seven 

 years are large enough for the market. Similar experi- 

 ments with similar results have more recently been carried 

 on in Florida. The chief drawback to successful sponge- 

 farming w^uld appear to be the long interval which the 

 cultivator has to wait for his first crop. 



After the sponge has been taken from the sea, it is 

 exposed to the air till signs of decomposition set in, and 

 then without delay either beaten with a thick stick or 

 trodden by the feet in a stream of flowing water till the 

 skin and other soft tissues are completely removed. If 

 this process is postponed for only a few hours after the 

 sponge has been exposed a whole day to the air it is almost 

 impossible to completely purify it. After cleaning it is 

 hung up in the air to dry, and then with others finally 

 pressed into bales. If not completely dried before pack- 

 ing the sponges " heat," orange yellow spots appearing on 

 the parts attacked. The only remedy for this is to unpack 

 the bale and remove the affected sponges. The orange- 

 coloured spots produced by this "pest," or "cholera" as 

 the Levant fishermen term it, must not be confounded 

 with the brownish red colour which many sponges natu- 

 rally possess, especially near their base. The sponges on 

 reaching the wholesale houses are cut to a symmetrical 

 shape and further cleaned. The light-coloured sponges 

 often seen in chemists' shops have been bleached by 

 chemical means which impair their durability. Sponges 

 are sold by weight ; sand is used as au " adulteration." 



It is difficult to obtain recent statistics as to the extent 

 of the sponge trade ; the following tables gives a summary 

 of the sponges sold in Trieste, the great European sponge 

 market, in the year 1871 : 



TABLE I. 



TABLE II. 



(W. J. S.) 



