78 THE OCEAN WOULD. 



Fishing usually commences towards the beginning of June on the 

 coast of Syria, and finishes at the end of October. But the months 

 of July and August are peculiarly favourable to the sponge harvest, 

 if we may use the term. Latakia furnishes about ten boats to the 

 fishery, Batroun twenty, Tripoli twenty-five to thirty, Kalld fifty, 

 Simi about a hundred and seventy to a hundred and eighty, and 

 Kalminos more than two hundred. The operations of one of these 

 boats fishing for sponges on the Syrian coast is represented in 

 Plate II. 



The boat's crew consists of four or five men, who scatter themselves 

 along the coast for two or three miles in search of sponges under the 

 cliffs and ledges of rock. Sponges of inferior quality are gathered in 

 shallow waters. The finer kinds are found only at a depth of from 

 twelve to twenty fathoms. The first are fished for with three- 

 toothed harpoons, by the aid of which they are torn from their native 

 rock; but not without deteriorating them more or less. The finer 

 kinds of sponges, on the other hand, are collected by divers aided by 

 a knife ; they are carefully detached. Thus the price of a sponge 

 brought up by diving is much more considerable than that of a 

 harpooned sponge. Among divers, those of Kalminos and of Psara 

 are particularly renowned. They will descend to the depth of twenty- 

 five fathoms, remain down a shorter time than the Syrian divers, and 

 yet bring up a more abundant harvest. The fishing of the Archipelago 

 furnishes few fine sponges to commerce, but a great quantity of very 

 common ones. The Syrian fisheries furnish many of the finer kinds, 

 which find a ready market in France ; they are of medium size. On 

 the other hand, those which are furnished from the Barbary coast are 

 of great dimensions, of a very fine tissue, and much sought for in 

 England. On the Bahama banks, and in the Gulf of Mexico, the 

 sponges grow in water of small depth. The fishermen, Spanish, 

 American, and English, sink a long mast or perch into the water 

 moored near the boat, down which they drop upon the sponges ; by 

 this means they are easily gathered. 



In the Bed Sea, the Arabs fish for sponges by diving, their produce 

 being either sold to the English at Aden or sent to Egypt. Sponge- 

 fishing is carried on at various other stations in the Mediterranean, 

 but without any intelligent direction, and in consequence it is effected 

 without any conservative foresight. At the same time, however, the 



