A wiNTKi; \ isir TO riiK kahama islands. 227 



IxHMi familiar with it all their lives, yet no one seems to know 

 ilelinitel}' what is the average life of the plant or whether that 

 term can be prolonged by cutting out the stalk or pole, and pre- 

 venting its growth. 



The colonial government no longer makes large grants to 

 companies, as it has hitherto done at reasonable prices. It is 

 thought that enough has been done by such grants to encourage 

 the development of the industry and demonstrate the practicability 

 of the cultivation in a comprehensive manner. If permanently 

 successful it will be deemed wise to sell the remaining suitable 

 lands in small fields of ten acres, or thereabouts, to individual 

 owners, that the people of small means, or even of no accumula- 

 tions whatever, may be able to obtain their own individual 

 holdings and produce their own crop instead of working exclu- 

 sively for wages for others. This they may secure at one dollar 

 per acre, to be paid out of the first crop raised, and it is hoped 

 that by this method of sale a large portion of the laboring people 

 who now obtain employment but a moiety of the time, at indiffer- 

 ent wages, may be induced to capitalize their lost time and thus 

 soon become independent and self-sustaining. 



The sponge fishery was an exceedingly interesting study. 

 Probably four thousand of the islanders are engaged in gathering 

 and curing the sponge. It is not the most attractive calling by 

 any means. The sponges are fished from the bottom of the sea, 

 sometimes in thirty-five and forty feet of water, either by the aid 

 of long poles or by diving. Being secured they must be allowed 

 to decay and then be freed from th(,' resulting offensive animal 

 matter, by thorough washing and drying. They are then brought 

 to Nassau and exposed for sale at auction in a large open shed, 

 called the Sponge Exchange, where they are sold to the highest 

 bidder, he being a broker. No one can bid but a broker and 

 sponges cannot be sold elsewhere than at the Sponge Exchange, 

 so that this guild of brokers appears to have pretty much of a 

 monopoly of the sponge business of the Bahamas. The proceeds 

 of the sale are divided between the owners of the vessel, who are 

 generally the outfitters, and the crew. Great complaint is made, 

 and to an outsider it would appear to Im with some reason, that 

 between the outfitters and the brokers but little remains for the 

 crew who perform this unpleasant and laborious toil, for they 

 can hardly earn seventy-five dollars per year besides a very poor 



