548 SPONGES. 



case, the diver, with a bag round his neck, takes hold of an oblong white stone, 

 with a cord attached ; he breathes vigorously for a few minutes, and plunges in 

 head foremost, holding the stone in front of him. He can only remain at the 

 bottom at the utmost for three minutes, during which time he hastily snatches 

 up the sponges, puts them into the bag, pulls the cord, and is drawn up. After 

 the first descent of the season he conies up with his nose bleeding. If this does 

 not take place it is considered a bad sign, and the diver will not consider himself 

 fit to continue the work. Divers with dresses can remain for an hour in depths 

 of from five to fifteen fathoms, but only for a few minutes in from twenty to fifty 

 fathoms. In depths over fifty fathoms a drag-net is used, either from a vessel or 

 hauled along from the shore. The net is fixed .to a frame six yards in length and 

 one yard in height ; this is composed of camel hair, and has four-inch meshes. 

 The sponges are taken ashore, pressed, squeezed, and rinsed, till the dark skin and 

 fleshy glutinous substance has been got rid of, or they are exposed for a short 

 time, and placed in a staked enclosure under water ; in a few days the soft animal 

 substance is trodden out, and the specimens are strung up to dry. 



In a map of North America, the tongue-like peninsula of Florida will be seen 

 projecting between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The tongue extends 

 beneath the sea as a submarine plateau, on which coral - reefs have formed, 

 parallel with the southern and western shores of the peninsula, but separated from 

 the mainland by shallow channels. From the point of the tongue extends a chain 

 of small islands, or "keys," formed from coral growth and its fragments. The 

 plateau forms a south-eastern expansion, the Great Bahama Bank, which sinks 

 along its eastern margin by a stupendous declivity of over ten thousand feet to 

 the great depths. The reefs on the plateau form rich sponge-beds, extending over 

 an area of several thousand square miles. Previous to 1840 the existence of these 

 valuable submarine beds was unknown. Now they afford a means of livelihood 

 to many thousands of men, and nearly a thousand vessels are employed in 

 collecting the crops. 



The origin of the sponge-fisheries in the West Indian region was due to an 

 accident. Previous to 1840 all the sponges of commerce came from the Mediter- 

 ranean. In that year a member of a Paris firm of Mediterranean sponge merchants 

 was wrecked on one of the Bahamas, in the course of a passage from Jamaica to 

 Europe. He noticed that a great number of sponges were in use among the 

 inhabitants, and was told that they were obtained from the waters round the 

 island. On his return to Paris he arranged for consignments, and thus the 

 Bahamas trade became established. In 1849 a cargo of sponges from Key West, 

 Florida, arrived in New York, and was about to be thrown away as unsaleable ; 

 the cargo was purchased, however, by a firm, w r hich established a branch at the 

 new locality, and thereby founded the Florida trade. 



When the inhabitants of the Bahamas and the Florida Keys found it would 

 pay to collect sponges, their spirit of enterprise was awakened, and putting off in 

 search, they continually found reefs overgrown with crops. Gradually the vessels 

 increased in number and tonnage, till the fleets amounted to seven or eight 

 hundred craft, mostly schooner - rigged, and of from five to twenty-five tons 

 burden. All over this region one method alone is in use, that of hooking the 



