244 SPONGES. 



comparative abundance. What is commonly known as 

 sponge is merely the framework on which the living part 

 is supported. The horny fibres of which this framework is 

 composed are so interlaced as to form numerous canals, 

 which permeate the sponge in every direction, and open on 

 the surface in numerous small apertures, with here and 

 there a larger one. These two kinds of openings, with 

 which every one who has handled a bit of common sponge 

 is familiar, serve totally different purposes. If you examine 

 a bit of living sponge placed in a glass full of salt water, 

 the fluid will be seen to enter by the smaller openings, and 

 to pass out by the larger ones. In the interval the water 

 has passed over the sponge animalcules, and by them has 

 been deprived of its nutritive ingredients. A living sponge 

 may thus be fitly described as a large and populous city, 

 all honeycombed over with innumerable streets and lanes, 

 whose inhabitants ever sit, like Eastern shopkeepers, out 

 of doors, and make their living by picking up whatever 

 treasure fortune may put in their way. 



The sponges of commerce are of two kinds, — Turkish and 

 "West Indian. The former are principally obtained from the 

 shores of the Grecian islands, Cyprus, Crete, and the Levant, 

 where the sponge-fisheries take the place of the coral-fisheries 

 of the Italian coast. They are obtained by diving; an art 

 in which the inhabitants of these regions are trained from 

 their earliest years, and proficiency in which is regarded as 

 essential in any youth wishmg to become a husband. 

 Pomet says that in the island of Icarus " the young men 

 are not allowed to marry till they can show that they can 

 gather sponges from the bottom of the sea ; and for this 



