WONDERS OF THE DEEP 69 



dilute solution of sulphuric acid, in which they are 

 allowed to remain for five or six days, care being 

 taken to press them from time to time. This pro- 

 cess certainly imparts a better colour to the sponge, 

 but it considerably impairs its durability. Very 

 often sponges are " loaded " by the addition of 

 such substances as rock-salt, molasses, gravel, and 

 sand, in order to increase their weight. Of course, 

 this is done only by unscrupulous merchants and 

 sponge dealers. 



The following vivid and descriptive account of 

 sponge fishing in the Bahamas, and the sponge 

 industry to which it gives rise, written by an eye 

 witness, Mr. Henry A. Blake, at one time Governor 

 of the Bahama Islands, is worth reproducing here: — 



" From October to July the sponging season is 

 in full swing. There are over five thousand men and 

 boys engaged in the fishery, each schooner carrying 

 a crew of five to seven. The sponges are found all 

 over the banks, which vary in depth from two to four 

 fathoms. The fishing is managed on the share system, 

 the crew being thus directly interested in the success 

 of the voyage, which lasts about six weeks. Arrived 

 on the ground, the small boats, of which each schooner 

 carries two or three, put off, manned each by two 

 men, one of whom sculls, while the other, armed with 

 a thirty-foot pole, bearing at the end a double hook, 

 lies extended over the bow, and examines the bottom 

 through a " sponge glass," or bucket with a glass 

 bottom. Laying this upon the surface, everything 

 below is seen as clearly as if no water intervened. 



