834 HISTOKY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



season it will be found profitable to wait a little in order to see whether there are any indications 

 of putrefaction. This can be recognized by the darker color and the softening of the respective 

 portions. If anything of the kind is noticed, the sponge should be watched to see to what extent the 

 process ot disintegration has progressed. Small sponges will almost entirely fall a prey to it, 

 while in large ones the evil may be confined within certain limits. The cutting should be done 

 rapidly either with a common knife or as Mr. Buccich found more advantageous with a blade 

 resembling a fine saw, which is less liable to be injured by the many foreign bodies inclosed in 

 sponges. In cutting, the sponge had best be laid on a small board moistened with sea-water. 

 The size of the cuttings is generally about 26 square millimeters. It is well if every piece has as 

 large a surface as possible of intact outer skin. The cuttings should be fastened immediately 

 to those objects where they are expected to grow. 



"A healthy piece of sponge soon grows firmly on any object with which it is brought in close 

 contact. Sponges which have been cut will again grow together. Those cuttings which have 

 only a single cut surface will soonest grow fast to their new base, stone, wood, &c. Mr. Buccich 

 thinks that during a calm lasting twenty-four consecutive hours, cuttings could simply be sowed 

 on a rocky bottom and would soon grow. He has seen pieces laid on gently slanting rocks grow 

 fast to them during a perfect calm. Induced thereby, and also by thj3 natural occurrence of 

 sponges, Mr. Buccich tried flag-stones, about 53 millimeters thick, as a basis. He bored holes in 

 them and fastened the cuttings by means of wooden pegs, which were driven into the holes ; but 

 it soon became apparent that the mud and sand of the bottom, perhaps also the excess of light, 

 were injurious to the further growth of the sponges. Experience has shown that light and mud 

 are among the worst enemies of the sponge, and their influence must be avoided or limited by every 

 possible means. Stones form the natural basis of sponges; they are cheap and are not attacked 

 by the Teredo. 



li Originally, Prof. O. Schmidt used wooden boxes closed on all sides but perforated, to whose 

 inner sides the pieces of sponge were fastened with metal or wooden pegs. This exceedingly 

 simple arrangement did not prove efficient; because the boxes when let down into the deep water 

 became full of mud, and the holes being stopped up no light whatever could enter. The sponges 

 began to look pale and sickly. It is not good to fasten them with metal pegs, for it seemed to 

 retard their growth. The rust which forms very soon causes the pieces of sponge to become loose, 

 and will ultimately destroy them. Laths or boards placed obliquely, on whose upper side there were 

 floating contrivances in the shape of tables, to the lower side of which the sponges were fastened, 

 were likewise used. With the former, the want of covering was keenly felt, and with the latter, 

 the rays of the sun proved injurious, as well as all the different little objects floating on the sur- 

 face of the water which may be grouped together under the collective name 'dirt.' Mr. Buccich 

 at first prepared an apparatus consisting of two boards crossing each other at right angles with 

 a third board serving as a sort of lid, and after this had proved unsatisfactory he adopted the 

 apparatus which 1 shall now describe, and which he preferred to all others because the cuttings 

 were exposed on all sides to the sea-water and assumed the favorite round form. This apparatus 

 consisted of two boards, 63 centimeters long and 40 centimeters broad, one forming the bottom 

 and the other the lid. Both were kept in a parallel position, one above the other, at a distance 

 of about 42 centimeters, by two props about 11 centimeters distant from each other, between 

 which stones may be placed as ballast. On the outer side of the lid there was a handle. Both 

 boards had holes at a distance of 12 centimeters from each other, the total number of holes in 

 each board, therefore, being 24. Mr. Buccich did not fasten the pieces of sponge singly to the 

 apparatus, but he placed several of them on one peg and then stuck the pegs in the holes. For 



