26 



These sponges are found at a depth of about 130 fathoms, in a 

 mud bank, three miles from the coast of one of the Phillipine 

 Islands, where they are dredged for by the natives. When 

 taken out of the water they are of a dirty yellowish colour, but 

 by washing in fresh water, and exposure to the bleaching 

 influence of the atmosphere, they become a pure white, the 

 condition in which they are usually brought into this country. 

 The first entire specimen — that described by Professor Owen, in 

 1841, and now in the British Museum — was sold for £30 ; but of 

 late years they have become more plentiful, and in 1867 were 

 selling at between £3 and £4 ; but are now to be purchased at 

 from 5s. to £1 each. 



Whilst upon the subject of sponges it may be well to observe 

 that domestic sponges are found principally in the Grecian 

 Archipelago, although they are found throughout the 

 Mediterranean. They occur at depths varying from shallow 

 water to that of 30 or more fathoms ; those found in shallow 

 water being of the coarser kind, while those found at the 

 greatest depths are the softest and best. Aristotle observed this 

 fact and tried to account for it. He says, "In general those 

 which grow in deep and still water are the softest, for the wind 

 and waves harden sponges as they do other things that grow, 

 and check their growth." They are obtained by diving, an art 

 to which the inhabitants of the Grecian Isles and the surround- 

 ing coasts are specially trained from their earliest years, and 

 dexterity in which is counted one of the first qualifications in a 

 husband ; while in some places it seems at one time to have 

 been considered a scarcely less important female accomplishment, 

 for Hasselquist teUs of a somewhat similar custom in his 

 " Voyages and Travels in the Levant," though rather differently 

 applied. He says " Himia is a little and almost unknown island 

 directly opposite Ehode. It is worth notice on account of the 

 singular method which the Greeks — the inhabitants of the 

 island — ^have of obtaining their living. At the bottom of the 

 sea the common sponge, Spongia officinalis, is found in abund- 

 ance, and more than in any other place of the Mediterrane^, 



