THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 69 
water in the bays. At low tide they could be seen spouting out 
water vigorously. When approached they became alarmed, and 
ceased spouting water; and when they were touched, they closed 
the orifices through which the water escaped, manifesting a sur- 
prising amount of activity of life. Though I collected more than 
fifty species of sponges, none of them possessed any commercial 
value. When I witnessed the great extent of the bays on the 
west coast of Florida, and saw on the bottom so many specimens 
of sponges, and so many species, I was forcibly impressed with 
the idea that these waters were capable of future possibilities of 
great commercial importance. If sponges of no market value 
can thrive there in abundance, there are reasonable grounds to 
expect that some of the desirable species may also grow there 
by cultivation. I was informed that the sponge crop in Florida is 
rapidly diminishing, and that their value is now much greater 
than in former times. If they can be cultivated artificially, a 
great industry might be established on that coast in the sponge 
trade, which does not appear to be capable of much extension in 
any other manner. It way be asserted that if valuable sponges 
could exist in the bays of Florida, they would be found there 
now. We should not be unmindful that, as a general rule, ani- 
mals have a wonderful faculty for accommodating themselves to 
changed conditions in their life; not only when produced by the 
agency of man, but often by natural causes; or by voluntary al- 
tered conditions. I will give a few illustrations. We often find 
that oysters thrive well when transplanted upon new grounds, 
even where they do not subsequently multiply well, the condi- 
tions for spawning not being suitable. 
I once saw a dog, in Nova Scotia, that refused to eat fresh meat 
which I offered to him. His master told me that he (the dog) 
never saw meat while he was young, and would not eat it. He 
ate fish only; chiefly dried codfish. 
The sheephead fish, on the west coast of Florida, inhabit the 
fresh water streams in great abundance. There is practically 
little animal food there suitable to their tastes, such as molluscs 
and crustaceans, for eating which their mouths are specially 
adapted. So they accommodate themselves to their circum- 
stances, and eat grass. Except in the rapid channels, the bottoms 
