SPONGES. 189 
developed. Fastened to the rocks by roots, maturing germs like 
buds, and looking like a fungus, an ordinary observer can hardly 
believe the learned men of science when informed by them that 
it isan animal. The spongide are found in water from twelve 
to thirty feet deep, and are detached from the rocks by divers or 
by fishermen with the aid of long poles having hooks with two 
prongs. Water glasses, like those hereafter described in our chap- 
ter upon corals, are also used when the water isrough. A large 
number of boats and men are employed in the business, 
When we went to Nassau we supposed we knew sponges, but 
we were greatly mistaken. When taken from the water they are 
dark colored, and in appearance resemble liver. The sponge of 
commerce consists of the flexible fibrous skeletons of a large colony 
of sponges. The very small and clustered animals are so closely 
united, and so arranged, as to form a mass of tubes, through 
which the sea water containing their food is made to circulate 
by means of very small hairs or cilia which line the cavities, and 
vibrate at the will of the animal, so that each can take its ap- 
propriate nourishment as the water passes through. It seems to 
be acommunistic community, where each works for the common 
benefit of all. The principle works well, and would produce 
equally good results in human societies if man had only a little 
more of the nature and disposition of a sponge conferred upon 
him. The water is discharged through the larger orifices. It 
has been well said that ‘the sponge represents a kind of suba- 
queous city, where the people are arrayed about the streets and 
roads, in such a manner that each can appropriate his food from 
the water as it passes along.” The supply of water is stopped 
when the orifices or gates of these marine cities are closed, but 
how such multitudes of animals, that are inseparably united and 
permanently attached to one spot, can be so regulated and man- 
aged as to secure harmony and the common good of all, we cannot 
fully understand, 
