The Sponge. 7 



Let us find Key West and Nassau on the map. These 

 are the two principal markets for American sponges, which 

 live in the Caribbean Sea and off the Florida coast. If we 

 should visit Nassau, a boatman would take us out to the 

 sponge fisheries. The water is very clear, and with a water- 

 glass — a tube, or box, with a pane of glass at one end — 

 which we press against the surface, we can see the bottom. 

 Here and there on the coral rock, and contrasting with the 

 brightly colored fishes and the brilliant hues of the sea-fans, 

 are some dark masses fixed to the reef and sending out 

 little jets of water from openings in the top. These are the 

 sponges. We have in the boat a very long-handled fork, 

 with three prongs, curved so that they will take a firm 

 hold of the sponge, and with this our boatman pulls one 

 off from the rock. Sometimes they are taken in a dredge, 

 but the best sponges are brought up by divers. Our living 

 sponge has a dark brownish or purplish flesh that covers 

 all the fibres. After the sponges are killed by being ex- 

 posed to the air for a day, they are thrown into pens 

 made of stakes driven in shallow water, and left till the 

 flesh decays. Then they are washed and trimmed, and 

 sorted according to size, and afterward packed in bales 

 and sent to New York or London to market. 



This ia true of Amerioau spoDges. Mediterranean apooges, 

 which are mnoh finer and more expensive, receive more careful 

 treatment. 



Lesson II. 



For this lesson every kind of sponge that the teacher can seonre 

 will be naefnl. 



Review of Lesson I. : The sponge is a mass of elastic fibres. The 

 edges of the fibres stand oat on every fide but one, which ia smooth 

 and dark. The sponge is full of tnbes that open on the outside. 

 There are fonr sets of tubes : large tubes, small tubes that lead 

 from the surface to the large ones, cross tubes that connect these 



