SPOXGES. 



41 



tioned. Both of these species grow abundantly in the 

 eastern parts of the Mediterranean, especially around the 

 numberless islets of the Grecian Archipelago. Smyrna is 

 the great market for the Sponge trade, and the expor- 

 tation of this article forms no inconsiderable source of its 

 prosperity. 



Great Britain imports annually about 60,000 lbs. of 

 Sponge, paying duty of 6d. per lb., with five per cent, 

 addition. The greater portion comes from the Levant, but 

 Barbadoes and the Bahamas supply a coarser sort, chiefly 

 used for washing carriages, Its pores are large, and it 

 has projecting lobes; the fibres possess little cohesion, 

 and hence it is commonly called " rotten." 



The Grecian Sponges grow in moderately deep water, 

 usually assuming a more or less manifest cup-form. Those 

 which reside in the deeper recesses of the sea are said to 

 be of larger dimensions, as well as of finer texture, than 

 such as are more exposed to the action of the waves. 

 Aristotle, who enjoyed peculiar facilities for the study of 

 these organisms, and who has speculated on their nature, 

 says that in a living state they are black, except as covered 

 with the light earthy sediment of the sea : — a circumstance 

 which, notwithstanding his high authority, we venture to 

 doubt. He may possibly have supposed specimens to be 

 alive which were dead, and blackened with sulphuretted 

 hydrogen. 



In many of the Greek islands, the diving for Sponge 

 forms a considerable part of the occupation of the inhabi- 

 tants, as it has done from the most remote antiquity. 

 Hasselquist says :— "Himia is a little, and almost unknown 

 island directly opposite Rhodes. It is worth notice, on 



