192 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



the same way struck into the second, and so on. Neither 

 the Arabs nor the' Sicilians avail themselves of either 

 of the above methods of using the harpoon or of the wave 

 tube. 



The sponge fishery is considered to be capable of great 

 development, and the danger of exhausting the supply is 

 not great, as a new sponge is said to take the place of one 

 removed within twelve months. 



The following table shows the imports of Turkey and 

 Mediterranean sponges into the United Kingdom for a 



series of years : — 









lbs. 



V alue. 



1851 ... 



... 189,828 ... 





1852 ... 



... 160,621 ... 





1853 - 



... 205,924 ... 





1854 ... 



... 224,787 ... 



... ;^7o,246 



1855 ... 



339.985 



... 140,164 



1856 ... 



... 313,287 ... 



... 172,308 



1857 ... 



... 318,676 ... 



... 164,650 



1858 ... 



... 287,681 ... 



... 157,751 



1859 ... 



... 345.818 ... 



218,161 



i860 ... 



... 411,111 ... 



... 270,410 



1861 ... 



... 340,506 ... 



... 108,782 



1862 ... 



... 348,924 ••• 



••• 74,833 



1863 ... 



... 377,111 ... 



... 69,074 



1864 ... 



... 431,906 ... 



... 53,168 



1866 ... 



... 321,199 ••• 



... 41,477 



1867 ... 



... 320,032 ... 



... 31,415 



1868 ... 



... 356,131 ••• 



... 61,817 



1869 ... 



... 660,685 ... 



... 85,751 



1870 ... 



■ .. 453,819 ... 



... 113,384 



The imports have not been officially recorded since. 



The supplies are received principally through the four 

 channels of France, Greece, Turkey proper, Italy, and 

 sometimes from Malta and Egypt. 



The sponges shipped are of three qualities — fine, common, 

 and coarse. In the fine qualities there is but one in ten of 

 the first or superior quality ; the rest are of a second or 



