THE SPONGE-DIVERS. 



125 



are several qualities, possibly indicating as many 

 distinct species. The best are taken among the 

 Cyclades. The sponge-divers, however, are mostly 

 people from the islands off the Carian coast ; from 

 Calymnos and the islands between Calymnos 

 and Rhodes. They go in little fleets of caiques, 

 each of six or seven tons burden, and manned 

 by six or eight men. The season for the fishery 

 lasts from May until September. All the men 

 dive in turn. They remain under water from 

 one to three minutes. They descend to the 

 bottom at various depths between five fathoms 

 and twenty, or even, though rarely, thirty. Very 

 few of the Archipelago divers can descend so deep 

 as the last-named depth, and it is doubtful 

 whether they can work, in such case, when 

 down. Some years ago a diver asserted he had 

 bent a rope round the beam of a Turkish 

 frigate sunk in thirty fathoms water off Scio. 

 Mr. Love, when engaged in raising the guns 

 of some of the sunken ships, confirmed his 

 statement by finding the rope still bent round 

 the beam. In deep water a rope weighed by 

 a stone is let down, by which the divers ascend 

 when they have gathered the sponges. They 

 carry nothing about their persons except a netted 



