THE VARIETIES OF SPONGES. 



685 



British Sponges, published in 1866, describes nearly 200 

 species, but this number by no means includes them all. They 

 are of all sizes, and of all possible diversity of shape. At pre 

 sent the chief sponge fishing is carried on in the Grecian 

 Archipelago and on the coast of Syria. The boat's crew con- 

 sists of four or five men who, between June and October, seek 

 the sponges under the cliffs and ledges of the rocks. Those 

 obtained in shallow waters are considered inferior; the best 

 are obtained at a depth ranging from twenty to thirty fathoms. 

 The poorer sponges are taken from the shallow waters with 

 harpoons, but are injured by this method of capture. The 

 others are taken by hand. The diver descends to the bottom, 

 and can stay there from a minute to a minute and a half, and 

 carefully detaches the sponges from the rocks with a knife. 



Sponge fishing is also carried on in other parts of the Med- 

 iterranean, but without any foresight, so that the sponges will, 

 in time, be exhausted. To guard against this contingency, it 

 has been proposed to transplant and acclimatize the sponges 

 upon the coast of France and Algeria, where the composition 

 of the water is the same as that upon the coast of Syria, and 

 where the difference of temperature would prove no impedi- 

 ment to their flourishing. In fact, the farther north the 

 sponges grow, the finer and compacter are their tissue. By 

 use of a submarine boat, supplied with air by a force-pump T 

 it was proposed to collect such specimens, as were best suited 

 for the purpose, removing the rocks with them; and also to 

 collect the young sponges, during the months of April and 

 May, shortly after they have commenced their independent ex- 

 istence, and before they have anchored themselves to some 

 permanent abode, and transport them to a favorable locality. 

 The French Acclimatization Society, in 1862, gave a commission 

 to M. Lamiral, who had passed years in the study of sponges, 

 and who has published an excellent work upon their habits, to 

 collect thp germs, and transplant them to the coast of France, 



