ON SPONGES. 307 
unfit for commerce. The capital is usually advanced by the 
English merchant. 
Some additional details are given in Forbes and Spratt^s 
Lycia/^ and may bere be quoted. 
Sponges are abundant in tbe Lycian Sea. The more 
valued kinds are sought for about the Grulf of Maori, and along 
the Carian coasts and the opposite islands. Ehodes is the 
seat of one of the depots for the sponges of commerce. The 
species which live immediately along the shore near the 
wateEs edge, though often large, are worthless.-’^ 
Many species are made up of interlacing bundles of 
spiculse with animal matter.-’^ The larger kinds are not 
found deeper than thirty fathoms, and most of them within a 
third of that depth. A few small species live at very great 
depths, and one was taken afive in the Gulf of Maori, in 
one hundred and eighty-fi.ve fathoms water. The colour of 
the living sponge is a dull bluish-black above, and a dirty 
white beneath."’^ 
Sponge is the great article of export from the Ottoman 
archipelago, and the collection and preparation of it gives 
occupation to many thousand people, and influences the whole 
social economy of the district. For example, from May to 
September, only old men, women, and children are to be found 
in the island of Syra, all the able-bodied part of the male 
population being at this season at the sponge flshery, as it is 
popularly termed.* The people of the island of Lemnos form 
an exception to the remark just' made ; for, although sponges 
are plentiful on the coast, the inhabitants do not ^^fish^^ for 
them.f 
The sponge-divers carry round the neck a hoop, to which 
a netted bag is attached ; into this the sponges are put as fast 
as they are gathered. In deep water they make use of a 
rope, made sufiiciently heavy, by means of a stone, both to 
guide them to the spot where they are to work, and to aid 
them in their ascent. 
The Greeks of the Morea, instead of diving, make use of a 
trident with cutting recurved prongs, and furnished with a 
pouch or net. This mode of Ashing tears the sponge, which 
therefore sells at a low price. 
Mr. Campbell, the British consul at Bhodes (1859), after re- 
ferring to the increase of the sponge trade, states that of the 
600 boats, manned by 4,600 men, engaged that year in the 
sponge-fishing, 70 were employed on the coast of Rhodes, 150 
on the coasts of Candia, 180 on the coasts of Syria, and 200 
on the coasts of Barbary. 
* “ Technologist,” vol. i. p. 17. f Consular Report, 1859, p. 507. 
VOL. IV. — ^NO. XV. Y 
