308 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
It would seein_, from Mr. CampbelFs report, tbat tlie men 
employed in the laborious but profitable avocations of sponge- 
divers are at times subject to very grievous exactions from 
those in authority. Prior to the year just mentioned, the 
sponge-fishery on the coast of Ehodes had declined, but this 
year it was resumed, seventy boats having arrived for that 
object. The Governor- General immediately estabhshed a duty 
of 20 per cent, on all sponges taken on these coasts, and it 
was not until the divers threatened to go elsewhere that it was 
'commuted for a fixed sum of £3 on each boat. 
A duty of 20 per cent, is levied on all sponges taken on 
the coasts of Candia, but the divers are gradually leaving that 
island for the coasts of Barbary, where no duty is exacted, 
although their boats have to be carried there in vessels and 
brought back in them to their respective islands at great 
expense, whereas they could proceed to Candia in their o'wn 
boats. It is not so much of the duty itself that the poor people 
complain, but of the irregular and rapacious manner of its 
exaction. 
There has been a great advance of late years in the prices 
at which the various qualities of sponge are sold, arising 
from the increased demand and the consequent competition 
among buyers. The following table * shows the prices in 
successive years ; they are given in piastres, which may be 
estimated at 2d. each. The prices are quoted per oke of 
2f lb. ; but, in point of fact, it is not often now that they 
are sold by weight in the Archipelago, in consequence of the 
numerous frauds engendered by the practice of filling the 
sponges with sand. They are, however, re-sanded by the 
sponge merchants as a preliminary to shipment to foreign 
markets.f 
Fine. 
Common. 
Coarse. 
Total of the 
Amounts paid in 
1852 ... 
220 piastres . . . 
40 
15 
British Currency. 
1857 ... 
300 „ 
65 
35 
... £81,000 
1858 ... 
325 „ 
100 
30 
90,000 
1859 ... 
365 „ 
115 
33 
... 107,500 
1860 ... 
420 „ 
130 
35 
... 141,500 
1861 ... 
450 ) „ 
120 ) ... 
60 ) 
... 111,000 
feU to 300 j „ 
80 ) ... 
40 ] 
* Mr. Campbell’s Consular Eeport at Ehodes, 1861. 
t In London, the sponge merchants sell the cases unopened, and with a 
large quantity of sand in them, as imported. The sponge dealers assort the 
various qualities and sizes, clean the sponges more or less perfectly, and sell 
them at corresponding rates. An extremely high price is occasionally given 
for small parcels of superior toilet sponge. We were told of one instance, in 
which a purchaser from Paris agreed to give 10s. 6d. per piece for 114 pieces, 
each about the size of a breakfast-cup, or a Kttle larger, and carefully selected 
