BBEDGING FOB E UPLECTFLLAS. 
253 
almost relieves the natives from the necessity of 
work supplies the merchant with valuable products 
with little effort or outlay. 
One special object which we had in selecting the 
town of Zebu as one of our places of call was to 
make out, if possible, something of the habits and 
mode of life of the beautiful sponge, the “Yenus’s 
flower-basket,” which is said to be obtained only at 
one spot off the island of Mactan, close to Zebu. A 
party of Indians used to this work were engaged, 
and accompanied our “ Philos ” in the steam-pinnace 
to the fishing-ground. They brought with them some 
curious and ingeniously contrived instruments with 
which they bring the sponges up : two long strips of 
bamboo, meeting at an angle of about 45 degrees, to 
the outer edges of which are secured some forty or 
fifty large fish-hooks, with their barbs set forward 
towards the angle. The whole affair is strengthened 
with an elaborate system of stays, and weighted with 
stones, so as to sink it to the required depth. When 
all is ready, it is put overboard, and with a tow-line 
dragged slowly over the bottom. After about an 
hour has elapsed, it is hauled in, and several Euplec- 
tellas are found entangled amongst the hooks. They 
have a very different appearance at first from the 
cones of glassy network that they afterwards present 
when cleaned. The silver beard is clogged with the 
dark-grey mud in which they live, buried to about 
one- third of their height, and the network of the 
