SPONGES. 
41 
tioned. Both of these species grow abundantly in the 
eastern parts of the Mediterranean, especially around the 
numberless islets of the Grecian Archipelago. Smyrna is 
the great market for the Sponge trade, and the expor- 
tation of this article forms no inconsiderable source of its 
prosperity. 
Great Britain imports annually about 60,000 lbs. of 
Sponge, paying duty of 6d. per lb., with five per cent, 
addition. The greater portion comes from the Levant, but 
Barbadoes and the Bahamas supply a coarser sort, chiefly 
used for washing carriages. Its pores aro large, and it 
has projecting lobes ; the fibres possess little cohesion, 
and hence it is commonly called “ rotten.” 
The Grecian Sponges grow in moderately deep water, 
usually assuming a more or less manifest cup-form. Those 
which reside in the deeper recesses of the sea are said to 
be of larger dimensions, as well as of finer texture, than 
such as are more exposed to the action of the waves. 
Aristotle, who enjoyed peculiar facilities for the study of 
these organisms, and who has speculated on their nature, 
says that in a living state they are black , except as covered 
with the light earthy sediment of the sea : — a circumstance 
which, notwithstanding his high authority, we venture to 
doubt. He may possibly have supposed specimens to be 
alive which were dead, aud blackened with sulphuretted 
hydrogen. 
In many of the Greek islands, the diving for Sponge 
forms a considerable part of the occupation of the inhabi- 
tants, as it has done from the most remote antiquity. 
Hasselquist says : — “ Himia is a little, and almost unknown 
island directly opposite Rhodes. It is worth notice, on 
