548 
SPONGES. 
case, the diver, with a bag round his neck, takes hold of an oblong white stone, 
with a cord attached; he breathes vigorously for a few minutes, and plunges in 
head foremost, holding the stone in front of him. He can only remain at the 
bottom at the utmost for three minutes, during which time he hastily snatches 
up the sponges, puts them into the bag, pulls the cord, and is drawn up. After 
the first descent of the season he conies up with his nose bleeding. If this does 
not take place it is considered a bad sign, and the diver will not consider himself 
fit to continue the work. Divers with dresses can remain for an hour in depths 
of from five to fifteen fathoms, but only for a few minutes in from twenty to fifty 
fathoms. In depths over fifty fathoms a drag-net is used, either from a vessel or 
hauled along from the shore. The net is fixed to a frame six yards in length and 
one yard in height; this is composed of camel hair, and has four-inch meshes. 
The sponges are taken ashore, pressed, squeezed, and rinsed, till the dark skin and 
fleshy glutinous substance has been got rid of, or they are exposed for a short 
time, and placed in a staked enclosure under water; in a few days the soft animal 
substance is trodden out, and the specimens are strung up to dry. 
In a map of North America, the tongue-like peninsula of Florida will be seen 
projecting between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The tongue extends 
beneath the sea as a submarine plateau, on wdiich coral - reefs have formed, 
parallel with the southern and western shores of the peninsula, but separated from 
the mainland by shallow channels. From the point of the tongue extends a chain 
of small islands, or “ keys,” formed from coral growth and its fragments. The 
plateau forms a south-eastern expansion, the Great Bahama Bank, which sinks 
along its eastern margin by a stupendous declivity of over ten thousand feet to 
the great depths. The reefs on the plateau form rich sponge-beds, extending over 
an area of several thousand square miles. Previous to 1840 the existence of these 
valuable submarine beds was unknown. Now they afford a means of livelihood 
to many thousands of men, and nearly a thousand vessels are employed in 
collecting the crops. 
The origin of the sponge-fisheries in the West Indian region was due to an 
accident. Previous to 1840 all the sponges of commerce came from the Mediter¬ 
ranean. In that year a member of a Paris firm of Mediterranean sponge merchants 
was wrecked on one of the Bahamas, in the course of a passage from Jamaica to 
Europe. He noticed that a great number of sponges were in use among the 
inhabitants, and was told that they were obtained from the waters round the 
island. On his return to Paris he arranged for consignments, and thus the 
Bahamas trade became established. In 1849 a cargo of sponges from Key West, 
Florida, arrived in New York, and was about to be thrown away as unsaleable; 
the cargo was purchased, however, by a firm, which established a branch at the 
new locality, and thereby founded the Florida trade. 
When the inhabitants of the Bahamas and the Florida Keys found it would 
pay to collect sponges, their spirit of enterprise was awakened, and putting off in 
search, they continually found reefs overgrown with crops. Gradually the vessels 
increased in number and tonnage, till the fleets amounted to seven or eight 
hundred craft, mostly schooner - rigged, and of from five to twenty-five tons 
burden. All over this region one method alone is in use, that of hooking the 
