30    THE  SPONGE  FISHERY  OE  THE  OTTOMAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 
One  hundred  and  ninety  boats  are  employed  in  it,  with  nearly 
1500  men.  The  merchants  of  the  island  usually  go  themselves 
to  Marseilles,  or  Trieste,  in  their  own  vessels,  of  which  they 
now  possess  eighteen,  of  from  100  to  300  tons,  to  sell  the 
sponges  fished  by  their  countrymen,  to  the  value  of  about 
£15,000  a  year,  bringing  back  from  those  places  various  ar- 
ticles, part  of  which  they  send  to  the  neighboring  islands. 
The  sponge-fishing  on  the  coast  of  Latakia  is  carried  on 
during  three  or  four  months,  according  to  the  weather.  A  small 
fleet  of  sponge-fishing-boats,  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  tons, 
manned  each  by  six  or  ten  hands,  including  the  divers,  are  daily 
occupied  in  this  severe  but  successful  commercial  pursuit. 
Sponges  exported  from  the  port  of  Rhodes  : — 
Quality. 
1856. 
1857. 
Quantity. 
Value. 
Quantit3^ 
Value. 
cwts. 
£ 
cwts. 
£ 
Fine  
302 
34,872 
294 
51,282 
1100 
25,385 
1195 
24,974 
333 
4,487 
393 
479 
The  sponge-fishery  on  the  coast  of  Rhodes,  which  had  gra- 
dually diminished  to  a  few  boats,  was  actively  resumed  in  1858, 
seventy  boats  having  gone  there  for  the  purpose,  when  the 
Governor-General  immediately  established  a  duty  of  twenty  per 
cent,  on  all  sponges  taken  on  the  coast:  but,  upon  the  divers 
threatening  to  go  elsewhere,  the  duty  was  commuted  for  a  fixed 
sum  of  X3  on  each  boat. 
A  duty  of  twenty  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  a  great 
expense ;  whereas,  they  could  proceed  to  Candia  in  their  boats 
themselves.  It  is  not  so  much  of  the  duty  itself  that  these 
poor  people  complain,  as  of  its  irregular  and  rapacious  manner 
of  exaction. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Halki,  who  are  active,  hardy 
and  enterprising,  occupy  themselves  almost  entirely  in  the 
sponge-fishery,  which  was  doubled  within  the  last  ten  years. 
