The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-09-21
A gpoure. and what It Is.

"What is sponge made Off" said George,
gasping, snufing, and winking undet ms
Croton bath. No one near could tell Nun; ;,
Now listen, little George, and VIII tel
you what sponge is. 40
The very sponge which washes your race
was brought I'D from the bottom OF the
ocean and was part of living animal.
For long time sponges were supposed 10
bs niants' Messrs. Agassiz and Gould, IN
1916 called them SO but later observations
5nn;ded them to be animals and they
ore nlsced in the class Protozoa, the class
most resembling plants.
When first found in the water their sp-
nearance is very different from this which
Won now see. This is the skeleton only, the
nart corresponding to our bones. When
this was complete living thing, deep down
under the ocean, it Was covered all over
the outside, and filled in every one of these
little holes with soft substance, something
like the white Of an egg, and this was ike
our flesh. It was fastened tightly to q rock,
and its color was dull blush black on the
upper side and dirty white below. Ii
was formerly supposed to be plant, because
it was always fast in one place; but for
other reasons it is decidedly an animal
All through the mass is regular clrcuia-
ton, like our blood and food. Ii mas oeen
seen to absorb nutritious matter-that 49, 70
eat. or rather to drink. You see all over
its surface orifces or holes these communl'
cato with each other throughout. Into the
largest of these, called pores, the sea-Water
ia constantly entering, and out of the smaller
ones. called vents, it is regularly spouted,
and it doubtless finds in the sea-wateI
minute animals, which serve it for food and
increase its bulk.
| And this strange animal produces others
like itself. 1 will tell you how.
From the soft part little gloDule IL
seen to float off, and after moving about
awhile very briskly here and there, as II
looking for a place, it fastens itself to some
rock Next. gradually begins to be seen
the more solid skeleton (what we have
herel. the soft part increases, and so it
grows, not very slowly, either; for the
divers find it at the end of three years large
enough to bring away.
To get these sponges from the bottom OF
the ocean furnishes occupation for great
number of people. One thousand men are
busy in the Grecian Archipelago alone
and thousands besides, with many hundred
boats, are engaged in the Gulf of Machri
on the Barbary coast, and elsewhere sc
that in many villages there-from May tc
September-the best diving time-only olc
men, women, and children, can be found.
The finest kind is brought from the Egear
sea. At daylight there, in the summer
time, when the weather is pleasant-for il
REQUIRES smooth water-the boats, each
with six or eight men and one pair Of oars
will leave the shore and proceed to where
the water is eight or ten, or even thirty
fathoms deep, for those found in shallow
water are very inferior.
Here they stop, and the divers prepare
to descend Each one puts hoop around
his neck, and to this fastens bag, in
which the sponges are put as they are
gathered. In very: deep water the diver
uses rope with heavy stone to it. He
sinks the stone to the spot he intends to
reach, and this holds the rope steady, which
he uses to assist himself in coming up again
to the surface.
After being busy thus till noon they re-
turn to some of those pleasant little hooks
which abound on the shores of the archi-
pelago to prepare what they have gathered
fit for sale.
The first thing is to press out the soft
part of the animal, and then to bleach the
remainder in the sun; so they beat them
and stamp on them and trample them till
there is no more life left. The skeleton
part is then washed and spread in the sun
until it is quite clean and grows to be this
dull, yellowish color then it is packed in
bags and sent to market for sale; sent to all
parts of Asia, Europe, and America, and
used mostly for washing purposes.