The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-05-26
Our Olio.
Fishing.

Sponge-Fishing.
A letter from Nassau, Bahamas, to the
New York Erening Post says On the
narrow strait between New Providence and
Hog Island, forming the harbor of Nassau,
can always be seen large feet of sailing
boats, each of about eight tons burden.
They are curious, stubby specimens of
water craft, broad of beam, rising several
feet from the water-line, and impressing
one both with their large capacity and
seaworthy quality. On the center of their
decks is "A low box, half filled with dirt,
which serves as a marine hearth on which
the colored crew cook their food; and the
crew themselves may usually be seen on
deck, lying around in lazy, picturesque
groups. These odd craft are the sponge
boats, representing a local industry which
gives steady employment here to 500 sail
ing vessels and 1000 men. They are
owned by ten local firms, who export
sponges worth 100000 every year to all
parts of the world.
The living sponge, when first taken from
these waters of the Bahamas, differs almost
as much from the commercial article as a
human body from its own skelton-for
practically what reaches the market is part
ly the skeleton, partly the dwelling of a
bunch of sea organisms When first pulled
from the rocks where it grows the sponge
looks like corrugated mass of putty. 1t
is drab in color, exceedingly heavy, has
sickening odor, and is suffused by stringy
mucous which drops from it in long viscous
lines The external pores are partly closed
by sort of sea bug, which finds refuge in
them and must be an annoying interloper
to the sponge-builder; while often red sea
worm an inch or two in length is found far
within the spongy fbers, whittier he has
worked his way. What is the exact tunc-
ton of the mucous fluid does not yet ap-
pear to be clearly settled, But it is certain
that when taken from the sponge and
placed on still bottoms, new sponges are
propagated from it; and if two pieces Of
the same living sponge, or OF different
sponges of the same species, are laid side
by side on the sea bottom they soon grow
together The vitality of the sponge, in
fact, coupled with the decrease of the sup
ply, suggests that ere many years artificial
propagation may have to be used.
The negro sponge fishers who ply their
trade here in the Bahamas are race OF
seamen not too regular in habits or morals,
and living sadly monotonous life OF ex-
posure and privation. Their voyages to
the sponge fisheries last each for six weeks,
during which they live crowded on board
their craft under conditions of hardship
which in cline less salubrious would be
fatal to health and life The sponge firms
''fnd" for them the boats, supplies and
equipment which they use on their SIX
weeks trip. The sponge bottoms most
sought at this time are on the coral beds at
the south side of Eleuthera Island, fifty
miles east of Nassau With a good wind
the fisheries are reached in eight or ten
hours from this port. Then the real toll
begins. Lying on his chest along the boats
deck, the fisher with his water-glass-
pane set in box fitted with handles
looks down forty feet into the clear depths.
With one hand he grasps and sinks slen-
der pole, sometimes fifty feet in length,
fitted at the end with double hook. The
sponge, once discovered, the hook is deftly
inserted at the rocky base, and by sudden
jerk the sponge is detached to be brought
up on deck This curt description of what
seems the simple work of sponge-fshing
gives no idea of the real skill and exertion
needed. The eye of the fisher has to be
trained by long experience to peer into the
sea and tell the commercially valuable
sponges from those that are worthless, He
must have deft hand to manage the sway
ing hook forty feet down so as to detach
the sponge without tear. Above all,
while doing this with one hand, he must
manipulate with the other the water glass
as the waves sway it sideways and up or
down. The strain on eye and body is most
intense, to say nothing Of the cramped po-
sition and exposure to wind and wet which
first and last make almost every sponge
fisher victim of acute rheumatism. Yet
with all his arduous toll, faithful sponge
fisher earns not more than fifteen dollars a
month beside his 'keep'' on the boat, which
barely deserves the name of existence.
Allthe Bahama waters abound in sponges
of great variety, but many of them worth
less for the market Those that are good
for nothing else are often most beautiful
for curiosities They take most wondrous
and striking shapes-now cup, now an
old-fashioned drinking horn, anon great
bunch of messy, cup-shaped growths, and
frequently foliated, like the tree-coral. A
cup-shaped sponge, found some years ago
in Bahama waters, and said to be the sec
ond largest in the world, measured seven
feet in circumference, and its walls from
four to six inches in thickness. Up to two
or three years ago the Bahama fisheries
showed signs of exhaustion, but the dis
covery of the Eleuthera bottoms has proved
a godsend to the fishermen, and are likely
to supply the markets for some years to
come at least
Next comes the process of preparing the
sponges for export. First they are either
placed on deck under the tropical sun or
hung in long festoons from the little YES
sells mast. In either case the heat of the
sun in fews days kills all the living or
ganisms within the fiber and loosens them
for the next process. Then the sponges
are dumped into sort of water cage made
by driving a circle of small piles few in
ches apart from each other in the sand.
Through these piles the tide plays violent
ly, washing away from the sponge after a
| few hours the sand, dead animalcul@ and
other impurities with which the mass is
cloooed During these operations the