Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-05-03

ais and living sadly monotonous life OF
exposure 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 a cline less salubrious
would be fatal to health and life. The
sponge firms find" for them the boats,
supplies and equipment which they use on
their six weeks trip. The sponge bot
toms most sought at this time are on the
coral beds at the south side of Eleuthera
island, fifty miles east of Nassau. With
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-a pane set in q box fitted |
with handles-looks down forty feet into |
the clear depths. With one hand he |
grasps and sinks q slender pole, some |
times fifty feet in length, fitted at the end |
with double hook. The sponge, once dis |
covered, 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 fishing gives
no idea of the real skill and exertion need
ed. 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 def hand to manage the swaying
hook forty feet down so as to detach the
sponge without tear. Above all, while
doing this with one hand, he must manip
ulate with the other the water glass as
the waves sway it sideways and up or
down. The strain on eye and body is
| 51Eo - .,oEI
ed position 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
spongefsher earns not more than SIS g.
month besides his keep" on the boat.
which barely deserves the name of exist
ence.
All the 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 a great
bunch of messy, cup-shaped growths, fire.
quently 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 discov-
cry of the Eleuthera bottoms has proved a
godsend to the fishermen, and are likely
to supply the markets for some years tC
come at least.
| PREPARING sPONGES FOR MARKET.
| bo e =,
sponges for export. First they are eithel
:. placed on deck under the tropical sun o.
hung ia long festoons from the little
vessels mast. In either case tn
heat of the sun in a few days kills
ali the living organisms within the fibe
and loosens them for the next process
Then the sponges are dumped into a sor
of water cage made by driving circle o
small piles few inches apart from eacl
q other in the sand. Through these pile
, the tide plays violently, washing ava
, from the sponge after a few hours tn
, sand, dead animalcule and other impuri
, ties with which the mass is clogged. Dur
ing these operations the sponge natural,
emits most fetid and revolving odoI
, but the final washing leaves them will
! that not unpleasant flavor of the sea will
|
least here at Nassau, where the bulk of thu
Bahama sponges come for market, they
undergo no process of publication othe
than has just been described. Bat some
, times they are immersed in a bath of di
luted hydrochloric acid, which not only
biesches them but dissolves what few i'm
purities have been left. After the fina
drying sponges are assorted, baled, anC
then are ready for market. The grade
and qualities are numberless. Their
are, besides others, the "sheel
WOOL" selling for about $1.75 pound
the Abaco velvet $50 called for its velvet
fiber), worth about $1.10a pound; and the
: glove" yellow and GRASSY" varetie:
all selling as low as fifty cents. Befor
! being baled, it should be added, the rough
er.kin6s of sponge areItIimmedwit shear
and the big sponges cut in sections, eaol
about as large as a cocoanHt. The test O
the best sponges is their soft wot lily surfac,
under the touch, and above all the tough
ness of the fbers. which can readily b,
ascertained by tearing one or two of then
{ apart. The Bahamas, though prolific il
sponges produce few of the highest quail
ties, which are used for surgery and Other
delicate work. These come from the
Mediterranean sea, where divers bring
them up, and some of the finest grades
have been sold as high as $50 or 500 a
pound,
In some of its broader phases
It's sponge industry gives Nassau
some local features of rare nov
city, The little boats thronging its har-
Dor, the chattering crews, the warehouses
lining the strand, the Sponge Exchange
whore sponges of every grade and shape
and size may be seen by the thousand, are
specialties of the ports commerce not to
be found elsewhere in the West Indies, or,
perhaps, in the world. Sponges cover the
wharves, their broken and tattered masses
float over the harbor, great heaps of clip
pings line the sands, and, cast up by the
waves, cover the beach far below and above
the city. The negro diver, at command,
will plunge from your pleasure boat into
the clear waters of the harbor to bring up
a fresh sponge specimen, and on shore the
negro hucksters poster the travellers life
with offerings of the staple commodity.
Everywhere the sponge is as ubiquitous to
\ the ave it ia TOtaT1H j1 ha local T1oort