Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-11-20
How SpOnges Are Caught.
SHINY MASSES OF Liver" WHICH BECOME
CLEAN AND Dry.

The spongng fleet is composed of small
schooncrs ranging from ten to forty tons, or
even smaller. Each schooner carries from
four to six men, and makes periodical trips
out to the sponge beds. Around Abaco,
Andres Island, and Exuma are some of the
principal fisheries; there are hardly any OF
value in the immediate vicinity of Nassau.
The men do not dive fer them, as sponge
fishers in the Mediterranean do, but use long
handled things like oyster tongs to fish them
ont of the water. They do not Ego it blind
and probe IN the mud, like oystermen; in
this clear water they can see every inch of
the bottom, make up their minds what
spouges to take and seize hold of each one
| carefully, detach it from the rock to which il
clings, and lift it into the boat They are
not the nice, delicate and light colored things
we see in shop windows.
When first taken from the water they look
ard feel more like piece of raw liver thar
anything else. They are slippery, Shiny
ugly. and smell bad. Their color is generally
a sort Of brown, very much like the color OF
! gulf weed only a little darker. Most people
are taught, in the days of their freshness and
innocence, that the sponge is an animal, and
when they visit Nassau they expect perhap.
| to see sponges swimming about the harbor if
| Indeed, they do not surprise some of the more
athletic ones climbing trees or making it'll,
excursions over the hills. But they are
disappointed when they learn that the ANNA
part disappears entirely long before tn,
sponge reaches a market, and that the par
we use for hopping up fluids is only hi
house the mapy-roomed residence in whicl
he sheltered himself while at sea-a regula
marine tenement house, built with grea
skill and architectural precision, in which
many of the little beasts lived and died
After the sponges reach the deck of tn,
vessel they are cleaned and dried and 9,
through curing process. They then become
the sponges of commerce, and are divided
into eight varieties in the Bahamas.
Some, called "lambswool," or "sheeps
WOOL" are as fine and soft as silk and very
strog. Others, although large and perhap
tough, are coarse and comparatively worth
less. There are, too, bouquet sponges. silk
sponges, wire spouges and finger and glow
sponges. The process for curing them is t,
keep them on deck for two or three DAYS
which kills" them Then they are put in
crawl and kept there from eight to ten days
and are afterwards cleaned and bleached il
the sun on the beach When they reach Mas
sau the roots are cut off, and the sponges ar
trimmed and dressed for expectation. Near
ly every dsrky in Nassau understands how I,
do this trimming part. Symmetry of tn
sponge must be preserved as much as posi-
BILE. and if there are places where coral sant
has adhered to the spt nge, those places mus
be cut out for no amount of skill or care vii
get rid of sand in a sponge, aud the sand i
sure to scratch anything it touches. Tn
trimming is generally done very expertly, s.
that novice would hardly see that spong
had been cut.-Letfer tn Ner York Tunes