The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-10-08
SPONGESs
Place Where "Sponging - Is the Regular
aud COngeniaI Business.


There is no single industry of SO much
financial Importance to Nassau, think, M
tho sponge fisheries "Sponging is re.
gular business in Nassau, of such large pro-
portions that Sponge Exchange has been
established, governed by rules on the plar
OF the Stock Exchange; and to do sponge
business successfully in Nassau firm must
be represented in the Exchange. Sponge
is an important thing in Nassau. Itisplenty,
OF course, and cheap. You see sponges ly-
ing in the streets and kicking about the
wharves that in Now York we would have
to pay fifty cents or 81 for. Wherever
sponge can be used in place of cotton OF
WOODEN cloths il is used. Kitchen maids use
sponges for dishcloths," and frequently
the seat in boat is nothing but an immense
sponge as big as half barrel. Windows are
invariably washed with them, glasses polish
ed with them, and they are used for almost
every conceivable purpose. Around tho
hotel In the winter are always two or three
boys" with long strings of them, trying
to sell them to the Americans. Hardly any
visitor leaves Nassau without taking box
OF them along. l bought a string of about
fifteen sponges, that stretched out far higher
than my head, for one-and-six," or thirty
seven and a half cents. They make very
fine presents to give TO your friends when
you get home, they are SO cheap, and a
sponge is more valuable when you know
it has just been brought by somebody you
know from the sponge fisheries. Some of
the servants about the hotel understand the
knack of pressing sponges, and for tri-
fling consideration will take bushel of
sponge and pack it in cigar box.
The sponging fleet is composed of small
| schooners ranging from ten to forty tons.
Each schooner carries from four to six men,
and makes periodical trips out to the sponge
beds around Abaco, Andres Island and Elk.
una. The men do not dive for them. as
sponge fishers in tho Mediterranean do, but
use long-handled things like oyster tongs to
fish them out of the water. In this clear
water they can see every inch of the bottom,
make mp their minds what tongs to take,
and seize hold of one carefully, detach il
from the rock to which it clings, and lift il
into the boat. They are not the nice, deli
cate, light-colored things we SEQ in shop
windows. When taken first from the water
they look and feel more like piece of raw
liver than anything else l can compare
them with. They are slippery, Shiny, ugly
and smell bad. Their color is generally
sort of brown, very much like the color Of
gulf weed, only little darker. Most people
are taught, in their days of freshness and
innocence, that the sponge is an animal, and
when they visit Nassau they expect perhaps
to see sponges swimming about the harbor
if indeed they do not surprise some of th,
moro athletic ones climbing trees or making
little excursions over the hills. But they
are disappointed when they learn that the
animal part disappears entirely long, before
the sponge reaches market and that the
part we use for hopping up fluids is only
his house, the many-roomed residence Ii
which he sheltered himself while at sen
After the sponges roach the deck of the YES
sci they are cleaned and dried and q
through a curing process. They then be-
come tho sponges of commerce, and are di
vided into eight varieties in the Bahamas
Some, called .lambswool, " or " sheepwool,
are as fine and soft as silk and very strong
Others, although largo and perhaps tough
arc coarse and comparatively worthless
There are, too, bouquet sponges, sill
sponges wire sponges, and finger and glove
sponges The process for curing them,
believe, is to keep them on deck for two OF
three days, which "lills them. Then they
are put in q crawl and kept there from eight
to ten days, and are afterward cleaned and
bleached in the sun on tho beach. When
they reach Nassau the roots are cut off, and
tho sponges are trimmed and dressed for
expectation.