Connecticut western news., 1888-08-22
SPONGE FISHING.
Diving in Mediterranean Wat CTS for this Fibrous Material.
A ShreWd Austrian Professor
 Grows Them Artiflcially.

n oIH S"Q AUSII ICIl EIOi0
 Grows Them Artiflcially.
 In the Tunisian waters of tho coast of Africa the sponge fishery is carried on most actively and profitably during the months of D. cember, January and Feb ruary. Tue late autumnal storms have by that time cleared the sponges of the seawccds and other plants which con ceale d them. It is considered, calm weather and transparent sea being in dispcnsable, that not more than forty five days can be counted upon each sea- son. The men employed ia tho Tunis- ian sponge fishery are almost exclusively Greeks or Sici' ians, and tho former arc found the more skilfu'. There are sev- eral modes of collecting sponges. They are pluckcd with the hand by help of diving boil, they are harpooned, or they arc dragged up with an instrument which resembles the sort of drag used where there is hard bottom, and the harpoon is the instrument mainly em- ployed by sponge fishers.
 The Arabs go out In parties of five, six or seven persons in small boat. One man holds the trident and watches the bottom of the sea, striking where ho sees sponge; but the Arabs are rarely successful in depth of moro than eight or ten metres. Tho method of the Sicilians is almost tho same as that of the Arabs, except that their boats take only two men, one to row and the other to strike. The Sicilians fish in deeper water than the Arabs and secure more spongcs than they, and of better quality. The Greeks who for the most part come from Kalimno and Syria are the chief employers of the drag. But the great majority of these also hold to the trident which they use with extraordinary cleverness.
 The island of Kalimno, on the south western coast of Asia Minor, between Cos and Leros, contains a population of about 12, 0OO, all the adult males being engaged in the sponge-fshery. They leave the island in May, and return in September at the latest. The islanders of Kalimno exercise their profession of sponge-fshers off the shores of the isl- ands of the kingdom of Greece, of tho southern sporades, and specially of Rhodes, of Crete, of the whole extent of Syria, of the island of Ruad, and finally of Tunis, where their vessels are so large and so we'll manned that they drive the Arabs ard Siciliaus complete ly out of the feld. They tako the sponges back to Kalimno, where they are sold, the council of the island con- stituting court which decides all differences between fishermen, cap tains, proprietors, merchants and retail purchasers. The Kalimniotes usually fish at depth of from ff- teen to twenty feet; below this there ars no sponycs which possess any com mercial value. The divers have to be men of adult age and of great physical : strength; they can in no case remain at the maximum depth of twenty feet for more than two minutes. They select the good from among the bad sponges by touch, tearing away those which seem to be the best, and place them in a rouch fastened round the neck. Quite recently a new method has been adopted, the wearing of water tight diving dress, made of metal and provided with glass windows; in this dress men are able to remain at the bot tom of the sea for two or three hours and collect the sponges at their ease.
 The Kalimniotc fishermen are in the habit of dividing the sponges which they sell into three classes--those o1 fine quality, those which are large ir size, and those which are inferior iu quality. The island possesses 200 vessels engaged in this industry.
 An industry in artificial spongcs is in progress of creation. M. Oscar Schmidt, professor at tho university of Gratz, in Styria, has invented method by whict pieces of living sponge are broken of and planted in favorable spot. From very small cuttings of this kind Pro lessor Schmidt has obtained large sponges il the course of three years and at very small expense. One of his cx pcriments gave the result that the culti' vation of 4,000 sponges had not cost more than $45, including the interest for three years on the capital expended. Tho Austro- Hungarian government has been so much struck with the importance of these experiments that it has officially authorized the protection of this new industry on the coast of Dalmatia. - Chambers Journal.