The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-14
SPONGE FISHINQ.


 (From the London Standard,)
 During the last twenty years or so the demand for sponges--which are, in their way, mark for vilization-has grown rapidly, chiefly owing to the expansion of the British colonies, and the sponge fisheries have been extensively organ ized and developed in order to supply the expanding market.
 The sponge is supposed to be properly a product of tropical or sub-tropical seas, and 1t has very wide distribution on the shores of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, but, for commercial purposes, the Mediterranean is it's most important habitat. It is found all along the eastern and southern coasts of that sea, but the finest kinds are confined to the Levant and the shores of Syria and Tripoli. Here they grow of a finer, firm CT, more elastic texture than anywhere else, for some reason not yet fully un- derstood.
 The best Mediterranean fisheries. which used to be carried on in primi- tive fashion by the natives, have been SC vigorously exploited by western ener- gy and capital, that they are beginning to show signs of exhaustion, and 1t IS becoming necessary to seek deeper and deeper waters, which means a corres- bonding increase of labor and expense. In former days sponges used to be got by naked divers or--in shallower waters by harpooning The iboatmen, who were mainly dependent on money-lend- CTS for their equipment, disposed of their catch as best they could some times traveling all over Europe in order to avoid being cheated in the native markets at Rhodes and elsewhere. All that has been changed to their very great advantage, by the introduction of diving dresses, and the organization of the industry on a modern commercial basis.
 The French at one time took the lead in this enterprise; but for some years past they have yielded the first place to English traders, for whom, it is said, the natives prefer to work. By far the most important house in the trade to- day is an English firm, whose operations have made London the chief sponge market of the world. They have estab- lished an extensive fishing station and factory on the island of Oegna, where they employ whole fleet of Greek boats to fish in different parts of the Mediterranean.
 The sponges are found by means of a peculiar spyglass, consisting of wide tube, with glass at one end, which is held under the surface of the water, so as to obviate the refraction, while the boat proceeds over the fishing ground. With this glass an experienced eye can detect sponges at an extraordinary depth in the crystalline sea.
 Diving in deep waters, even with the dress, is most arduous and dangerous work. The Greeks are the best divers in the world, and a good hand will man. age thirty fathoms Gone hundred and eighty feet; but the pressure of the wa ter is so. great a that depth as often to cause serious injury and to shorten life. The diver, after time, feels sensa- tion of drowsiness, and then he must re- gain the surface as rapidly as possible. "A form of paralysis is,,not uncommon among the men, and two or three per cent. die annually from the effects of Ehe strain
 Accidents also occur through the di- yer stepping or falling suddenly off a ledge Of rock into deeper water, and so straining his communication tube. At present, diving machines arc only made for pumping air to depth of thirty fathoms, but, owing to the depletion of the fisheries, new and improved ones are now being sent out from England, which will enable forty fathoms to be reached.
 Of all the strange feats which men perform for livelihood, or for their amusement, this is surely the most ad- venturous-to descend two hundred and forty feet below the surface of thelsea. A curious fact has been noticed about divers. and that is that they always wear their boots out at the toe It shows that they do not walk upright, as they are always represented in pie lures, but bending forward; in other words, the bottom of the sea is not level, but a steep slope.
 The only other regions in which sponge fishing is carried on commercial 1y are the West Indies. About the Ba- hama Islands, Cuba, and the coast of Florida, there are extensive grounds, yielding abundance of sponges, inferior, indeed, to those of the Mediterranean, but 50 much more easily got as to make the fishing profitable.
 They are enabled in comparatively shallow water, by scanning the ground with the aid of bucket which has a glass bottom, and is held up to the face of fhe fisherman as he leans over the side of the boat. When he sees sponge he keeps his eye fixed on it, and seizes it with the hook, which is held in his right hand.
 To have marketable value sponges must not only be of certain size and shape; and the West Indian sponges are apt to be inferior in all three respects The best are large kind, known as "sheep's-wool," which make good bath sponges. Curiousy enough, spongers are said to be no judges of quality, and they frequently waste time and labor in getting material of littK if any, value
 It appears that, whiie some parts of the West Indian grounds have been overfished, the region, as whole, IS very imperfectly developed. The inferi- ority of the produce may be partly due to it's being obtained exclusively from shallow waters, for the finest kinds of sponges grow deep; and possibly the introduction of dividing might lead tc better results There are also large areas of coast hitherto untried Great