The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-23
A CROP FROM THE SEA BOTTOM.
where spOnses Grow and the Method
of Obtaining Them.
From the Lonion standard.

run the l4OnuOn STANDARD.
During the last twenty years or so the
demand for sponges-which are. in their
way, a mark of civilization--has grown
rapidly, chiefly owing to the expansion
Of the British colonies, and the sponge
fisheries have been extensively organized
and developed in order to supply the ex-
panding market
The sponge is supposed to be properly
a product of tropical or sub-tropioal seas,
and it has very wide distribution on
the shores of the Atlantic, Pacific and
Indian oceans, but. for commercial pur-
poses, the Mediterranean is its most inn
portant habitat. 1t is found all along
the eastern and southern coasts of the
sea, but the finest kinds are confined to
the IeVant and the shores of Syria and
Tripoli. Here they grow of a finer, firmer
more elastic texture than anywhere. else
Tor some reason. not yet fully under
The best Mediterranean fisheries, which
used to be carried on In a primitive fash
ion by the natives, have been so vigor-
ously exploited by western energy and
capital that they are beginning TO show
signs of exhaustion, and it is becoming
necessary TO seek deeper and deeper wa
tiers, which means a corresponding in
crease of labor and expense.
In former days sponges used to be got
by naked divers or-in shaloWer wateres-
by happening. The boatmen. who were
their equipment, disposed of their catch
as best they could, sometimes travelling
all over Europe in order to avoid being
cheated in the native markets az Rhodes
and elsewhere. All that has been changed
to their very great advantage by the in
PRODUCTION of diving dresses and the or
ganization Of the industry on modern
The French at one time took the lead
in this enterprise, but for some years past
they have yielded the first place to eng
traders W hnm is no
tives prefer to work BY far the most
important house i'm the trade to-day is an
Engiish hrm, whose operations have made
London the chief sponge market of the
world They have established an extern
siVe f1shing station and factory on the
island of Oegena, where they employ a
whole feet of Greek boats to fish in diff
ferent parts of the Mediterranean.
The sponges are found by means Of a
peculiar spygiass, consisting of a 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 gronud. With
sponges at an extraordinary depth in the
crystalline sea- st4 -
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 manage
thirty fathoms QS0 fee); but the pressure
Of the water is so great at that depth as
often to cause serious injury, and to
shorten life. The diver, after a time, feels
a sensation of drowsiness, and then he
must regain the surface as rapidly as pos
sible. A form of paralysis is not uncom-
mon among the men, anc two or three
per cent. die annually from the effects
of the strain
Accidents also occur. through the diver
stepping or falling suddenly off a ledge
of rock into deeper water, and so strain
ing his communication tube. At present
diving machines are only made for pump
ing air to a 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 en-
able forty fathoms to be reached
OF all the strange feats which men per-
form for a livelihood or their amuse-
ment this is surely the most adventu-
rous-to descend 240 feet below the sur
face of the sea. A curious fact has been
noticed about divers, and that is that they
always wear their boots out at the toe
as they are always represented in pic
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 commercially are
the West Indies. About the Bahama
there are extensive grounds, yielding
abundance of sponges, inferior, indeed, to
those of the Mediterranean, but SO much
more easily got as to make the fishing
profitable.
ming the ground with the aid of a bucket
which has glass bottom, and is held
up to his face as he leans over the side
of the boat. When he sees a sponge he
keeps his eye fixed on 1t, and SEXES 1t
with his hook. which is held in his right
hand.
To have a marketable value, sponges
must not only be Of a certain texture, but
also of good size and shape; and the
West Indian sponges are apt to be in
ferior in all three respects. The sbest
are a large kind, known as "sheep's-
WOOL which makes good bath sponges
Curiously enough, spongers are said to
be no judges sof quality. and they fire.
quently waste time and labor in getting
material Of little, II any value.
It appears that, while some parts OF the
ed. the region. as whole, Is very imper-