The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-18

Death Rate Is High-Best Sponget
Come from the Mediterranean.
(From the London Standard.)
During the last twenty years or so the
demand for sponges-which are, in theil
way, a mark for civilization-has grown
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
product of tropical OF sub-tropioal seas,
and it has very wide distribution or
the shores of the Atlantic, Pacific, and
Indian Oceans. but. for commercial pur.
poses, the Mediterranean is it's most i'm.
portant habitat. 1t is found all along
the Eastern and Southern coasts of tina!
sea, but the finest kinds are confined to
the Levant and the shores of Syria and
Tripoli. Here they grow of finer, firm.
or, more elastic texture than anywhere
else, for some reason not yet fully under.
stood,
The best Mediterranean fisheries, which
used to be carried on in primitive fash
ion by the natives, have been SO vigorous.
ly exploited by Western energy and CAPT
tai, that they are beginning to show
signs of exhaustion, and it is becoming
necessary to seek deeper and deeper wat
ers, which means a corresponding increase
of labor and expense.
In former days sponges used to be got
by naked divers-in shallower waters
by happening. The Loatmen, who were
mainly dependent on money lenders for
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 at Rhodes
and elsewhere. All that has been changed
to their very great advantage, by the in
t1oduction of diving dresses and the Or
ganization of the industry on modern
commercial oasis.
The French at one time took the lead in
this enterprises; but for some years past
they have yielded the first place to Eng
lish traders, for whom, it is said, the
natives prefer TO work. By far the most
important house in the trade today is an
English firm, whose operations have
made London the chief sponge market of
the world. They have established an ex-
tensive fishing station and factory On the
island of Oegena, where they employ q
whole fleet of Greek boats to fish in diff
erent parts of the Mediterranean.
The sponges are found by means Of a
peculiar spyglass, consisting of a wide
tube, with a 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 q good hand will manage
thirty fathoms(1s feet. 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
sensation of drowsiness, and then he
must regain the surface as rapidly as
possible A form Of paralysis is not un-
common among the men, and 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 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 per
form for livelihood or their amusement,
this lie surely the most adventnrous-to
descend $40 feet below the su rface of the
sea. A curious fact has been noticed
about divers, and that is that they always
wear their boots out at the toe. 1t shows
that they Go not walk upright. as they
bending forward; in other words, the bot
tom of the sea isxnot level, but steep
slope.
The only other regions in which sponge
fishing is carried on commercially are the
West Indies. About the Bahama Islands
Cuba, and the coast of Florida there are
extensive grounds, yielding abundance of
spongss, inferior, indeed, to those Of the
Mediterranean, but so much more easily
got as to make the fishing profitable.
70 have "a marketable value sponge
must not only be of a certain texture, but
also of good size and shape; and the
West Indian sponges are apt to be infer
Tor in all three respects. The best are a
large kind. known as "sheep' s-wool, :"
which make good bath sponges. Curl
eusly enough, spongers are said to be no
Judges of quality, and they frequently
waste time and labor in getting material
OF little If any value.
It appears that, while some parts of the
West Indian grounds have been over
fshed, the region, as whole, is very
imperfectly developed. The inferiority of
the produce may be partly due to it's be-
ing obtained exclusively from shallow