DAVY JONES’S LOCKER AND ITS TREASURES.
Clarence’s Dream—Davy Jones’s Locker—Origin of the Term—Treasures
of the Ocean—Pearl Fishing—Mother o’ Pearl—Formation of Pearls—Art
and Nature Combined—The Fisheries—The Divers and their _modus
operandi_—Dangers of the Trade—Gambling with Oysters—Noted
Pearls—Cleopatra’s Costly Draught—Scottish Pearls very
Valuable—Coral—Its Place in Nature—The Fisheries—Hard Work and
Poor Pay—The Apparatus Used—Coral Atolls—Darwin’s
Investigations—Theories and Facts—Characteristics of the
Reefs—Beauty of the Submarine Forests—Victorious Polyps—The Sponge
a Marine Animal—The Fisheries—Harpooning and Diving—Value of
Sponges.
“I saw a thousand fearful wracks:
A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon:
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scattered in the bottom of the sea.
Some lay in dead men’s skulls; and in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,
As ’twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
That wooed the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered there.”
So dreamed Clarence on a memorable night, and, indeed, what treasures,
known and unknown, must not the ocean cover!
The well‐known term which forms the heading of this chapter, with its
popularly‐understood meaning, is familiar to every schoolboy, yet its
origin is most obscure. Mr. Pinkerton, an ingenious correspondent of that
valuable medium of inquiry, _Notes and Queries_,(25) argues as follows,
and his opinion is entitled to respect. He says:—“I have arrived at the
conclusion that the phrase is derived from the Scriptural account of the
prophet Jonah. The word _locker_, on board ship, generally means the place
where any particular thing is retained or kept, as ‘the bread locker,’
‘shot locker,’ &c. In the ode in the second chapter of the Book of Jonah,
we find that the prophet, praying for deliverance, describes his situation
in the following words:—‘In the midst of the seas; and the floods
compassed me about; the depth closed me round about; the earth with her
bars was about me.’
“The sea, then, might not misappropriately be termed by a rude mariner
Jonah’s locker: that is, the place where Jonah was kept or confined.
Jonah’s locker, in time, might readily be corrupted to _Jones’s_ locker,
and Davy, as a very common Welsh accompaniment of the equally Welsh name
Jones, added; the true derivation of the phrase having been forgotten.”
However this may be, it is of the hidden treasures of the ocean locker and
its explorers we would now speak. And first let us take a glance at the
pearl, coral, and sponge fisheries,(26) as they are somewhat incorrectly
called, inasmuch as it will pave the way to the subject of divers and
diving.
The pearl oyster (_Meleagrina margaritifera_) is the most valuable and
interesting of all the nacre (mother‐of‐pearl) bearing shells. The shell
is nearly round, and greenish in colour on the outside; it furnishes at
once the finest pearls, under favourable circumstances, and the nacre so
useful in many industrial arts. Fine pearl and nacre have, in short, the
same origin. The nacre invests the whole interior of the shell, being the
same secretion which, in the pearl, has assumed the globular form; in one
state it is deposited as nacre on the walls of the bivalve, in the other
as a pearl in the fleshy interior of the animal. Between nacre and pearls,
therefore, there is only the difference of the form of the deposition. The
finest pearls—“solidified drops of dew,” as the Orientals poetically term
them—are secretions of nacrous material spread over foreign bodies which
have accidentally got beneath the mantle of the mollusc. The animal, if
irritated by the intrusion of only a grain of sand, and being unable to
remove it, covers it with a natural secretion, and the pearl gradually
grows in size. Almost invariably some foreign body is found in their
centre, if broken, which has served as a nucleus to this concretion, the
body being, perhaps, a sterile egg of the mollusc, the egg of a fish, or a
grain of sand, round which has been deposited in concentric layers the
beautiful and much prized gem.
The Chinese and other Eastern nations turn this fact in the natural
history of this bivalve to practical use in making pearls and cameos. By
introducing into the mantle of the mollusc, or into the interior of its
body, a round grain of sand, glass, or metal, they induce a deposit which
in time yields a pearl, in the one case free, and in the other adhering to
the shell.
Pearls are sometimes produced in whole chaplets by the insertion of grains
of quartz connected by a string into the mantle of a species of
_Meleagrina_; in other cases, a dozen enamelled figures of Buddha seated
have been produced by inserting small plates of embossed metal in the
valves of the same species. The pearls are very naturally small at first,
but increase by the annual layers deposited on the original nucleus, their
brilliancy and shade of colour varying with that of the nacre from which
they are produced. Sometimes they are diaphanous, silky, lustrous, and
more or less iridescent; occasionally they turn out dull, obscure, and
even smoky.
The pearl oyster is met with in very different latitudes. They are found
in the Persian Gulf, on the Arabian coast, and in Japan, in the American
seas, and in the islands of the South Sea; but the most important
fisheries are found in the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon, and other parts of the
Indian Ocean. The Ceylon fisheries are under Government inspection, and
each year, before the fisheries commence, an official inspection of the
coast takes place. Sometimes the fishing is undertaken on account of the
State, at other times it is let to parties of speculators. In 1804 the
pearl fishery was granted to a capitalist for £120,000; but, to avoid
impoverishing all the beds at once, the same part of the gulf is not
fished every year; and, indeed, sometimes the oysters disappoint the
scientists and practical finders by migrating.
[Illustration: PEARL OYSTER (_Meleagrina margaritifera_).]
The great fishery for mother‐o’‐pearl takes place in the Gulf of Manaar, a
large bay to the north‐east of Ceylon. It occupies 250 boats, which come
from different parts of the coast; they reach the ground at daybreak, the
time being indicated by a signal gun. Each boat’s crew consists of twenty
hands and a negro. The rowers are ten in number. The divers divide
themselves into two groups of five men each, who labour and rest
alternately; they descend from forty to fifty feet, seventy being about
the utmost they can accomplish, and eighty seconds the longest period the
best diver can remain under water, the ordinary period being only thirty
seconds. In order to accelerate their descent a large stone is attached to
a rope. The oars are used to form a stage, across which planks are laid
over both sides of the boat; to this stage the diving‐stone is suspended.
This stone is in the form of a pyramid, weighing thirty or more pounds;
the cord which sustains it sometimes carries in its lower part a sort of
stirrup to receive the foot of the diver. At the moment of his descent he
places his right foot in this stirrup, or, where there is no such
provision, he rests it on the stone with the cord between his toes. In his
left foot he holds the net which is to receive the bivalves; then seizing
with his right hand a signal cord conveniently arranged for this purpose,
and pressing his nostrils with the left hand, he dives, holding himself
vertically, and balancing himself over his foot. Each diver is naked,
except for a band of calico which surrounds his loins. Having reached the
bottom, he withdraws his foot from the stone, which ascends immediately to
the stage. The diver throws himself on his face, and begins to gather all
the proper shells within his reach, placing them in his net. When he
wishes to ascend he pulls the signal cord, and is drawn up with all
possible expedition. A good diver seldom remains more than thirty seconds
under water at one time, although some can remain considerably longer, but
he repeats the operation three or four, and, in favourable circumstances,
even fifteen or twenty times. The labour is extremely severe, and they are
short‐lived. On returning to the boat they sometimes discharge water
tinged with blood by the mouth, nose, and ears. They are also exposed to
great danger from sword‐fish and sharks, which lie in wait for and
frequently devour the unhappy victim. They continue to fish till mid‐day,
but are expected to return long before dark. Mrs. Brassey explains that
when a boat with pearls reaches the shore the shells are divided into
equal heaps, one‐fourth going to the boat’s crew and three‐fourths to the
Government inspector. They keep whichever heap he chooses to kick, so
that, being uncertain in which heap the best pearls are, the chances are
good enough. The heaps are then divided and sold by auction in thousands,
and then sub‐divided again. Gambling is such an Oriental proclivity that
the merest beggar will buy a few of the shells, hoping to find a pearl of
great value; and should he fail to do so, he still has got his oyster!
“Some of the oysters are taken in sealed‐up sacks to Colombo, Kandy, and
other inland places, in order to enable people to indulge their love of
gambling and speculation.” Sir Emerson Tennant tells us that the depleted
pearl oyster‐shells of the Condatchy fisheries, which date back two
thousand years, form an immense bank on the beach, extending for miles. In
past times the Ceylon fisheries were more valuable than at present. In
1797 they are said to have produced £144,000, and in 1798 as much as
£192,000. In 1802 the fisheries were farmed for £120,000; but for many
years the banks have been less productive, and are now said to yield only
the sum of £20,000 per annum.
[Illustration: DIVING FOR PEARLS.]
The natives of the Bay of Bengal, those of the Chinese coast, of Japan,
and the Indian Archipelago, all devote themselves to the pearl fishery,
the produce being estimated to realise at least £800,000. Fisheries
analogous to those of Ceylon take place on the Persian coast, on the
Arabian Gulf, along the coast of Muscat, and in the Red Sea. Arrived on
their fishing‐ground, the fishermen of the Red Sea range their barques at
a proper distance from each other, and cast anchor in water from eight to
nine fathoms deep. The process is pursued here in a very simple manner.
When about to descend, the divers pass a cord, the extremity of which
communicates with a bell placed in the barque, under the armpits; they put
cotton in their ears, and press the nostrils together with a piece of wood
or horn; they close their mouths hermetically, attach a heavy stone to
their feet, and at once sink to the bottom of the sea, where they gather
indiscriminately all shells within their reach, which they throw into a
bag suspended round their haunches. When they require to breathe they
sound the bell, and immediately they are assisted in their ascent. On the
oyster‐banks off the isle of Bahrein the pearl fishery produces about
£240,000; and if we add to this the product of the other fisheries in the
neighbourhood, the sum total yielded by the Arabian coast would probably
not fall short of £350,000. In South America similar fisheries exist.
Before the Mexican conquest the pearl fisheries were located between
Acapulco and the Gulf of Tchuantepic; subsequently they were established
round the islands of Cubagua, Margarita, and Panama. The results became so
full of promise that populous cities were not slow to raise themselves
round these several places. Under the reign of Charles V. America sent to
Spain pearls valued at £160,000; in the present day the annual yield is
estimated to be worth £60,000.
Pearls form, of course, the most important product of the animal. When
they are adherent to the valves they are detached with pincers; but as a
rule they are found in the oyster’s soft tissues. In this case the
substance is boiled, and afterwards sifted, in order to obtain the most
minute of the pearls; for those of considerable size are sometimes
overlooked in the first operation. Months after the mollusc is putrefied
miserable Indians may be observed busying themselves with the corrupt
mass, in search of small pearls which may have been overlooked by the
workmen.
The pearls adherent to the valve are more or less irregular in their
shape; they are sold by weight. Those found in the body of the animal, and
isolated, are called _virgin pearls_. They are globular, ovoid, or
pyriform, and are sold by the individual pearl. In cleaning them, they are
gathered together in a heap in a bag, and worked with powdered nacre, in
order to render them perfectly pure in colour and round in shape, and give
them a polish; finally, they are passed through a series of copper sieves,
in order to size them. These sieves, to the number of a thousand, are made
so as to be inserted one within the other, each being pierced with holes,
which determine the size of the pearl and the commercial number which is
to distinguish it. Thus, the sieve No. 20 is pierced with twenty holes,
No. 50 with fifty holes, and so on up to No. 1,000, which is pierced with
that number of holes. The pearls which are retained in Nos. 20 to 80, said
to be _mill_, are pearls of the first order; those which pass and are
retained between Nos. 100 and 800 are vivadoe, or pearls of the second
order; and those which pass through all the others, and are retained in
No. 1,000, belong to the class _tool_, or seed pearls, and are of the
third order. They are afterwards threaded; the small and medium‐sized
pearls on white or blue silk, arranged in rows, and tied with ribbon into
a top‐knot of blue or red silk, in which condition they are exposed for
sale in rows, assorted according to their colours and quality. The small
or seed pearls are sold by measure or weight.
We cannot wonder at the estimation in which these beautiful productions of
nature have always been held. Our Lord speaks of “a merchantman seeking
goodly pearls,” and once of a “pearl of great price.” The ancients held
them in great esteem. Ahasuerus had a chamber with tapestry covered with
valuable pearls. Julius Cæsar offered to Servilia, the mother of Brutus,
an “Orient pearl,” valued at money representing a million sesterces;(27)
Cleopatra’s expensive draught is estimated by Pliny at the equivalent of
£80,729; Lollia Paulina, wife of Caligula, used to put on about £200,000
sterling’s worth of them on high days and holidays.
In our own country Sir Thomas Gresham powdered up a pearl worth £65,000,
in Queen Elizabeth’s time, and drank it up _à la_ Cleopatra, excepting
only that he took it in wine instead of in vinegar. It was done in vain‐
glory to outshine the Spanish ambassador, with whom he had wagered to give
a more expensive entertainment than he could.
Scottish pearls, which are slightly bluish in tint, were much celebrated
in the Middle Ages, and were sent to London from the rivers Tay and Isla;
the trade carried on in the present century, the Rev. Mr. Bertram tells
us, has become of considerable importance.
The pearl, according to the same authority, is found in a variety of the
mussel which is characterised by the valves being united by a broad hinge.
“The pearl fisheries of Scotland,” he adds, “may become a source of wealth
to the people living on the large rivers, if prudently conducted.” Mr.
Unger, a dealer in gems in Edinburgh, having discerned the capabilities of
the Scotch pearl as a gem of value, has established a scale of prices
which he gives for them, according to their size and quality; and the
beautiful pearls of our Scottish streams are now admired beyond the Orient
pearl. Empresses and queens, and royal and noble ladies, have made large
purchases of these gems. Mr. Unger estimates the sum paid to pearl‐finders
in the summer of 1864 at £10,000. The localities successfully fished have
been the classic Doon, the Forth, the Tay, the Don, the Spey, the Isla,
and most of the Highland rivers of note.
Passing on to another of ocean’s beautiful treasures, coral, it must be
understood that the valuable coral of commerce used for purposes of
ornament has little in common with that of the coral islands, while in a
scientific point of view it does not come under the same classification at
all. The coral used in jewellery, carvings, and ornaments belongs to the
group _Corallinæ_, of the order _Gorgonidæ_, while that of the reefs or
islands belongs to the large group of Madrepores.
[Illustration: CORAL.]
[Illustration: CORAL ISLAND.]
The coral was long considered a sea‐plant, but what was once taken for a
flower is, in fact, a kind of polyp, which lives in colonies. A branch of
living coral is an aggregation of animals united among themselves by a
common tissue, yet seemingly enjoying a separate existence. The branch
undoubtedly owes its origin to an egg, and consists of two distinct
parts—the one hard, brittle, and stony; the other external, and soft and
fleshy. The latter is a united family of polyps, animals having feelers or
tentacles, and very sensitive, and further, possessing generative or
budding powers. The subject is, however, of a nature too scientific to be
fully treated here. The Greeks called it a “daughter of the sea,” and as
in so many other things, they were right. The fisheries are principally
confined to the Mediterranean, and the fishing is conducted mainly by
sailors from Genoa, Leghorn, and Naples. It is so fatiguing that it is a
common saying in Italy that a sailor obliged to go to the coral fishery
must either be a thief or an assassin. The saying conveys a good idea
enough of the occupation. The best men can only earn four to six hundred
francs (£16 to £24) in the season of six months. They work eighteen hours
per diem, and are allowed very little more rations than unlimited biscuit
and water. “The barques sent to the fishing range from six to fifteen
tons; they are strong, and well adapted for the labour; their rig is a
great lateen sail and a jib or staysail. The stern is reserved for the
capstan, the fishers, and the crew; the fore part of the vessel is
reserved for the requirements of the padrone or master.
“The lines, wood, and irons employed in the coral fisheries are called the
engine; it consists of a cross of wood formed of two bars strongly lashed
or bolted together at their centre; below this a great stone is attached,
which bears the lines, arranged in the form of a sac. These lines have
great meshes, loosely knotted together, resembling the well‐known swab.
[Illustration: CORAL FISHING.]
“The apparatus carries thirty of these sacs, which are intended to grapple
all they come in contact with at the bottom of the sea. They are spread
out in all directions by the movement of the boat. The coral is known to
attach itself to the summit of a rock, and to develop itself, forming
banks there, and it is to these rocks that the swab attaches itself so as
to tear up the precious harvest. Experience, which in time becomes almost
intuitive, guides the Italian fisher in discovering the coral banks....
“When the padrone thinks he has reached a coral bank, he throws his engine
overboard. As soon as the apparatus is fairly at the bottom the speed of
the vessel is slacked, the capstan is manned by six or eight men, while
the others guide the helm and trim the sails. Two forces are thus brought
to act upon the lines, the horizontal action of the vessel and the
vertical action of the capstan. In consequence of the many inequalities of
the rocky bottom, the engine advances by jerks, the vessel yielding more
or less according to the concussion caused by the action of the capstan or
sail. The engine seizes upon the rugged rocks at the bottom, and raises
them to let them fall again. In this manner the swab, floating about,
penetrates beneath the rocks where the coral is found, and is hooked on to
it. To fix the lines upon the coral and bring them home is a work of very
great labour. The engine long resists the most energetic and repeated
efforts of the crew, who, exposed half naked to the burning sun of the
Mediterranean, work the capstan to which the cable and engine are
attached, while the padrone urges and excites them to increased exertion;
the sailors meanwhile trim the sails, and sing with a slow and monotonous
tone a song, the words of which improvise in a sort of psalmody the names
of the saints most revered among the seafaring Italian population.
“The lines are finally brought home, tearing or breaking blocks of rock,
sometimes of enormous size, which are brought on board. The cross is now
placed on the side of the vessel, the lines are arranged on the deck, and
the crew occupy themselves in gathering the results of their labour. The
coral is gathered together, the branches of the precious alcyonarian are
cleansed and divested of the shells and other parasitic products which
accompany them; finally, the produce is carried to and sold in the ports
of Messina, Naples, Genoa, or Leghorn, where the workers in jewellery
purchase them. Behold, fair reader, with what hard labour, fatigue, and
peril, the elegant bijouterie with which you are decked is torn from the
deepest bed of the ocean.” Coral is worth from as little as two or three
shillings a _ton_ to as high as £10 sterling per pound.
Although the corals of the so‐called coral islands are merely good as
curiosities, they are very interesting in a scientific and artistic point
of view. Darwin(28) has reasoned very conclusively on the formation of the
reefs. He says:—“The earlier voyagers fancied that the coral‐building
animals instinctively built up their great corals to afford themselves
protection in the inner parts; but so far is this from the truth, that
those massive kinds to whose growth on the exposed outer shores the very
existence of the reef depends cannot live within the lagoon, where other
delicately‐branching kinds flourish.” Moreover, in this view, many species
of distinct genera and families are supposed to combine for one end; and
of such a combination not a single instance can be found in the whole of
Nature. The theory that has been most generally received is that atolls
are based on submarine craters, but when the form and size of some of them
are considered this idea loses its plausible character. Thus, the Suadiva
atoll is forty‐four geographical miles in diameter in one line by thirty‐
four in another; Rimsky is fifty‐four by twenty miles across; Bow atoll is
thirty miles long, and, on an average, six miles broad. This theory,
moreover, is totally inapplicable to the Northern Maldivian atolls in the
Indian Ocean, one of which is eighty‐eight miles in length, and between
ten and twenty in breadth.
The various theories which had been propounded as to the existence of the
coral islands being unsatisfactory, Mr. Darwin was led to re‐consider the
whole subject. Numerous soundings taken all round the Cocos atoll showed
that at ten fathoms the prepared tallow in the hollow of the sounding rod
came up perfectly clean, and marked with the impression of living polyps.
As the depth increased these impressions became less numerous, but
adhering particles of sand succeeded, until it was evident that the bottom
consisted of smooth mud. From these observations it was obvious to him
that the utmost depth at which the coral polyps can construct reefs is
between twenty and thirty fathoms. Now, there are enormous areas in the
Indian Ocean in which every island is a coral formation, raised to the
height to which the waves can throw up fragments and the winds pile up
sand; and the only theory which seems to account for all the circumstances
embraced is that of the subsidence of vast regions in this ocean. “As
mountain after mountain and island after island slowly sank beneath the
water,” he says, “fresh bases could be successively afforded for the
growth of the corals. I venture to defy any one to explain in any other
manner how it is possible that numerous islands should be distributed
throughout vast areas, all the islands being low, all built of coral,
absolutely requiring a foundation within a limited depth below the
surface.”
Darwin’s description of the island of Cocos, or Keeling, is as
follows:—“The ring‐formed reef of the lagoon island is surmounted in the
greater part of its length by linear islets. On the northern or leeward
side there is an opening through which vessels can pass to the anchorage
within. On entering, the scene was very curious and rather pretty; its
beauty, however, entirely depended on the brilliancy of the surrounding
colours. The shallow, clear, and still water of the lagoon, resting in its
greater part on white sand, is, when illuminated by a vertical sun, of the
most vivid green. This brilliant expanse, several miles in width, is on
all sides divided, either by a line of snow‐white breakers from the dark
heaving waters of the ocean, or from the blue vault of heaven by the
strips of land crowned by the level tops of the cocoa‐nut tree. As a white
cloud here and there affords a pleasing contrast to the azure sky, so in
the lagoon bands of living coral darken the emerald‐green water.
“The next morning I went ashore on Direction Island. The strip of dry land
is only a few hundred yards in width; on the lagoon side there was a white
calcareous beach, the radiation from which, under this sultry climate, was
very oppressive. On the outer coast, a solid, broad, flat coral rock
served to break the violence of the open sea. Excepting near the lagoon,
where there is some sand, the land is entirely composed of rounded
fragments of coral. In such a loose, dry, stony soil, the climate of the
intertropical regions alone could produce so vigorous a vegetation.
“On some of the smaller islets nothing could be more elegant than the
manner in which the young and full‐grown cocoa‐nut trees, without
destroying each other’s symmetry, were mingled into one wood. A beach of
glittering white sand formed a border to those fairy spots.”
Mrs. Brassey writes enthusiastically of some coral fields in the South
Pacific. “It is really impossible to describe the beauty of the scene
before us. Submarine coral forests of every colour, studded with sea‐
flowers, anemones, and echinidæ, of a brilliancy only to be seen in
dreamland; shoals of the brightest and swiftest fish darting and flashing
in and out; shells, every one of which was fit to hold the place of honour
in a conchologist’s collection moving slowly along with their living
inmates: this is what we saw when we looked down from the side of the boat
into the depths below. The surface of the water glittered with every
imaginable tint, from the palest aquamarine to the brightest emerald, from
the pure light blue of the turquoise to the deepest dark blue of the
sapphire, and was dotted here and there with patches of red, brown, and
green coral, rising from the mass below. Before us, on the shore, there
spread the rich growth of tropical vegetation, shaded by palms and cocoa‐
nuts, and enlivened by the presence of native women in red, blue, and
green garments, and men in motley costumes, bringing fish, fowls, and
bunches of cocoa‐nuts, borne, like the grapes brought back from the land
of Canaan by the spies, on poles.
“At 5 p.m. we went for a row in the _Glance_ and the _Flash_ to the coral
reef, now illumined by the rays of the setting sun. Who can describe these
wonderful gardens of the deep, on which we now gazed through ten and
twenty fathoms of crystal water! Who can enumerate or describe the strange
creatures moving about and darting hither and thither amid the masses of
coral forming their submarine home! There were shells of rare shape,
brighter than if they had been polished by the hand of the most skilful
artist; crabs of all sizes scuttling and sliding along; sea‐anemones
spreading their delicate feelers in search of prey, and many other kinds
of zoophytes crawling slowly over the reef, and scarlet, blue, yellow,
gold, violet, spotted, striped, and winged fish, short, long, pointed, and
blunt, of the most varied shapes, were darting about like birds among the
coral trees.”
Darwin speaks of the grandeur of the outer shore of these lagoon islands.
He says:—“There is a simplicity in the barrier‐like beach, the margin of
green bushes and tall cocoa‐nuts, the solid flat of dead coral rock,
strewed here and there with great loose fragments, and the line of furious
breakers all rounding away towards either hand. The ocean, throwing its
waters over the broad reef, appears an invincible, all‐powerful enemy; yet
we see it resisted, and even conquered, by means which at first seem most
weak and insufficient. It is not that the ocean spares the rock of coral;
the great fragments scattered over the reef and heaped on the beach whence
the tall cocoa‐nut‐trees spring plainly bespeak the unrelenting power of
the waves. Nor are any periods of repose granted; the long swell caused by
the gentle but steady action of the trade‐winds, always blowing in one
direction over a wide area, causes breakers almost equalling in force
those during a gale of wind in the temperate regions, and which never
cease to rage. It is impossible to behold these waves without feeling a
conviction that an island, though built of the hardest rock—let it be
porphyry, granite, or quartz—would ultimately yield and be demolished by
such an irresistible power. Yet these low, insignificant coral islets
stand, and are victorious; for here another power, as an antagonist, takes
part in the contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of
lime one by one from the foaming breakers, and unite them into a
symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand huge
fragments, yet what will that tell against the accumulated labour of
myriads of architects at work night and day, month after month? Thus do we
see the soft and gelatinous body of a polyp, through the agency of the
vital laws, conquering the great mechanical power of the waves of an ocean
which neither the art of man nor the inanimate works of nature could
successfully resist.” The poet summed the matter rightly when he wrote:—
“Millions of millions thus, from age to age,
With simplest skill and toil unwearyable,
No moment and no movement unimproved,
Laid line on line, on terrace terrace spread,
To swell the heightening, brightening, gradual mound,
By marvellous structure climbing towards the day....
I saw the living pile ascend,
The mausoleum of its architects,
Still dying upward as their labour closed....
Frail were their frames, ephemeral their lives,
Their masonry imperishable. All
Life’s needful functions, food, exertion, rest,
By nice economy of Providence
Were overruled to carry on the process
Which out of water brought forth solid rock.”
And now we arrive at the last of the valuable fisheries in which divers
are concerned—that of the sponge. The ancients recognised the fact that
the sponge exhibited vitality, but were rather undecided as to whether it
should be counted animal or vegetable. Rondelet—the friend of the
celebrated Rabelais, whom the merry curate of Meudon designated under the
name of _Rondibilis_—himself a physician and naturalist of Montpellier,
long promulgated the idea that these productions belonged to the vegetable
kingdom. Linnæus late in life withdrew the sponges from among the
vegetables, for he had satisfied himself, in short, that they fairly
belonged to the animal kingdom. Sponges live at the bottom of the sea in
from 500 to 1,250 fathoms of water, among the clefts and crevices of the
rocks, always adhering and attaching themselves, not only to inorganic
bodies, but even growing on algæ and animals, spreading, erect, or
pendent, according to the body which supports them and their natural
habit.
Figuier tells us that all naturalists are now satisfied of the animal
nature of sponges, although they once were thought to represent the lowest
and most obscure grade of animal existence, and that so close to the
confines of the vegetable world that it was considered difficult to some
species to determine whether they were on the one side or the other.
“Several of them, however,” says Mr. Gosse, “if viewed with a lens under
water while in a living state, display vigorous currents constantly
pouring forth from certain orifices, and we necessarily infer that the
water thus ejected must be constantly taken in through some other channel.
On tearing the mass open, we see that the whole substance is perforated in
all directions by irregular canals leading into each other, of which some
are slender, and communicate with the surface by minute but numerous
pores, and others are wide, and open by ample orifices; through the former
the water is admitted, through the latter it is ejected.”
[Illustration: SPONGE FISHING OFF THE COAST OF GREECE.]
At the present time sponge fishing takes place principally in the Grecian
Archipelago and the Syrian coasts. The Greeks and Syrians sell the product
of their fishing to the western nations, and the trade has been immensely
extended in recent times. Fishing usually commences towards the beginning
of June on the coast of Syria, and finishes at the end of October. But the
months of July and August are peculiarly favourable to the sponge harvest,
if we may use the term. Latakia furnishes about ten boats to the fishery,
Batoum twenty, Tripoli twenty‐five to thirty, Kalki fifty, Simi about 170
to 180, and Kalminos more than 200. The boat’s crew consists of four or
five men, who scatter themselves along the coast for two or three miles,
in search of sponges under the cliffs and ledges of rock. Sponges of
inferior quality are gathered in shallow waters. The finer kinds are found
only at a depth of from twenty to thirty fathoms. The first are fished for
with three‐toothed harpoons, by the aid of which they are torn from their
native rock, but not without deteriorating them more or less. The finer
kinds of sponges, on the other hand, are collected by divers; aided by a
knife, they are carefully detached. Thus the price of a sponge brought up
by diving is much more considerable than that of a harpooned sponge. Among
divers, those of Kalminos and of Psara are particularly renowned. They
will descend to the depth of twenty‐five fathoms, remain down a shorter
time than the Syrian divers, and yet bring up a more abundant harvest. The
fishing of the Archipelago furnishes few fine sponges to commerce, but a
great quantity of very common ones. The Syrian fisheries furnish many of
the finer kinds, which find a ready market in France; they are of medium
size. On the other hand, those which are furnished from the Barbary coast
are of great dimensions, of a very fine tissue, and much sought for in
England. Sponge fishing is carried on at various other stations in the
Mediterranean, but without any intelligent direction, and in consequence
it is effected without any conservative foresight. At the same time,
however, the trade in this product goes on yearly increasing; but it is
only a question of time when the trade shall cease, the demand which every
year clears the submarine fields of these sponges causing such destruction
that their reproduction will soon cease to be adequate.
The finer varieties of toilet sponge produce a high price, often as much
as forty shillings the pound weight for very choice specimens, a price
which few commercial products obtain, and which prohibits their use, in
short, to all but the wealthy. It is, therefore, very desirable that
attempts should be made to carry out the submarine enterprise of M.
Lamiral. With the assistance of the Acclimatisation Society of Paris, some
experiments have already been made in this direction.
[Illustration: SPONGE, GROWING.]
On the Bahama banks and in the Gulf of Mexico the sponges grow in water of
small depth. The fishermen—Spanish, American, and English—sink a long mast
or perch into the water moored near the boat, down which they drop upon
the sponges; by this means they are easily gathered.
The fine, soft Syrian sponge is distinguished by its lightness, its fine
flaxen colour, its form, which is that of a cup, its surface convex,
voluted, pierced by innumerable small orifices, the concave part of which
presents canals of much greater diameter, which are prolonged to the
exterior surface in such a manner that the summit is nearly always pierced
throughout in many places. This sponge is sometimes blanched by the aid of
caustic alkalies; but this preparation not only helps to destroy its
texture, but also changes its colour. This sponge is specially employed
for the toilet, and its price is high. Specimens which are round‐shaped,
large, and soft, sometimes produce very large prices. There are many other
varieties known to the commercial world.