The exports of 1.ponge from Syra in 1879 were :-40231. worth to Great Britain (18,689/. in 1877), 7242/. to France, 1827/. to Austria. The average value of the Greek sponge is 2s. a lh. Tripoli yearly produces 25,000-35,000 ; the exports in 1878 were 15,000/. worth to England and France. The United States fisheries produced 12,995 lb., value 5044 dol. (of 4s. 2d.) in 1877 the returns for 1877 and 1878 are incomplete. The exports of sponge from the Bahamas have finctuated in value as follows :-1869, 24,917/. ; 1870, 14,1041. ; 1873, 32,9381. ; 1877, 17,3371.; 1879, 33,2651. The qualities and values of the Bahaman sponge exported in 1878 and 1879 were :— Our imports of aponge from the Mediterranean were 189,828 lh. in 1851; 411,111 lb., 270,4101., in 1860; 453,819 lb., 113,3841. in 1870. Our total imports were 1,221,673 lb., 156,9651., in 1869 ; 837,159 lb., 160,162/. in 1870. There are no recorde since. The approximate London market values of sponge are :—Turkey : fine picked, 16-22s. a lb.; fair to good, 7-10s.; ordinary, 8d.-3s. 6d.; Bahama, 5-10d. The ordinary applications of sponge are sufficiently familiar. Attempts have been made to utilize the very inferior qualities, which are unfit for use as sponge, for the manufacture of a kind of felt. The process consists in eoftening with glycerine, cutting email, carding, and felting. The manufacture does not appear to have flourished long.
It would be an omission to conclude this article without an allusiou to tho efforts which have lately been made to artificially improve sponge-cultnre, The object aimed at was the multiplica tion of sponges by cuttings ; but inasmuch se tho cuttings were found to produce no greater return than would have been given in the same time by the single speoimen uncut, the only advantage derivable from the process would be the possibility of populating suitable unoccupied ground with cuttings of commercially valuable kinds. Details may be consulted in Dr. Marenzeller's paper quoted in the Bibliography (translated in the Society of Arts Journal, Vol. xxix., No. 1488), and in the Pharmaceutionl Journal, Vol. xi. [xl.], No. 547, pp. 491-3.
Bibliography.-0. Schmidt, Spongien des Adriatischen Meerea ' (Leipzig: 1862, sup. 1864); G. von Eokhel, ' Der Badesohwamm' (Trieste : 1873); A. Hyatt, Revisiou of the N. American Poriferre ' (Memoirs Boston Soo. Nat. Hiat., Vol. ii., Part iv., No. ii. [1875], and Vol. ii., Part iv., No. v. C1877]; E. von Morenzeller, Aufzucht des Badeschwammes sus Theilsthcken ' (Verhandl. k. k. zool.-bot. Ges., Vienna : 1879) ; A. Hyatt, 'Commercial and other Sponges' (Boston : 1879).