Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1889 — Coal and Sponge Gathering. [ARTICLE]

Coal and Sponge Gathering.

The gathering of coral and sponges is an important industry on the Florida reefs. Both are frequently found in the same locality. The sponges are found wherever the bottom is rocky, generally from ten to thirty feet beneath the surface. Two or three dozen schooners are now engaged in the work of gathering the sponges, each schooner carrying two small boats, manned by a crew of two. When the reef is reached the small boats put off, and while one sculls the other keeps an eye out for sponges. A simple contrivance enables the watchmen to see sponges on the reef twenty feet or more under the water. On the side of the small boat a long barrel sort of arrangement is built, the lower end of which is under the water and closed up by a glass head. By placing his head in this barrel the watchman can see through the clear water to the bottom of the sea with remarkable distinctness. When a good sponge is detected it is brought up with & iron hook on a long pole. A man in Portland, Me., makes his living by selling hats. He walks about with three or four hats, one above the other, on his held, and his whole body bulging with hats. Another man in the same city is a walking rubber-store. He carries his whole stock • with him, and does a thriving business whenever a threatening cloud hovers over the city.