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His [[strikethrough]] ko [[/strikethrough]] [[red underline]] only home is his little boat, [[\red underline]] where he works and sleeps and with which he has been surveying every nook and corner of the neighboring water. [[red underline]] Knows the life [[\red underline]] and [[red underline]] haunts of every fig, [[\red underline]] bird or [[red underline]] other animal [[\red underline]] and plant and rock. He says best [[red underline]] sponges [[\red underline]] (wool sponges) he catches in the [[red underline]] Bay of Florida. [[\red underline]] Those on the outside [[red underline]] are not so good. [[\red underline]] Catches them [[red underline]] in two fathoms [[\red underline]] of water or less. They look like black bunches.  Best of them have [[red underline]] one or more [[\red underline]] "eyes" (holes) [[red underline]] on top [[\red underline]] - with a forked hook.  [[drawing of three pronged hook]] he tears them from the bottom, then hangs them in the water around his boat for three or four
[[in margin]] [[red underline]] Clayton Edward Wilshcombe, Key West Fla. [[\red underline]]
cnr. Beacon Lane 718
Yacht Boat Indiana

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days until the black jelly-like cover has become so soft that by beating it with a slat it becomes the sponge, then washes them again by wringing them in water, then takes each [[red underline]] sponge [[\red underline]] in hand again and scratches away the remaining black surface by means of a ^[[dull]] knife ^[[while wet]], then sets the [[red underline]] sponge [[\red underline]] entirely free.  A last rinsing, then [[strikethrough]] dregi drying and [[/strikethrough]] stringing [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikehtrough]] on strings of twelve and they are ready for the market. To give them a lighter color they are [[strikethrough]] orde [[/strikethrough]] sometimes put in wood ash then washed with soap. Others used dilute [[red underline]] chloride of lime [[\red underline]] but [[red underline]] all this spoils [[\red underline]] the fibre of the [[red underline]] sponge. [[\red underline]] [[strikethrough]] As the [[/strikethrough]] He tells me he knows of the [[red underline]] Inland passage to Key West [[\red underline]] between the keys and says that [[red underline]] at high tide [[\red underline]]