The fleet has started, and here we get a view of the This is one of the sponge-fishing fleet, sailing before a inside of one of the boats, and the fishermen at ease. favourable wind towards the home of the sponges.

This boat has reached the fishing-ground, and a diver is going down, in his diving-dress, to drag up the sponges that lie from 40 to 60 feet below the surface of the water. The tube which we see to the left of the diver will send down fresh air for him to breathe. He will uncoil the rope in his hand so that it may serve as a guide to him in the water, and by jerking the rope he can signal to his comrades to pull him up with his sponges.

Here we see the boats on the sea, and the divers in the water, stripping the sponges from the rocks. The men who wear diving-dress can stay under water for hours. The man who is diving from the boat on the left has no diving-dress. He will not be able to stay in the water more than two or three minutes, or he would be very ill.

Here the sponges are being roughly cleaned after being brought ashore by the boats. There is a thin skin over the sponge, and in all the pores and canals is a slimy, sticky substance, which is the life-matter of the sponge. The skin has to be removed, and the sticky substance squeezed out to make the sponges clean and fit for sale.

This is a scene in Florida, to which a sponge-fishing fleet has returned. The sponge-fishers build the enclosures of timber in the water which we see here, so that in them they may store their newly-caught sponges. The action of the water makes it more easy for the fishermen to remove the slime and skin of the sponges.

PREPARING SPONGES FOR THE BATH

Here are the sponges brought in from the fishing-ground at sea by the two boats which we see on the left and right of the picture. They are big, good sponges which have been gathered by hand from the depths of the sea. Some divers tear the sponges away with pronged forks, but this spoils the sponges, and they are sold at low prices.

The sponges, having been washed and cleaned, are put out to drain on wooden racks, and then sent from this place in
Florida to Europe. They are carried away by steamships, most of them coming to Europe. Sponges are
valuable not only in the bathroom, but for use by doctors and nurses in treating patients in our hospitals.
The photographs in these pages are supplied by Messrs. Cresswell Brothers & Schmidt, London.
THE NEXT PICTURES OF FAMILIAR THINGS BEGIN ON PAGE 1825

This painting by Sir John Millais shows the young and beautiful but unhappy Scotswoman, Effie Deans, and her sweetheart, George Staunton, whose wife she became. Poor Effie was fated to undergo a terrible trial, as an old sweetheart of Staunton's, out of jealousy, stole away their child, and Effie was accused of its death. Her sister Jeanie walked from Edinburgh to London, and pleaded with the queen to have Effie pardoned for a crime of which the poor woman was afterwards proved innocent. This story is told in "The Heart of Midlothian."

THE

HE last two of Scott's novels which we are to read here are "The Heart of Midlothian" and "Old Mortality." The former is one of his great stories, and the heroine, Jeanie Deans, is one of the finest characters in fiction. She is drawn from real life. "Old Mortality" was the name given to an old man who used to wander about the graveyards in Scotland, keeping clean the inscriptions on the tombstones of the Covenanters, thus showing his love for those who had fought the good fight for religious liberty. The story named after him tells of the ruthless attempt made by the Governments of Charles II. and James II. to force episcopacy, or the government of the Church by bishops, upon the people of Scotland, who hated that form of religious control. The Covenanters were people pledged to a covenant, or sacred bond, which bound them to stand together in opposition to the projects of the king in 1638, and to oppose Popery and preserve the Reformed Church of Scotland.

A

WOMAN'S

HEROISM

Being the Story of "The Heart of Midlothian "

servant of a clergyman
named Staunton, rector
Willingham. She had a daughter;
Mr. Staunton had a son. The
daughter was a beautiful but very
unsettled girl; the rector's son was
equally foolish, and his father sent
him abroad.

George, as the young man was named, resolved never to see his father again. He led a life of wild adventure. Arriving in Scotland, he became acquainted with one Wilson, a smuggler. He also became acquainted with Effie Deans, the daughter of a Scottish peasant. He planned to run away to some retreat with Effie Deans.

About this time a friend tried to bring about friendliness between father and son. The father sent his son a large sum of money, but wrote disowning him for ever. Stung by this letter, George Staunton joined Wilson in a perilous smuggling adventure. The two men were captured and condemned. By the self-sacrifice of Wilson, however, Staunton escaped.

Meanwhile, Effie Deans was arrested and condemned for causing the death of their little child. As a matter of fact, the infant had been stolen away by Madge Wildfire, the daughter of Margaret Murdockson. Convinced of her half-sister's innocence, Jeanie Deans, who, because of Effie's trouble,

kept her own lover, Reuben Butler, Presbyterian minister,

at a distance, decided to walk to London to petition the king (George II.) for a pardon. Jeanie, when she arrived in London, was fortunate enough to enlist the sympathy of the Duke of Argyll, and by this nobleman's influence was enabled to see the queen. The description of this interview, which took place in one of the Royal gardens at Richmond, is one of the finest passages in the whole book.

The duke explained the singular law under which Effie Deans had received sentence of death, and detailed the affectionate exertions which Jeanie had made on behalf of her sister, for whose sake she was willing to sacrifice all but truth and conscience.