order, the Zoantharia. Besides lime, its principal constituent,
magnesia, iron, and organic matter enter into its composition, but the exact nature of the coloring agent is not
assured.
The home of the precious coral is the Mediterranean coast,
particularly on the African shore, where it is obtained with
great difficulty by means of nets and drags, the beds, in some
instances, being seven or eight hundred feet below the surface
of the sea. The business is now principally confined to Italian
and Maltese traders, although the French, as early as the middle of the fifteenth century, were engaged in coral fisheries.
The traffic carried on in this commodity is said to be immense ;
vast quantities are yearly exported to China, India, and Persia,
where it is extensively employed for various objects. One
house alone in Naples exported to Calcutta in a single year
forty thousand dollars worth of coral, and the total annual
amount to India, from this city, was one million dollars. It is
used by the orientals both for religious and secular purposes ;
the Brahmins employ it for rosaries, and the Japanese for
personal ornaments.
Coral is a great favorite in Spain, Italy, and the West Indies.
When employed for carnei, the rough outside of the shell is cut
away leaving the smooth inside for the beautiful background
on which the figures rest. The delicate pink coral is preferred
to the red, and affords a great variety of shades,— one hundred,
according to Dieulafait, having been recognized at Marseilles
alone. This substance has been considered, and is still
believed by the credulous, to be of great importance for amulets, in consequence of its remarkable medicinal properties.
It is frequently imitated by bone, horn, and ivory, stained with
cinnabar, and an artificial article is manufactured from gypsum
and a kind of gum colored by certain pigments. The commer-
