loses the calcareous substance, diminishes in size, but preserves both form and colour.
The native place of the coral is, doubtless, the immense sea-shore of the Mediterranean, and principally the coast of Africa.
It
is necessary here to say that the term " banks of coral," given by
navigators to some reefs celebrated for numerous shipwrecks, does not
at all apply to the production of which we now treat, as those banks
are only agglomerations of madrepore. The coral, whose very slow growth
is in proportion to the greater or less depth of its strata, which are
often found from fifteen to three hundred feet deep, is now fished up
abundantly by daring divers, who go and gather it with their hands or
by means of an instrument made of wood and iron, in the form of a cross
of St. Andrew, to the spikes of which is fastened a net, which receives
the coral detached by repeated blows given by the machine.
This
manner of fishing, so very injurious to the coralline rocks, is
disapproved in these days, when means abound by which it could be done
more successfully, and without interfering with the future formation
of the coral.
For
this purpose the submarine boats, one of the best of modern inventions,
would be very useful ; and we advise all rich speculators in coral
fisheries to beware lest this essentially Italian industry be, in
consequence of their negligence, transferred to France, where, of
late, many have been studying the subject
