them
that it represents the hard skeletons of various marine organisms. Add
to that, if they are chemists, the interesting fact that coral is
chiefly carbonate of lime.
All
coral brought up from the sea is not suitable for being worked up into
ornaments. Only the stoutest, hardest, least porous and best-coloured
pieces are chosen: the stoutest because they give a good margin when
they are being cut on the lathe, the hardest because they take a better
polish, the least porous because pitting detracts from the appearance,
uniformity of colour because only fools are partial to motley. . . .
If
you were to ask the average person to name the colour of coral, the
reply would be: "Why, red, of course!" Well, some coral is red, but
there is proportionately more white, brown, yellow and black coral at
the bottom of the ocean than there is red. And there are other colours
too, notably pink, and such a variety of delicate in-between tints that
no one but an expert in dyes could possibly fit them with names.
From
Japan, for instance, come two kinds of inferior coral, white and deep
red, the latter shading through chestnut shades into black; and from
the Great Barrier Reef of Australia comes the true black coral, once
found only in the Persian Gulf until that source of supply practically
gave out. But of ancient sources of coral only the Mediterranean seems
inexhaustible and still many-favoured, for besides the
much-sought-after pink variety, white, red and brown coral are yet
found in abundance in its waters, and all are thankfully gathered in by
the harvesters of the sea.
