Portal logo
I Arrive, Via Heine
51
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.