Gems Notes and Extracts Augusto Castellani, Mrs. John Brogden 1871

CORAL. 61loses the calcareous substance, dimiiiislies in size, butpreserves both form and colour.The native place of the coral is, doubtless, the immensesea-shore of the Mediterranean, and principallythe coast of Africa.It is necessary here to say that the term " banks ofcoral," given by navigatorsto some reefs celebratedfor numerous shipwrecks, does not at all apply to theproduction of which we now treat, asthose banks areonly agglomerations of madrepore. The coral, whosevery slow growth is in proportion to the greater orless depth of its strata, which are often found fromfifteen to three hundred feet deep, is now fished upabundantly by daring divers, who go and gather itwith their hands or by means of an instrument madeof wood and iron, in the form of a cross of St. Andrew,to the spikes of which is fastened a net, which receivesthe coral detached by repeated blows given by themachine.This manner of fishing, so very injurious to thecoralline rocks, is disapproved in these days, whenmeans abound by which it could be done more successfully,and without interfering with the future formationof the coral.For this purpose the submarine boats, one of thebest of modern inventions, would be very useful : andwe advise all rich speculators in coral fisheries to bewarelest this essentially Italian industry be, in consequenceof their negligence, transferred to France,where, of late, many have been studying the subject