Red Coral.
Gorgonia nobilis. (A small detached portion magnified.)
When alive, the soft rind which invests the valuable central stony axis is studded with snow-white polyps. The fishery is still carried on in the same way as it was described by Marsigli 150 years ago. The net is composed of two strong rafters of wood tied crosswise, with leads fixed to them; to these they fasten a quantity of hemp twisted loosely round and intermingled with some loose netting. This apparatus is let down, and while the boat is sailing or being rowed along, alternately raised and dropped so as to sweep a certain extent of the bottom and to entangle the corals in its coarse meshes. The labour, as may be imagined, is very great; frequently, after a long toil, the net is brought up empty, or filled only with other marine productions, which, however interesting they may be to the naturalist, are perfectly worthless in the eyes of the coral-fisher; and not seldom immense exertions are required to loosen it from the rocks, among which it has got entangled.
The chief seat of the coral-fishery is at present along the coasts of Algeria and Tunis, where it is almost exclusively carried on by the Italians, who fit out more than 400 small ships, or "corallines," of from five to sixteen tons, for this purpose. In spring this fleet of nut-shells leaves the ports of Torre del Greco, Sicily, Sardinia, and Genoa, and proceeds to its various points of destination, where it remains until the autumnal gales compel the fragile "corallines" to retire. Every month or fortnight the products of the fishery are delivered up to agents in Bona or La Calle, under whose direction the corals are sorted, packed in cases, and sent to Naples, Leghorn, or Genoa, where they are cut, polished, and manufactured into necklaces and other ornaments or trinkets. About 4,000 sailors are employed in the fishery, each man receiving an average pay of 380 franks for the season, which he almost entirely brings home with him, his trifling expenses on land being generally defrayed by the small pieces of coral he manages to conceal from the sharp eye of the "padrone." The average quantity of corals fished by each "coralline" amounts to about six hundredweight, and the total value of the fishery to more than 200,000l., without taking into account the produce of the fisheries at Stromboli, in the Straits of Messina, and other parts of the Italian coast.
The manufactured articles sell of course for a much higher price, so that the "red coral" is a by no means inconsiderable article of trade. Great quantities are exported to India, and in Leghorn and Genoa several large manufactories work exclusively for that distant market, where the blood-red corals, whose colour harmonises with the dark complexion of the native ladies, are particularly in demand, while those of a roseate hue are preferred in Europe.
The fishermen have a strange belief that the corals are by nature soft, but immediately turn into stone from terror when entangled by the net. There is also a legendary tale of an enchanted coral-tree, large and powerful as an oak, which is said to grow in a deep grotto at the foot of Mont Alban, on the Ligurian coast. It extends its arms when no danger is nigh, but immediately withdraws them, like a cuttle-fish, at the approach of an insidious enemy. This superstition is so firmly rooted that, while Professor Vogt was at Villafranca in 1865, a "coralline" arrived from Torre del Greco for the purpose of fishing for this imaginary prey. The "padrone" swore he would not leave the neighbourhood before he had secured his prize, hoping to enrich himself with the spoils, but doomed, no doubt, to a grievous disappointment, and a considerable loss, on a coast where but few ordinary corals are found.
Isis hippuris.
In the elegant Isis hippuris, which grows in the Indian Ocean, and is frequently found in cabinets of natural history, the horny and calcareous matter of the axis is disposed in alternate joints, so as to unite flexibility with firmness. A similar structure of alternately disposed calcareous and horny segments occurs in Mopsea. In Isis branches are developed from the calcareous, in Mopsea from the horny segments of the axis.
