82 TAXIDERMY AND ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTING. 



water upon it daily until the soft animal matter has been 

 washed away, and the wind and sun combined have bleached 

 the specimens to snowy whiteness. 



As a general thing, the natives who live within reach of coral 

 groves are in the habit of gathering it in quantity, cleaning it 

 very successfully, and offering it for sale at prices that defy 

 competition on the part of any scientific collector whose time is 

 worth more than fifty cents a day. The best thing the collector 

 can do is to get acquainted with the native fishermen and boat- 

 men, treat them well and pay fairly, and then, if there is any- 

 thing in the sea that his collectorship wants, it will soon be 

 forthcoming. Thus, instead of the growth of the collection de- 

 pending upon one or two men, there will be from ten to twenty 

 local experts directly interested in it. I once came to a com- 

 plete deadlock with my interpreter and three boatmen on the 

 translation of the word " coral." They were Singhalese and Tam- 

 ils, and coral was worse than Sanskrit to them. Finally, as a last 

 despairing effort, I took a pencil and began to make a sketch of 

 a madrepore. The crowd watched its progress in breathless 

 silence until very soon one appreciative auditor shouted trium- 

 phantly, " Kold kalli ! " The crowd joyfully echoed it, the mys- 

 tery was solved, and in five minutes more we were afloat and on 



our way to seek 



" The treasures of the sea, 

 In the mystic groves of coral 

 Whore her spirit wanders free." 



The packing and shipping of branching corals is a serious 

 matter. I have tried every way I could think of, and have 

 seen others do the same, and am firmly convinced that no mat- 

 ter how the large branching clusters are packed, they are bound 

 to get somewhat broken anyway ! Of course, if you care to travel 

 with them and see to their handling at every transfer, that is 

 another thing, but who can do that ? The trouble is that the 

 individual branches are so very heavy for the diameter of the 

 stems next the base, a sudden jar causes them to snap in two 

 by their own weight. But then corals are very beautiful, very 

 interesting, and no matter though they are troublesome, we 

 must have them. 



In packing brain coral, and other compact forms without 



