CHAPTER XII 



THE EARLY TRADE IN BLACK AND RED CORAL 



"At this point I must pause in order to indulge in my instinct 

 for rambling." — De Ouixcey. 



Red Coral 



From time immemorial red coral has been regarded as an 

 article of commercial value not only on account of its 

 colour, lustre, and texture, but also on account of its supposed 

 mystical powers as a charm and as a medicament. 



There can be no doubt that before the Christian era it 

 was used by the Greeks, the Persians, the Indians, the 

 Chinese, and by the Celtic races of Gaul, of Britain, and of 

 Ireland ; and it is also quite certain that all the red coral 

 that was used by these people in ancient times came to them 

 by trade from the Mediterranean Sea. 



The red coral of commerce {Corallium nobile) has a very 

 limited distribution. It is not found on any of the coral 

 reefs of the world, and in dealing with the early history of 

 the trade in coral it is important to note that it has not yet 

 been discovered in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, or the 

 Indian Ocean. The principal fisheries of the red coral were 

 those of the southern coasts of France, of the coasts of 

 Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily, and of the northern coasts of 

 Africa from Tunis to the Straits of Gibraltar. In quite 

 recent times there has been a small fishery of red coral off the 

 Cape Verde Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, but it may 

 be said that the genuine red coral is confined to the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea and a few localities west of it in the Atlantic. 



Another kind of coral belonging to the same genus but to 



