I $8 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM* 



coral every year. The coral is also obtained in the bays 

 around the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. The French 

 have a coral fishery off the coast of Algiers, which is now 

 a profitable business. As long ago as 1833 there were 

 from 100 to 150 boats employed in this fishery, and the 

 annual value of the coral was estimated at ^86,000. 

 Coral has been brought lately in large quantities from the 

 coasts, of Hindostan, and it has been recently dredged in 

 the southern province of Ceylon. The method of taking 

 coral from the bottom of the sea is peculiar, but is the 

 same in most localities. The season for coral-dredging in 

 the Mediterranean is from April to July. The dredging 

 is carried on by means of boats. Each boat has a crew of 

 six men, with a caster, who throws out the dredge, and 

 generally directs the proceedings 



"The dredge or apparatus employed is a kind of drag- 

 net, and is composed of two beams, tied across with a 

 weight to sink them. Nets arc then attached to the 

 beams in such a way that when they are sunk to the 

 bottom of the sea they entangle the branches of the coral, 

 which are then torn from the rocks by the rowers moving 

 the boat with all their force. Several boats' crews are 

 often obliged to join, in order to carry the dredge through 

 the forest of coral in which it gets entangled." 



The last family of the Corals consists of animals called 

 Tubipora,* or Organ-pipe Coral. The fleshy matter 

 vvhich surrounds each polype deposits the stony particles 

 on its outer surface, thus forming a hard ring ; as this 

 increases upward, a tube is formed, on the top of which 

 the animal is situated. Numbers of these tubes, each the 

 work of a single polype, arc reared parallel to each other, 

 which at regular distances arc united by horizontal plates 

 of the stony matter, and the whole structure thus has the 



* Tubttit, a. tube ; Porus, a pore. 



