CHAPTER XIX. 



CORAL: AND THE CORAL-FISHERY. 



"Where the red coral blushes 'neath the waves." 



JIN a volume devoted to the Great Fisheries of 

 the World, it would be impossible not to in- 

 clude a description pf the coral-fishery ; for 

 though it adds nothing to our food-supplies, 

 it forms the staple of a considerable industry, and pro- 

 vides occupation for a large portion of the human race. 



Down to the last century CORAL was regarded as a vege- 

 table product. As such it was described and classified by 

 the ancient naturalists, by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and 

 Pliny. At a much later date, we find it included by 

 Tournefort, along with various madrepores, in his seven- 

 teenth class. Such a mode of classification seemed more 

 justifiable than ever after Marsigli's discovery of what 

 he called the " flowers of coral." Marsigli, a native of 

 Boulogne, where he founded the Institute of Science and 

 Art, and a scientific inquirer of great ardour and industry, 

 -having directed his attention to the subject of coral, was 

 induced to place a branch which he had received fresh 

 from its ocean habitat in a vessel of sea- water. " Next 



