240 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
with a slow and monotonous tone a song, the words of which impro- 
vise in a sort of psalmody the names of the saints most revered 
among the seafaring Italian population. 
The lines are finally brought home, tearing or breaking blocks of 
rock, sometimes of enormous size, which are brought on board. The 
cross is now placed on the side of the vessel, the lines are arranged 
on the deck, and the crew occupy themselves in gathering the results 
of their labour. The coral is gathered together, the branches of the 
precious alcyonarian are cleansed, and divested of the shells and 
other parasitic products which accompany them ; finally, the produce 
is carried to and sold in the ports of Messina, Naples, Genoa, or 
Leghorn, where the workers in jewellery purchase them. Behold, 
fair reader, with what hard labour, fatigue, and peril, the elegant 
bijouterie with which you are decked is torn from the deepest bed of 
the ocean ! 
lil. THE PENNATULIDA, OR SEA-PENS. 
This curious family received from Cuvier the name of Swimming 
Polyps, and from Lamarck that of Floating Polyps. The name of 
Pennatula, by which they are now generally known, is taken from 
their resemblance to a quill, gerna. In the words of Lamarck, “It 
seems as if Nature, in forming this composite animal, had wished to 
copy the external form of a bird’s feather.” Our fishermen call it 
the cock’s comb, which is not inapt, but less expressive of its peculiari- 
ties. One of these Sea-pens is described as being “ from two to four 
inches in length, of a uniform purplish-red colour, except at the tip 
or base of the stalk, where it is pale orange-yellow; the skin is 
thickish, very tough, and of a curious structure, being composed of 
minute crystalline cylinders, densely arranged in straight lines, and 
held together by a tenacious glutinous matter, the cylinders being 
about six inches in diameter, in length straight and even, or sometimes 
slightly curved, and of a red colour, which communicates itself to the 
zoophyte.” (Johnston.) The animals by which it is formed consti- 
tute colonies, which, however, are only attached to the rocks by the 
enlarged basis of their stem ; they appear to live generally at the 
bottom of the sea, their root, if we can use the term, buried in the 
sands or mud, their polypiferous portion sallying into the water. 
The agitation of the waves and the fishermen’s nets often displace 
these curious creatures, and then they float away at various depths 
up to the bosom of the ocean. 
The stalk of their polypidom is hollow in the centre, having a 
long slender bone-like substance, which is white, smooth, and square, 
