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sometimes contains. It is taken by diving, or, more ingeniously 

 with a stone fastened to a string carefully let down into the 

 open valves, which close tenaciously, and the animal is drawn 

 up. — 9. Coral Fishery. This is beyond doubt one of the most 

 interesting and peculiar fisheriers in the Mediterranean, and 

 deserves a less passing notice than that which 1 am obliged to 

 give. The coral-fishermen form a peculiar class, and in Italy 

 hail from S. Margherita (Liguria), Leghorn, Carloforte, and 

 Alghero (Sardinia), Torre del Greco, Trapani, and Messina; their 

 boats (corallini) are also peculiar and of two sorts : the larger 

 from 10 to 14 tons burden, the smaller from 2 to 6 ; they are 

 decked and have a mast, lateen sail and jib ; a peculiar feature 

 is the large wooden windlass amidship, for hauling up the dredge, 

 called ingegno : a St. Andrew's cross about 2 metres in length, 

 weighted with stone or iron, and garnished with about 30 tangles 

 made of rough netting and cordage ; other not less primitive 

 implements are used for disentangling the dredge, should the 

 occasion occur. The larger boats are mounted by a master, an 

 assistant, a steersman, and 8 hands ; the smaller ones by 5 or 

 6 men. The coral grows in suitable localities in most parts of 

 the Mediterranean, Ionian Sea, and South Adriatic; it requires 

 a rocky bottom, and affects especially banks covered with ma- 

 drepora and shells at depths varying from 50 to 200 metres,, 

 rarely more. The coralpatches or banks are mostly as well 

 knownto the corollari as are the islands whicb rise above the sea-, 

 the best localities are now off the coasts of Sardinia and in the 

 shallow sea between Sicily and Pantellaria, but no doubt undi- 

 scovered coral-banks are yet to be found, though probably not 

 many. During voyages in the Mediterranean corallini are often 

 seen at work: in Bonifacio Straits, near Castelsardo, off the W. 

 and E. coasts of Sardinia, but especially between Sciacca and 

 Pantellaria. There, on the extreme edge of the « Adventure 

 Bank », not far from Ferdinandea or Graham's Island, much 

 coral has been got in the last few years, principally off three 

 patches, but mostly dead and blackened, not unlikely killed by 

 the volcanic eruption which caused the above-mentioned island 

 to rise and then disappear in 1831. Many hopes had heen raised- 

 by the discovery of the Sciacca coral-banks in 1875, 1878 and 1880; 



