RED OR PRECIOUS CORAL. 15 



found affected by filaments of a parasitic alga, which causes a 

 change in the tissue. The same parasite is found on Astroides 

 and molluscan shells. 



The produce of the coral fishery is sold in Messina, Naples, 

 Genoa, Leghorn, Marseilles, and the Algerian coral goes in 

 addition to Pisa, in Sicily, and Trapani. About 160 tons are 

 annually brought into Italy, and the articles made of it are 

 valued at nearly £500,000. The total annual value of rough 

 coral has been estimated at £2,000,000, while, when manu- 

 factured, it reaches £10,000,000. Great skill is shown by the 

 Italians in sculpturing and polishing coral. The finest must be 

 of a delicate pinkish or flesh-like hue, uniform in tint through- 

 out, and in large pieces. " It has the hardness and brilliancy of 

 agate, and shines like garnet with the tints of the ruby."* In- 

 ferior kinds are sold at £2 per oz., and small fragments, 

 " collete," used for children's necklaces, at 5s. per oz. Even 

 worm-eaten coral, of little value in Europe, goes to the East, for 

 the natives believe that gods dwell in the little holes. Arabic 

 coral of inferior quality is also made into simple cylinders pierced 

 lengthwise, and sold for servants' use. 



The finest workmanship perhaps is seen at Naples and Leg- 

 horn, and in the form of pearls, large and small, smooth and 

 facetted, olives, sculptured men, animals, flowers, fruits, or 

 rounded buttons, the largest and finest of which go to China for 

 the Mandarins' caps. " In Leghorn about 1000 women are 

 employed preparing 50,000 lb. of coral into little beads — round, 

 egg-shaped, smooth, and cut into facets. The greater part is 

 sent to India, but also to Germany and Russia."! The same 

 author states that in 1879 Genoa had thirty engravers of cameos 

 and coral. In all from 5000 to 6000 persons gained a livelihood 

 in the province in connection with coral, the craft producing a 

 revenue of £80,000. Marseilles, again, manufactures 2,000,000 

 francs of coral. Manufactured coral is exported to Egypt, 

 India, Thibet, China, Britain, the European States, and America. 

 In the latter and the West Indies the blacks have a great fancy 

 for coral, and so in Morocco, India and Central Asia, Central 

 Africa and America, and as in these countries and in some 

 European States the dead carry the coral ornaments with them 



* Simmonds, ' Commercial Produce of Sea,' 1879, p. 441. f Ibid. 



