RED OR PRECIOUS CORAL. 17 



at an average price of seven shillings per pound was 264,0001b., 

 or = ±'92,000. In the case of Sciacca about seven hundred 

 boats crowded the beds, so that a Government ship had to be 

 sent to keep order. Another bed was found ten miles off, and 

 still another further removed (1880). About eight thousand 

 tons of coral were fished on these banks, reddish and black 

 (which Moseley supposed to be due to manganese, since he found 

 shells elsewhere with blackish deposit of manganese). The 

 Sciacca coral was chiefly attached to shells and fragments of 

 corals, not to rocks and stones ; depth, one hundred to one 

 hundred and seventy fathoms. Greek & Co. say that the dark 

 colour appeared to be due to the muddiness of the water. This 

 coral found ready sale in English markets, being prepared for 

 Calcutta. It was exposed for months to the heat of the sun and 

 kept moist, when the black colour disappeared.* 



Prof. Giglioli (to whom I am indebted for interesting in- 

 formation on the subject), however, mentions that, although 

 this bank was worked till it by-and-by was exhausted, others 

 were found in the same region. Thus on the banks worked from 

 March to October, 1882, coral was procured to the amount of 

 £179,724. There were, indeed, 582 boats and 5766 men on the 

 area. Moreover, it was chiefly dead coral, and sold at a low 

 price. 



Between the years 1880 and 1883 much coral was got on the 

 extreme edge of "Adventure Bank," not far from Graham's 

 Island (Ferdinandea), and principally in three patches. It was, 

 however, dead and blackened, probably from the volcanic erup- 

 tion which caused the island to appear and disappear in 1831. 



The fact that no minute survey of the Mediterranean has 

 been made, so as to map out the rich coral-banks with their 

 fauna and environment, and that no very accurate statistics 

 have been kept of the captures from year to year, show that 

 great caution is needed in drawing deductions. 



Becently a species of coral (C.johnsoni), which is known off 

 Madeira, was dredged in 388 fathoms about sixty miles off 

 Eagle Island, on the west coast of Ireland, where so many 



* In litt. Messrs. Greek & Co. to Prof. Moseley. The most recent account 

 is that of Canestrini, ' II Corallo, Monografia,' 1883. 

 Zool 4th ser. vol. XIV., January, 1910. c 



