44^ The Comme7'cial Products of the Sea. 



Coral beads are also imported done up into strings of 

 assorted sizes, making five necklaces, also in large bundles 

 of 36 strings assorted, weighing 135 ounces troy. A most 

 objectionable procedure in the coral trade is the practice 

 of attaching to the beads great masses of raw silk and 

 cotton at the ends, amounting to fully 30 per cent, of the 

 weight, and as coral is sold by the ounce, this is an absolute 

 fraud on the buyer. The official statements of the imports 

 of coral into the kingdom are no reliable criterion of the 

 actual value of the trade, because it is chiefly the 

 coarse and rough coral that is entered at the Custom 

 House ; merchants, jewellers, and, indeed, private indi- 

 viduals, who purchase in the Mediterranean the finer kinds 

 of coral, and jewellery made of it, do not trust it in cases 

 as merchandise, but bring it in their personal baggage. 

 The aggregate net value of all the coral imported, ac- 

 cording to the Customs returns, never reaches ^50,000 in 

 the year, and, indeed, in the last years of which we have 

 any official record it was under ;^ 18,000 or ;;{^20,ooo ; but 

 this is a very fallacious statement, for probably the value 

 of the coral exceeds ^100,000 a year. Taking, however, 

 only the computed official value of that entered at the 

 Customs, there was received in England, between i860 

 and 1870, coral of different kinds valued at upwards of 

 ;f300,ooo. 



In weight the quantity of the several kinds imported 

 varies considerably. Thus, of coral in fragments, some- 

 times, as in 1856 and 1861, 14,000 to 16,000 lbs. weight 

 are received, — in ordinary years the average is not half 

 that amount. Of whole, or perfect pieces, the quantity 

 ranges from 400 to 1000 lbs. Of negligees, the quantity 

 has declined considerably. In 1859 about 3000 lbs. weight 

 came in, but the last few years it has only averaged 



