Coral and the Coral Fisheries. 



457 



course, unassailable, while the artificial composition splin- 

 tered and broke. The result was an appeal to the police 

 court for redress for the fraud that had been practised on 

 them. 



Ivory beads are sometimes dyed to imitate coral ; but 

 this seems a sad waste of good material, the natural ivory, 

 being preferable to the tinted. 



A coral bank of superior quality was discovered, in the 

 middle of May, 1875, by a Sicilian fisherman, in the waters 

 of Sciacca. As the fishermen there were not familiar with 

 this mode of fishing, they invited the fishermen of Torre del 

 Greco and of the port of Empedocle to come over and 

 instruct them, at the same time ofi*ering them a share of the 

 profits. Soon all the boats of the neighbouring coasts 

 arrived at the bank, which caused such frays that the 

 authorities judged it necessary to station a man-of-war 

 there. 



The bank, about 550 yards in length in the direction of 

 west-south-west by east-north-east, and about 30 yards in 

 thickness, yielded at first rich supplies : a small boat with 

 eight men collected from 30 to 40 lbs. of coral a day ; the 

 coral sold at 11^. per lb., less five per cent, tare, so that each 

 boat showed a daily gain of £20. But the bank was gradually 

 exhausted, and the coral diminished in value ; by the 15th 

 of July it had fallen to Js. per lb., with eight per cent, tare, 

 and towards the end it did not sell for more than 2s. 6d. 

 per lb., with ten per cent. tare. It was estimated that from 

 the 1st of June to the 31st of August, 1875, the quantity of 

 coral fished up amounted to 264,000 lbs. The coral sold 

 at an average price of ys. per lb., therefore the total fishery 

 brought in ;^92,400. 



It is well to note that the fisherman who discovered the 

 bank only received the small sum of ^10 as reward, and 



