“When the padrone thinks he has reached a coral bank, he throws his engine overboard. As soon as the apparatus is fairly at the bottom the speed of the vessel is slacked, the capstan is manned by six or eight men, while the others guide the helm and trim the sails. Two forces are thus brought to act upon the lines, the horizontal action of the vessel and the vertical action of the capstan. In consequence of the many inequalities of the rocky bottom, the engine advances by jerks, the vessel yielding more or less according to the concussion caused by the action of the capstan or sail. The engine seizes upon the rugged rocks at the bottom, and raises them to let them fall again. In this manner the swab, floating about, penetrates beneath the rocks where the coral is found, and is hooked on to it. To fix the lines upon the coral and bring them home is a work of very great labour. The engine long resists the most energetic and repeated efforts of the crew, who, exposed half naked to the burning sun of the Mediterranean, work the capstan to which the cable and engine are attached, while the padrone urges and excites them to increased exertion; the sailors meanwhile trim the sails, and sing with a slow and monotonous tone a song, the words of which improvise in a sort of psalmody the names of the saints most revered among the seafaring Italian population. “The lines are finally brought home, tearing or breaking blocks of rock, sometimes of enormous size, which are brought on board. The cross is now placed on the side of the vessel, the lines are arranged on the deck, and the crew occupy themselves in gathering the results of their labour. The coral is gathered together, the branches of the precious alcyonarian are cleansed and divested of the shells and other parasitic products which accompany them; finally, the produce is carried to and sold in the ports of Messina, Naples, Genoa, or Leghorn, where the workers in jewellery purchase them. Behold, fair reader, with what hard labour, fatigue, and peril, the elegant bijouterie with which you are decked is torn from the deepest bed of the ocean.” Coral is worth from as little as two or three shillings a _ton_ to as high as £10 sterling per pound.