12
MANÎS INFLUENCE ON comms,
:
_
respect agrees with that for the food—shes.
Both had been
carried
on
for centuries before they attracted the earest
attention of the scientic, and both are examples of the
_
long—continued prevalence of error, and, in the case of shes,
‘
‘
even
culpable lack of knowledge about a food-supply so
:
important. Indeed, the application of science to the problem
of the food-shes is of much more recent date than that to the
_
coral of commerce, just as if personal adornment, and not
î
practical utility, were of '
primary importance in the world! -
Contrasted with some oceani‘c forms the red coral is not
_
'
only represented by limited numbers, comparatively slow growth
and moderate powers of increase, but the area of distribution is
circums‘crib‘ed.
Moreover, xed to rocks, stones, Shells and dead
pieces of coral at the bottom of the sea, it could neither escape
the engines of capture, nor, by a pelagic habit, aid in the
_
spread of its larvæ over a wide area.
Yet, though hundreds
of boats’ crews (Uorallini) annually sweep the ground with
heavy bars
wood weighted with stones and fringed with
-
h6mpen tangles, this valuable treasure of the sea has
means been extirpated on the very sites where the ancestors of
Shermen followed the Same pursuit.
The pelagic
f_.
larves—perhaps only escaping as the parent—stock is drawn to
the “ su1‘face—plant the Species on the same
new areas and '
gdefeat Inan’s efforts to destroy it.
.
_
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.
_
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.
.
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