They met one morn in Cow-park bottom, Tow row row, tow, &c. In tops and cords of honest brown, sir, But hark! what cries assail their ears all ; Tow row row, tow, &c. The Squire saw his roast was done for, The merry music burst like thunder, 'Twas a mourning peal to the varmint's heart; But still he swore he'd not knock under, He'd show them he could play his part. Tow row row, tow, &c. Like a flock of pigeons well together, Away they went at a busting pace O'er hill and dale, through copse and cover- Tow row row, tow, &c. For fifty minutes they had pressed him, Before them rolled a rapid river, And straight for it he shaped his course; The hounds and varmint got well over, But the Squire got in, both he and his horse. Tow row row, tow, &c. "Have at him, there," said the Squire, sputt'ring; "That's a cold bath, Jack, without expense; But hark to the hounds, they're getting forward, We needs must clear that rasping fence." Tow row row, tow, &c. Not a field ahead was the gallant varmint, His strength nigh spent, though his pluck was good; Tow row row, tow, &c. But now they neared a well-known cover, Tow row row, tow, &c. The Squire now, like a true-born hero, Tow row row, tow, &c. Coral figured among the ornaments of the Roman ladies in the times of Pliny; in the middle ages it was also highly valued. In the earliest years of his reign, Francis I., who, all frivolity apart, wished to promote a trade which connected his policy with African interests, recommended coral to his court. Richelieu and Colbert, with similar views, strove to bring it into fashion, as did Napoleon, who succeeded in this undertaking. Since 1836 it has gradually disappeared, not being sufficiently costly for the drawing-rooms of the present day. But amongst those vicissitudes these fisheries have not been deserted. Fashions which have disappeared in France have gone and reigned elsewhere, their disappearance has been but a removal; and we may trust in the continuance of a taste which has periodically revived in Europe in a lapse of eighteen centuries. Some dependence may, besides, be placed on an industry whose produce the dark-coloured nations of the other three parts of the world have never ceased to value. From time immemorial the coral fishery has taken place on the coasts of Italy, Corsica, Sicily, and Sardinia; but the superiority of African coral has been acknowledged for seven or eight centuries past. At the beginning of the twelfth century * The dungeon of Pyles, a famous fox-holt on Dartmoor. their fisheries rendered prosperous the inhabitants of a town called Mers-el-Djoux, situate to the north of Badja, the vestiges of which are now almost obliterated on the coast. When the Pisans had to seek on the coast of Africa the commercial channels which they were losing in the east, this industry attracted their attention, and the main object of the treaty they concluded in 1167, with Abdallah Bogoras, Sultan of Tunis, was the concession of the coral fishery. In order to carry it on, they formed an establishment at Tabarca. About the year 1300 Abulfeda mentions the Bona fisheries. At a later period the fishery passed into the hands of the Catalans. In 1446 the fisheries on the coast of Tunis, which then extended to the east as far as Badgia, were let to a Barcelonese. In 1551 the Genoese fished coral at Bona, and their boats were stationed at two leagues to the north of that town, under the protection of the fort that still bears this name. At about the same period, Charles V. having bestowed on the house of Lomellin, of Genoa, the island of Tabarca, which Soliman II. had ceded to him, the Genoese establishment was transferred to it, and coral fishing became one of its principal objects; when, in 1741, the Tunisians destroyed it, thirty-four boats and two hundred and seventy-five sailors were employed in this fishery. Previous to 1561 the French had made but few individual attempts at coral fishing. The first Frenchmen who embarked in it regularly were two Marseilles merchants, Thomas Linches and Carlin. Didier. In virtue of a convention with the Mayool tribes and Soliman II., they formed, in 1561, in the Bastion de France Creek, at twelve leagues east of Bona, an establishment, which had many a vicissitude to undergo. Linches ruined himself in it. The fishery was finally acquired by France, through the treaty of the 20th of May, 1604, concluded at Constantinople with Amurath III. In 1741, at the moment when the destruction of the Genoese settlement removed the only competition that France had to dread, the newly established Compagnie d'Afrique gave a regular and permanent organization to the coral fishery; and it is from that time that we have trustworthy documents relative to that branch of industry. All the company's sailors were natives of Provence; its boats were built at Marseilles. Each boat's crew consisted of seven men. The annual fishing of a boat was valued at 1,200lbs, which, at the average price of 8 francs, yielded 9,600 francs. The expenses, including the crew's provisions, amounted to 5,850 francs. The company had not above forty to fifty boats. It must not, however, be inferred that it gained by the fisheries only about 20,000 francs: it sold to the Marseilles manufacturer for 15 to 20 francs the coral which it received at 8 francs, and thus obtained a net profit of 300,000 to 400,000 francs for an advance inferior to that sum. Exercised all the year round, the coral fishers of Provence acquired a dexterity the secret of which will be discovered only when the organization of their labour shall be adopted. Seven men did twice as much as ten do now; and ten hours' labour yielded more than eighteen do at present. This peaceable property was disturbed in 1780; the Corsican coral fishers had not ceased, since the union of their country to France, to complain of their exclusion to the profit of the company, and of the inferiority of the Corsican coral to which they were confined. They were, in consequence, admitted to the La Calle fishery; but, whether from want of skill, or, as was pretended, from their not having all renounced selling directly the produce of their fishing to the manufacturers of Italy, the company sustained serious losses. Amidst the war declared in France against all privileges in 1789, those of the commercial companies had no chance of being spared. The African company was assailed with the more violence, as it was the only one that fared well. In 1791 the company, which a decree of the 21st of July had just stripped of a part of its privileges, by declaring the Barbary trade free, was moreover obliged, owing to the obsession of the deputies of Corsica, Salicetti, and Poggo di Borgo, to submit to a convention, whereby 56 gondolas were to have the right of fishing for fifty-four days. At that time the violation of engagements entered into with a privileged party was viewed, even by the most scrupulous, only as a means of recovering their own. The gondolas, which were bound to pay the company, in the way of rent, 6,000lbs. of coral of various qualities, worth about 150,000 francs, delivered in only 510lbs. of a bad sort, which yielded but 5,000 francs. The Corsican coral fishers sold the remainder at Leghorn; and as that first blow dealt to the Marseilles and Cassio manufacturers was followed by many others, they never recovered from them. The invasion of the assignats, the maritime war and decree of the Comité de Salut Public of January, 1794, which abolished the Compagnie d'Afrique, were anything but favourable to the coral fisheries. The revolutionary government of France did not pay the dues stipulated with the Divan, and neither exercised any control nor afforded any protection. From forty gondolas which the company had, the number was abruptly carried to two hundred ; the produce amounted, in 1795, to 1,200,000 francs, and to 2,000,000 francs in the following year. The seizure of the property of the company, at the commencement of the Egyptian campaign, put that end to the industry which it was about to find in the exhaustion of the coral banks. The peace with Algiers, signed in December, 1801, was followed by the re-establishment of the fisheries in the succeeding summer. The consular government sent an able man, Mr. Rimbert, to superintend it; but in an interval of eight years the springs of the old industry of France had completely relaxed, the coral fisheries of Provence obtained no success, and all the profits remained to the Corsicans and Italians. The Provence people made not a second experiment, and the field has since remained in the free enjoyment of their rivals. Then was observed the singular development taken, in four years of repose, by the coral stems of the banks most known. They had an unusual thickness, with that smooth and close appearance which the most vigorous plants lose in growing old. It was then seen that coral banks require to be treated with the same economy as woods and forests, and that submarine vegetation has also its maturity and chances of exhaustion; in short, that regulations are necessary in that branch of industry in order to promote the operation of nature. In the mean time the French flag appeared, but at long intervals, in the Mediterranean, and England had become mistress of Malta. At her instigation the Dey of Constantina admitted, in 1806, the competition of the Maltese, Jews, and Spaniards in the market where the French before had alone a right to buy. From this violation of treaties to their abolition there was but one step. In 1807 the Dey invested England with the French concessions, for an annual payment of 267,500 francs. The principal object of England in trading on this coast was the supplying the garrisons of Malta and Gibraltar, and, at a later period, her armies in Spain. This navigation she abandoned to the Greek, Sicilian, Sardinian, and Spanish shipping. As for the coral fisheries, the annihilation of the means of obtaining supplies, which had formerly existed on the coast, obliged many boats to depart in winter: the English were unwilling to bear alone the expenses of an industry, the profits of which devolved to the shipping of Italy. The fishing seasons were, therefore, determined upon. The summer season extended from the 1st of April to the 30th of September; the winter season from the 1st of October to the 31st of March. Each coral fishing boat was subjected for the former to a duty of 1,070 francs, and two rotes of coral; and for the latter to 481 francs, and one rote. These duties covered very nearly the tribute to the Dey. Such is the origin of the regulations now existing, and it will be easily conceived that this state of things having lasted till the year 1816, the Provence people had full time to lose, and the Italians to acquire, practice in coral fishing. These vicissitudes had not stripped Leghorn of its coral trade and manufactures; but, if the workmen of that city were occupied, its fishermen had nothing to do. The discovery of very fine coral banks on the Pianosa restored to the latter, in 1807, very considerable activity; they flocked to them in crowds, and the banks were exhausted in 1814; they do not appear to have since recovered from that exhaustion. Three boats, of which it is not the exclusive occupation, suffice now for fishing in the whole Archipelago of Tuscany. This is not the only circumstance upon which those found themselves, who declare that the African coast has alone the happy privilege of reproducing coral. The coast of Sardinia, though long deserted, has not been stocked again; the submarine projection of Monte Christo, which was formerly rich in purple coral (Jania rubens) has not recovered from its exhaustion, and if we must go back to ancient times, the island of Gorgona no longer yields the beautiful black coral which was gathered there in Pliny's time. The resumption by the French of their sessions, when general peace took place, brought on no change of any importance in the fisheries. The duties established by the English were, indeed, reduced to 856 francs for the summer, and 321 francs for the winter season; but this reduction lasted but the time necessary for the restoration of some buildings. In 1817, 240 boats participated in the fishery, which was kept up despite of the attacks of the natives, and of the Tunis privateers, from 1820 to 1824. In 1821, there were 241 boats employed on it-viz, 30 Corsican, 70 Sardinian, 39 Tuscan, 83 Neapolitan, and 19 Sicilian. The coral fished amounted |