Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/330

284 “You lazy fellows!” returned I; “give me the great clockwork out of a church tower, perhaps I might be able to relieve your labours.”

“Oh father!” cried Fritz, “don't you know there are iron wheels in the clockwork of the large kitchen-jacks? I'm sure mother would give them up, and you could make something out of them, could you not?”

“By the time I have manufactured a rowing-machine out of a roasting jack, I think your arms will be pretty well inured to the use of your oars! However, I am far from despising the hint, my dear Fritz.”

“Is coral of any use?” demanded Jack suddenly.

“In former times it was pounded and used by chemists; but it is now chiefly used for various ornaments, and made into beads for necklaces, &c. As such, it is greatly prized by savages, and were we to fall in with natives, we might very possibly find a store of coral useful in bartering with them.

“For the present we will arrange these treasures of the deep in our library, and make them the beginning of a Museum of Natural History, which will afford us equal pleasure and instruction.”

“One might almost say that coral belongs at once to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms," remarked Fritz; “it is hard like stone, it has stems and branches like a shrub, and I believe tiny insects inhabit the cells, do they not, father?”

“You are right, Fritz; coral consists of the calcareous cells of minute animals, so built up as to form a tree-like structure.

“The coral fishery gives employment to many men in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and other places. The instrument commonly used, consists of two heavy beams of wood, secured together at right angles, and loaded with stones. Hemp and netting are attached to the under side of the beams, to the middle of which is fastened one end of a strong rope, by which the