HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



261 



required to be stated indicates that such matters are 

 taken into consideration in granting passes, and that 

 may be done either by collusion between the 

 managers and examiners or by one form going before 

 the examiners. (7) Mr. Whatmore's answer confirms 

 what I have said under No 1. If the amount of 

 grant depends upon the previous highest success, 

 there is a disposition to require the candidate to pass 

 the stages successively. At one time every first-class 

 pass carried with it a Queen's prize, but one condition 

 after another has been imposed until now the number, 

 as well as the value of such prizes must be a mere 

 figment of what it formerly was. (8) If these 

 examinations are not intended to encourage the study 

 of science mainly among the working classes, how is 

 it that grants are not allowed on the successes of 

 students whose incomes or the incomes of their 

 parents are more than ^200 a year ? — Inquirer. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Amber Hunting in the Baltic. — Between 

 Dantzic and Memel is the home of the amber fishers 

 of the Baltic. Germans call it the California of East 

 Prussia ; and, standing under the shadow of the 

 light-house at Briisterort, where the peninsula juts 

 out into the sea, one can see with the naked eye, on 

 a moderately fine day, the entire stretch of coast from 

 which, for more than three thousand years, the bulk 

 of the amber-supply of the world has been obtained. 

 Twenty, thirty feet deep and more, beneath the 

 sand-dunes that extend for miles around, and form 

 the ocean floor, here are the veins of "blue earth," 

 as it is termed locally, in which the petrified yellow 

 and yellowy-brown masses are found embedded ; and 

 a little way out beyond the lighthouse on the Fox 

 Point, where a fleet of black boats generally rides at 

 anchor on the grey-green water, is one of the great 

 amber-reefs of the "Bernstein-Kuste," a veritable 

 layer of amber cropping up in the sea bed, and 

 heaped up by the ceaseless action of wind and water. 

 The "blue earth" formation runs far back inland, so 

 that amber can be mined as well as fished, as it, in 

 fact, is in some places in the district. But as the 

 deposit is so much nearer the surface under water, 

 where it is being continually exposed by the gradual 

 sinking of the sea-level, while the ebb and flow of 

 the tide and the frequent storms that occur along the 

 coast help to free the amber from the sand and weeds 

 in which it is hidden, it is found more profitable, as 

 well as easier, to "fish" than to "dig" it. A few 

 years ago digging was largely carried on in the 

 Samland, and assumed almost the proportions of a 

 regular industry. Five or six peasants, not possessing 

 the right to "fish," would combine, and obtain per- 

 mission to excavate in likely spots on the estates of 

 private persons. The result was profitable, but in 

 the end, the "digging" proved a source of unmixed 



evil to the locality. The "diggers" began to cheat 

 the proprietors of their proportion of the yield, and 

 invariably concealed a good find. Dealers, who 

 crowded into the district in the hope of picking up 

 bargains, cheated the "diggers." Then people 

 began digging in parts forbidden to them, making 

 what were termed "moonlight" expeditions to 

 promising grounds. Fights with inspectors were of 

 constant occurrence; when disturbed, the ' diggers" 

 had no hesitation in having resort to firearms, and 

 murders became quite common, so that the Govern- 

 ment was obliged to prohibit this form of amber- 

 getting. The right to "fish" belongs to the coast 

 villages and communities, and, in parts, to the State* 

 The latter farms out the grounds belonging to it to 

 certain Konigsberg and Memel firms. One of these, 

 Messrs. Stantien and Becker, agreed, in 1S62, to 

 keep open the waterway of the Frischcs Haff — which 

 needs constant dredging — and pay 25 thalers a day 

 besides, if they were allowed to dredge there for 

 amber. That the contract proved not unprofitable to 

 them may be inferred from the fact that, when the 

 six years for which they had tendered expired, they 

 offered two hundred thalers per working day, instead 

 of the original twenty-five. The take of amber at 

 Schwarzort, where the dredging is carried on, was 

 estimated at seventy-five thousand pounds for the 

 working year to about thirty weeks. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Thrush's Nest on Ground.— I do not think it 

 very unusual for the thrush to build its nest on the 

 ground. I found one this year in a similar position to 

 the one described, in fact I think the thrush is one 

 of the boldest of our nesting birds. I may mention 

 that one nest I found was placed on a piece of rock, 

 jutting out of the banks of a stream, no attempt 

 whatever at concealment being made. To examine 

 the nest it was only necessary to lift it down, and 

 replace it afterwards. How the thrush managed to 

 form its nest in such a position, is hard to say. — 

 F. IF. Paple. 



Liparis Salicis, &c. — Mr. Newman, in his " Illus- 

 trated Natural History of British Moths," gives as 

 the coloring of the wings of the satin {Liparis salicis) 

 " white, unspotted, delicately silky." I believe this is 

 not quite correct. On a certain day in August last, I 

 captured a salicis, and late in August a salicis came 

 out of a pupa I had, both of which had the white of 

 the wings plentifully sprinkled all over with sort of 

 gold-dust scales, not in the form of spots, but as the 

 general hue of the wing. When the insect has been 

 "out" a few hours (or even a few minutes), the 

 yellow gets rubbed off and white only is seen. The 

 colouring of Liparis salicis is well figured in West- 

 wood's edition of " Index Entomologicus." I may note 

 here the great mortality of salicis in the larvce state. I 

 have at Deal in August examined a great many webs 

 that the larvae have spun before they turn into the 

 pupa state, and found fully three-fourths shrivelled 

 up, and also a great many eaten by earwigs. Not 

 very many comparatively are " ichneumon stung," 

 the ichneumon pupa being yellow, and only one in 



