464 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



soil of the forests, seems to be full of it. Although storms and floods 

 during thousands and thousands of years have been tearing up and wash- 

 ing away these stores, the quantity seems to have been lessened 



. , to only a trifling degree. All the Baltic shores which lie clos- 



Amber •' ^ ■, 



Stores ^^^ ^^ ^"'^ supposed sunken continent, also the west shore of 



Samland and the north shore of the Frische Nehrung, have 



alwaj^s received and still receive a large quantity of amber. However, 



the storms from the west and west northwest bring up the amber most 



abundantly. 



The temperature was then much higher than now, and the flora of 

 the amber continent contained certain northern forms associated with 

 plants in temperate climate, and others whose nearest allies now live in 

 much more southern regions. Thus camphor trees (Cinnamomum poly- 

 morjihum Heer) occur with willows, beeches, and numerous oaks. Among 

 the conifers, the most abundant tree was a Thuja, very similar to the Thuja 

 occidentalis now living in America, next to which abounded Widdringtonia, 

 pines and flrs in great variety, and among them the amlier pine. Many of 

 the last already had perished, and, while the wood decayed, the resin with 

 which the stem and branches were stored might have accumulated in 

 large quantities in bogs and lakes in the soil of the forest. 



In order to explain, however, that this accumulation of amber could 

 be suddenly broken up, floated away, and scattered, Zaddach assumes that 

 the coast of the district was on the point of sinking. Alternate 

 Breakmg ui:>heavals and dei^ressions of the country may be positively 

 gl* , proved to have occurred in the immediately succeeding period, 



house. I^ ^^ that time the coast sank but slowly, in the lapse of a few 

 centuries, or even a shorter time, a great portion of the flat 

 coast terraces might have been covered by the sea. The forest earth was 

 washed up by the waves, and the amber carried into the sea. The greater 

 portion being probably still attached to the wood, with all its animal en- 

 closures, it could float about in the water for some time before sinking. 

 The forest of the inundated coast was also destroyed, but the stems of 

 the trees which floated out into the open sea were scattered about, only 

 those pieces of wood imbedded in tlie amber charged earth sinking with 

 it to the bottom. Thus perished tlie amber forests; in great part, at least, 

 for one need not assume that they were then all destroyed, as it is prob- 

 able that in the higher districts of the country there still remained many 

 forests which also were rich in amber trees. ^ 



At last, after alternate upheavals and depressions, the land gradually 

 rose to its present height. And now, when lashed by storms, the sea tears 

 up the amber out of the deep lying beds of amber earth. By the help 

 of sea weeds turned up at the same time, the resin is heaved upwards and 



' Zaddach, op. cit. 



