398 PLINX'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book XXXVIL 



to which the Padus,''^ they say, carries down electrum. It is the 

 fact, however, that there never were any islands there so called, 

 nor, indeed, any islands so situate as to allow of the Padus 

 carrying down anything in its course to their shores. As to 

 ^ilschylus placing the Eridanus in Iberia, or, in other words, 

 in Spain, and giving it the name of Ehodanus ; and as to 

 Euripides and ApoUonius representing the Ehodanus and the 

 Padus as discharging themselves by one common mouth on 

 the shores of the Adriatic ; we can forgive them all the more 

 readily for knowing nothing about amber when they betray 

 such monstrous ignorance of geography. 



Other writers, again, who are more guarded in their assertions, 

 have told us, though with an equal degree of untruthfulness, 

 that, at the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf, upon certain inac- 

 cessible rocks there, there are certain trees'^ which shed their 

 gum at the rising of the Dog-Star. Theophrastus'^^ has stated 

 that amber is extracted from the earth in Liguria -^^ Chares, 

 that Phaethon died in the territoiy of Hammon, in Ethiopia, 

 where there is a temple of his and an oracle, and where amber 

 is produced ; Philemon, that it is a fossil substance, and that 

 it is found in two different localities in Scythia, in one of 

 which it is of a white and waxen colour, and is known as 

 '' electrum ;" while in the other it is red, and is called *' sua- 

 liternicum." Demostratus calls amber **lyncurion,"''* andhe 

 says that it originates in the urine of the wild beast known as 

 the *' lynx;" that voided by the male producing a red and fiery 

 substance, and that by the female an amber of a white and 

 less pronounced colour : he also informs us that by some per- 

 sons it is called '' langurium," and that in Italy, there are 

 certain wild beasts known as 'Manguri." Zenothemis, how- 



''o In reality, these "Amber Islands" were situate at the mouth of the 

 Vistula, into which the Eadanus discharged itself; a river whose name was 

 afterwards confounded with " Eridanus," the ancient name of the Padus, 

 or Po. See B. iv. cc. 27, 30, as to the produce of amber in the Baltic. 



'1 Another reference to its vegetable origin. ''2 De Lapid. n. 53. 



'3 In confirmation of this, Ajasson remarks that amber is found at 

 Saint Paulet in the Department Du Gard, and at Aix, in the Department 

 of Bouches-du-Eh6ne, regions not very distant from the territory of an- 

 cient Liguria. 



■'^ It has been supposed by some that this in reality was Tourmaline, 

 and "Woodward has identified it with Belemnites. See Beckmann, Hist. 

 Inv. Vol. I. p, 86. Bohn's Edition. See further as to "Lyncurium," 

 B. viii. c. 57, and Chapter 13 of this Book. 



