I04 NATURAL SCIENCE. August, 



bears on one side the fragments of the tubes of annelids, determined by 

 Dr. ColHn, of Berlin, as Poniatoceros triquetev (L.). However, there is a 

 similarly coloured second piece belonging to Mrs. A. Fox (plate i., fig. 2), 

 which shows more and better developed tubes. It weighs 65 grams, 

 and is covered with a group of well-preserved tubes and fragments of 

 Pomatoceros. According to the same zoologist this worm lives on the 

 coasts of Iceland and Scandinavia from Varanger Fjord to Oresund; 

 also in the German Ocean, on the coasts of N. France, England, 

 Scotland, and N. E. America. I remember a third specimen (plate ii.) 

 of 135 grams, which should be mentioned here. It has a fine yellow 

 cloudy colour, and is covered at one side with a group of about thirty 

 shells of Balanns povcatus, da Costa, of various size, which partly con- 

 tain the dead animals. This piece is in the possession of Messrs. 

 Stantien & Becker, at Konigsberg, who bought it from Mr. Perlbach 

 at Danzig, and this gentleman had obtained it from the east coast of 

 England. It should be noticed that both species, Balanns povcatus 

 and Pomatoceros triqueter, are not found in the Baltic proper. 



It is difficult to give an estimate of the quantity of amber found in 

 England, as the pieces are almost all of small size and usually are picked 

 up by visitors who take them away. According to the estimate of Mr. 

 Henry Miller, of Ipswich, only a few pounds annually are found in the 

 neighbourhood of Felixstowe, and Mr. Reid says that three or four 

 pounds are gathered near Cromer. Therefore about four or five kilo- 

 grams might be collected annually along this coast, but I am told 

 that in old times the yield was much greater. 



In spite of this small quantity of amber, quite a little home- 

 industry has originated in England, and I am in a position to 

 give some information on this point. In the first place, Mr. Henry 

 Miller told me of an old woman, Jane Larrett, at Trimley, near 

 Felixstowe, to whom the fishermen and their children used to bring all 

 the amber picked up on the beach. She cut it into ornaments with a 

 file, scraped it with the edge of a piece of broken glass to get rid of 

 the scratches, and polished with soft leather and powdered whitening 

 made from chalk. In such a manner she fashioned small articles 

 such as hearts, crosses, and beads, threaded them so as to be 

 worn as bracelets and necklets, and sold them to the visitors to 

 Felixstowe in the summer. Moreover, she was able to clarify the 

 cloudy pieces by boiling them in oil, just as is done even now in 

 Prussia. That woman taught Mr. Miller to cut and polish amber 

 when he was a boy, but she has been dead for many years, and there 

 is now no one who carries on the business in Trimley. However, in 

 other places there are some people who carry on a little home-industry; 

 for example, Mr. Croydon, at Felixstowe, makes brooches, pins and 

 other things, and Mr. Robert J. Candon, of Southwold, works amber 

 found on the shore there into various articles of jewellery. One would 

 expect the greatest industry of that kind to be at Cromer, where 

 numerous objects are made, namely, beads, necklaces, crosses, hearts, 



