13 
the clays of the Wealden in the Isle of Wight, and some have 
been met with in the London clay at Highgate. Perbaps 
one of the richest deposits of Amber, and for which it has 
been long celebrated, is a province of Prussia called Samland, 
bounded on the west and north by the Baltic.. In a portion 
of this district fine sections are exposed of the Tertiary for- 
mation varying from 80 to 125 feet in thickness. It consists 
of two different deposits, the lowest being composed of thick 
beds of Glauconitic § sand 65 feet thick, overlaid by the brown 
coal formation from 60 to 100 feet thick. This Glauconitic 
sand in the north and west coast, differs from that on the south, 
In the former, the upper part about 60 feet consists of 
light green sand made up of large quartz grains, and bright 
green granules of Glauconite, elsewhere the lower portion of 
this green sand is cemented by hydrated oxide of iron into 
a coarse sandstone, which contains numerous fossils. Below 
this is a deposit of finer quartz grains, and more Glauconite 
and much clay and mica; associated with the above, in des- 
cending order is a wet sandy stratum called quicksand, 
(because it contains a large quantity of water), 8 feet thick, 
succeeded by a blue earth, or Amber-earth, 3 to 4 feet thick, 
fine grained and argillaceous. In this the Amber is found 
abundantly, but irregularly distributed, occupying a narrow 
zone, the pieces are of various sizes, usually small ; those 
weighing half a pound being seldom found, and more rarely 
larger ones of greater weight. The surfaces are worn and 
rounded and bear little resemblance to their original form as 
the liquid resin of a tree, formed between the bark and the 
wood, or between the yearly rings of growth of the stem. 
Fine impressions of the parts of the plants which produced 
these Amber nodules can be distinguished on their surface. 
Evidently then they were for a time subject to the action of 
§ When Mar! contains a large admixture of green-sand, it forms what is called 
firestone or Glauconite, 
