46 Mac Culloch on Animals preserved in Amber. 



world. To clear the way to this investigation, by guarding against 

 error in the specimens, is a humble step indeed. Yet to have 

 called the attention of those who are versed in the minutiae of 

 entomology to such a subject, will not be deemed officious in him 

 who is unable to lend any further assistance towards that object. 

 A careful examination of specimens may, perhaps, ultimately prove 

 that more is really in our power than we now suspect; and it is 

 not quite unreasonable to hope that the entomological sagacity of a 

 Latreille may hereafter perform for fossil entomology that which a 

 few years ago would have appeared equally improbable in the 

 history of extinct quadrupeds. 



It is in the fresh-water formations chiefly that these researches 

 ou°-ht to be made. A considerable number of the coleoptera 

 inhabit the water or frequent it ; and the bodies and wing-case3 

 of these are of such durable materials, that we might expect to 

 find them preserved in those deposits of mud, or sand, or cal- 

 careous matter, which afterwards become the sand-stones, shales, 

 and limestones of these deposits. For analogous reasons, we might 

 expect to find insects among the coal strata, since these also are 

 of terrestrial or fresh-water origin ; as we might further expect to 

 discover them among the lignites. These are the produce of 

 ancient forests and peat-bogs; and there is no apparent reason 

 why some of the more durable insects might not, as well as the 

 tender shells, be found in such situations. But nothing will be 

 found unless it is sought for. 



I have taken it for granted, throughout this paper, that the vege- 

 table origin of amber is admitted ; improperly, perhaps, and, for 

 that reason, it will not be irrelevant to add a few words on the 

 nature of the evidence on which this opinion rests. 



The existence of such animal remains in any undisputed speci- 

 mens of amber, ought, in itself, to be a sufficient proof of this 

 origin for the whole. It is impossible to conceive that winged 

 insects could be entangled in any substance of this nature under 

 any other circumstances ; while their actual existence in resins 

 now exuding from living vegetables, serves to explain the mode in 

 which this otherwise inexplicable event must have occurred. 



