82 



Siberia, and Greenland, in Sweden, Italy and other parts of Europe. 

 Amber occurs in varying quantities in nodules or nuggets of 

 different sizes, sometimes as fine as grains of coarse sand, at others 

 of much larger dimensions. One of the largest pieces on record is 

 deposited in the museum of minerals at Berlin. This great mass, 

 which measures upwards of thirteen inches in length, eight inches 

 broad, and four to six inches thick, with a weight of over thirteen 

 pounds, was found near Gumbinnen in Eastern Prussia in the year 

 1803. The fortunate possessor received one thousand thalers (or 

 one hundred and fifty pounds) for his prize. Its real value, however, 

 far exceeds that sum. There is no doubt of the vegetable origin of 

 amber ; it is in fact a resinous exudation from an old-world pine-tree 

 named by Goppert, Pinites succmifer, which w^as nearly allied to 

 our modern spruce. Consequently amber is in its nature exactly 

 analogous to the lumps of resin Avhich occur in eyerj forest of firs in 

 the present day. Indeed if anything were wanting to prove its 

 originally fluid condition, it would be the fact, that jDarticles of 

 leaves and wood, fragments of mosses, and, above all, insects, are 

 constantly found embedded in it. Of the latter no less than eight 

 hundred species have been detected."^ 



It is evident that the little creatures settled upon the treacherous 

 resin, when it was in a semi-fluid state, and were of course retained 

 there by the viscid nature of the substance. The gummy matter, 

 as it flowed from the tree, gradually surrounded its victims, and 

 at last entirely enclosed them in their premature and transparent 

 tomb ; so that the question of the poet Pope can be answered with 

 more certainty now, than in his day — 



" Pretty, in amber to observe the forms 



Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grub, or worms. 



The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare ; 



But all the wonder is — how got they there !" 

 The insects themselves are in difierent degrees of preservation. 

 Some, which were evidently engulphed in the sticky matter, im- 

 mediately that they got entangled in its folds, are as perfect as on 

 the day that they were suffocated. Others have been consigned to 

 a more lingering death ; the resin has exuded very slowly, and the 

 victims have not only died before they were surrounded by it, but, 

 having been trapped in bright dry weather, their bodies have be- 

 come dessicated and withered ; nay, in some instances a white mould 

 has begun to form round them, plainly discernible in the pellucid 

 amber. At least two minute fungi have been detected ; Penicillium 

 curtipes, and Brachydadium thomasinum ; traces of other genera also 

 occur. t As a rule the enclosed insects are not widely different 

 from — indeed many species are actually identical with — those now 

 in existence. 



At least one half of the insect orders have had their representa- 

 tives embalmed in the golden fluid ; most of them, as may be easily 

 imagined, being such as frequent woods and forests. Among Beetles 

 are numerous Bostrychids and weevils : the Orthopterous Order 

 supplies locusts and grasshoppers ; the Dictyopters a smaU cockroach. 

 In the Hymenopterous Order we have ants, ichneumon flies, and a 

 bee allied to the South American Trigona ; among Lepidopters, 



* Hartwig. The Subterranean World. 

 t Berkely (Cryptogamic Botany). 



