LIFE 



577 



and ovrr the surface of the lava. The substance of this vegetation 

 i> Ineally (Faroe Islands and Iceland) preserved in the form of coal 

 between the lava beds. 



Amber. One of the peculiar accessories in the Lower Oligocene 

 is the amber of northern Ger- 

 many, principally in the vicinity 

 of Ki'migsberg. While amber in 

 small quantities is found in Sicily 

 and a few other places, that of 

 (In- Baltic region is more abund- 

 ant than that of any other part 

 of the earth, so far as now known. 

 Amber is fossilized resin, ap- 

 parently from certain varieties of 

 coniferous trees. Its original 

 position in the Baltic region ap- 

 pears to be in certain beds of a 

 clayey nature, but parts of this 

 formation have been worn by the 

 waves, and the amber distributed. 

 Some of that which finds its way 

 into commerce is picked up on the 

 Baltic shore, while some is taken 

 from the beds in which it was 

 originally entombed. One of the 

 interesting features of the amber 

 is the fact that it contains numer- 

 ous insects. They seem to have 

 alighted upon the resin while it 

 was soft, and to have become 

 completely immersed in it, and 

 perfectly preserved. About 2,000 

 species have been found thus 

 embedded. 



Considerable deformative 

 movements made themselves felt 



Fig. 485. Map showing supposed 

 distribution of land and water on 

 the Paritir roast of tin I'niti-d States 

 during tin- Oligocene epoch. (Ralph 

 Arnold.) 



in southern Europe at or about the close of the Oligocene, as in the 

 Balkan and Carpathian Mountains. 1 



Other continents. In other continents, the Oligocene has not 



1 Willis. Carnegie Institution Year Book 4, 1905. 



