Chap. 43.] Jfmtergris. 279 



always of a yellow colour; it is fometimes brown, 

 fometimes quite opake, and fometimes black. Some 

 have fuppofed that it is entirely of mineral origin, but 

 this is difproved by ics diilillation, and by the foreign 

 bodies which are frequently contained in it, and which 

 feem to demonftrate that it was once in a fluid ftate. 



Hoffman and Newman fay, that it is fometimes found 

 upon the fea-fhore, or upon the furface of waters, parti- 

 cularly after great ftorms, when it is collected by means 

 of nets ; but that the greater part of it is dug out of 

 pits. The firft ftratum is fand, then clay, then a layer 

 of branches and trunks of trees, then a confiderable 

 quancity of pyrites, whence vitriol is prepared, and 

 laftly, a bed of fand, through which the amber is dif- 

 perfed in fmall pieces, or collected together in heaps. 

 This account greatly favours the idea of the vegetable 

 origin of amber j but Wallerius afierts, that the black 

 and dark coloured amber is often found in the bowels 

 of cetaceous fifties. M. Girtanner has a peculiar 

 opinion on this fubjecl:; he thinks that amber is a ve- 

 getable oil rendered concrete by the acid of ants ; it 

 is that kind of ants called formica rufa by Linnseus, 

 which prepares it, according to this author. Thefe 

 infects dwell in old forefts of fir trees, where the foffil 

 amber is found, which, when firft dug, is ductile like 

 wax, and becomes hard on expofure to air. No infect 

 is fo commonly found in amber as the ant. 



AMBERGRIS is of much the fame nature as amber, 

 but differs from it by its particular confiftence, which 

 nearly approaches to that of bees wax. Its ftructure 

 is fometimes like bees wax, but fometimes it is granu- 

 lated, and appears opake, or of a dark grey. Expe- 

 riments prove that it refembles amber in its nature. 

 When analyzed it is found to confift of phlegm, a 

 volatile acid partly fluid, oil, and a little coaly mat- 

 T 4 ter. 



