Dr. Thomas on the Amber Beds of East Prussia. 377 



profit of the miner exposes the amber- beds. The western extre- 

 mity of this formation behind Little Kuhren is covered by the 

 Wachbuden hills and the Brusterort Point, both probably dilu- 

 vial structures. It crops out again from this superincumbent 

 mass, so that the shore of Samland stretching from the north to 

 the south exhibits a no less interesting profile of this formation. 

 At Rosenorth the strata dip rapidly to the south, and are with- 

 drawn from further observation. But at the same time this iden- 

 tical formation rises abruptly from the bottom of the sea to the 

 south, so that the divided sections of the strata are covered 

 merely by a bed of diluvial loam about ten feet thick. This cir- 

 cumstance, taken in conjunction with the sudden dipping of the 

 first division, seems to make it inadmissible to consider the one 

 bed merely as a continuation of the other, while on the other 

 hand the perfect parallelism in the constituent parts of the new 

 bed forbids us to consider it as anything else than the hori- 

 zontally-deposited bed of the sea. A third, similarly constituted 

 and still more recent member of the amber-formation stretches 

 in the immediate neighbourhood almost horizontally in the coast- 

 hills near Dirschkeim, and raises its amber-beds, which are not 

 very productive, more than forty feet above the level of the sea. 

 The immense bed of sand which covers these is firm white sand, 

 in which the ochre is apparently not so frequent. A perfect exa- 

 mination of this more recent member of the amber-formation 

 has at present not been made, though enough has been done to 

 establish its existence beyond the basin of the East Sea ; for 

 it was known long since that beds of amber lie beneath its 

 waves, as indeed appears from the abundance thrown up on 

 the coast. With equal probability it is supposed that these ori- 

 ginal beds in consequence of a partial elevation of the soil, whose 

 central point is to be sought for near the north-western point of 

 Samland, were brought sufficiently near to the immediate action 

 of the present sea to make those districts the principal source 

 from which amber is derived. It is probable from the bountiful 

 produce of the coast that the richest beds of amber lie in the 

 deep strata of this formation. A storm of but moderate length 

 and strength on the first day of the present year threw up within 

 a very short space 800 pounds of amber. As little however can 

 be determined on this head as on the masses of this formation, 

 which may have been washed away by the diluvial waves to the 

 southern part of the plain at the foot of the Carpathian or Su- 

 detic mountains. The occurrence of amber in these parts can- 

 not be explained till more perfect geological investigations shall 

 have shown the impossibility of the existence there of primary 

 amber-beds. I have seen too little of Sicilian amber to decide 

 whether it is a distinct variety from that of East Prussia. The 



