ANCESTRAL SIMDKItS AM) TIIIOII! IIAP.ITS. Hi.". 



% - - ------ _ ___ r - - ___ , _______ 



carried on the surface of the water; and when the storms abate and tin- 



sea becomes calm it carries the amber, together with pieoM of older Hrown- 



coal and fresh marine plants, on to the beach, where a hundred 



>iiect- hands are waiting to intercept it with nets. That is th.- 



Amber. drawm g," a trying occupation, which demands a strong and 

 hearty frame, for the cold winter storms yield the riehest booty. 

 But many pieces of amber, nevertheless, do not reach the shore, for tin- 

 largest and heaviest pieces have already sunk to the bottom, and lie be- 

 tween the large boulders which cover the sea bed. Therefore, in calm 

 weather, the inhabitants of the coast take boats and turn the stones with 

 hooks fastened to long poles, dislodge the amber in the interspaces, and 

 draw it up with small nets. This is called "striking for amber" (Hern- 

 stein strechen). 



Amber is occasionally met with in the gravel beds near London. At 

 Alborough, on the coast of Suffolk, after a wrecking tide, it is thrown 

 on the beach in considerable quantities along with masses of jet, and if 

 not torn from the bed of the sea may have been washed from the Hal- 

 tic. There are regular mines of amber in Spain, and it is also abundant 

 on the shores of Sicily and the Adriatic Sea. 



According to Mr. Hope, who speaks as an entomologist, many of the 



insects recognized in amber indicate a tropical climate, and evince a South 



American relationship; yet the Blattida) and some of the Hymen- 



Climate optera resemble closely oriental species. The presence of many 



Land other genera indicates a northern climate. From the above dis- 



crepancies, it may be adduced that the climate and temperature 



of Europe have undergone considerable change. The examples of tropical 



insects sufficiently testify that the amber tree did not nourish in a climate 



such as Prussia now enjoys, but in a warmer region. 1 



VIII. 



One who reads a list of Succinic Insects, as, for example, that pub- 



lished by Mr. Hope, 2 will find represented the orders of insects with wliieh 



we are now familiar. These must have formed the food sup- 



plies of the amber spiders. A large proportion of our com- 



A , ' mon families are therein represented, and underneath these fam- 



Spiders ^ es numerous genera of prevalent insects appear. It would thus 



seem that the generic aspects of the insect fauna of the amber 



period resembled that of the present time; indeed, Mr. Hope has said, per- 



haps somewhat too strongly, "the major part exhibit a close resemblance 



1 Rev. F. W. Hope, F. R. S., President Entomological Society. "Observations mi Succinic 

 Insects." Transactions Entomological Society of London, Vol. I., is:;<i, paire I :!.".. s.|. 

 - Ibid., pages 139, 147. 



