ANCESTRAL SPIDERS AND THEIR HABITS. 465 



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

 sea becomes calm it carries the amber, together with pieces of older Brown- 

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

 Collect- h an d s are waiting to intercept it with nets. That is the " amber 

 A , drawing," a trying occupation, which demands a strong and 



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

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

 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" (Bern- 

 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 Bal- 

 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 Blattidse and some of the Hymen- 

 Climate O ptera resemble closely oriental species. The presence of many 

 ., , ' 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 which 



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

 Insect 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 on Succinic 

 Insects." Transactions Entomological Society of London, Vol. I., 1836, page 133, sq. 



2 Ibid., pages 139, 147. 



