growing in tropical America. Insects are frequently found enclosed 

 in it. 



Gum copal is another which is often passed off as genuine amber, 

 and fraudulent individuals have enclosed insects in it to increase the 

 deception, but of course the entomologist can soon see that they are 

 modern types. 



The way to detect genuine amber from spurious is by friction ; 

 when the real article is rubbed vigorously the scent of the pine is 

 distinctly noticeable. Another means is by heating. Copal catches 

 fire and runs into drops which flatten by falling. Amber burns with 

 spitting and frothing, and the liquid drops rebound from the surface 

 on which they fall. Still another means of testing is by distillation. 

 Amber yields a volatile oil and an acid called succinic acid. The 

 other forms do not yield succinic acid. 



Flies in amber have always provoked a certain amount of surprise 

 and curiosity, and one of the poets has given expression to his sur- 

 prise, and remarks them being — " Neither rich nor rare, The wonder's 

 how the devil ihey got there." 



There are no less than thirty-one species of spider found in the 

 Primary formation, and 285 in the Tertiary. 



I will now ask Mr. Clark, who has kindly taken charge of the 

 lantern, to show us some of these insects that must have lived ages 

 before man inhabited this globe ; in the epochs when the land was' 

 covered with profuse vegetation, which vegetation first became peat, 

 then lignite, and finally coal. It is from the lignite, coal beds in 

 process of formation, that amber comes. 



