12 Dr. Troost on timber, &/X. 



This is followed by a stratum of whitish grey clay, four 

 leet in thickness, exempt from pyrites. This clay rests on 

 a bed of white sand, in which the water is so abundant as 

 to render it difFjcult to penetrate lower. 



Note First, p. 9. — The difitrence existhig between this amber 

 and that of the Bciltic, is, perhaps, ascribahle more to the local 

 circumstances tliaii to the difference in the trees whicii produced it. 

 The amber found, one and an half foot above the stratum of lig- 

 nite is, in every respect, equal to the Prussian an)ber, is exempt 

 from pyrites, had no crust except some ferruginous sand cemented 

 around it: in other lumps which are found in the bed of Hgnite, in 

 contact with and sometimes wholly penetrated by pyrites, tlie amber 

 has usually a thick ppaque crust; and the more it is in contact with 

 this mineral, the more the colour deviates from that of the Baltic. 

 According to Hotsman, who has examined these mines, the amber 

 seems not to be in contact with the pyrites, but the mines are work- 

 ed in a bed of coarse sand below. As for the rest, the geognostic 

 situation of Cape Sable seems to have much resemblance with the 

 Baltic mines. It would be very interesting to determine what sort 

 of trees produce tliis amber — at least there seems to be no doubt 

 that amber owes its origin to the vegetable kingdom : this has been 

 the opinion of the oldest nations, whose histories have been trans- 

 mitted to us by the fables of the ancients, as we learn from the 

 beautiful fiction of the hazardous enterprize of Phaeton^ where his 

 sisters, bewailing the loss of their brother find their feet fastened to 

 the shore, their arms stretching out in flexible twigs, upon which 

 Zepliyr moves the silvery leaves of the poplar, and their falling 

 tears becoming yellow pearls, give birth to the precious amber, 

 which is gathered by the Graces for the toilet of Venus. 



Judging from the position in wiiich we find the amber here, we 

 have to conclude that it was already formed before it was deposited 

 in the earth, and only by some, at present, unknown agent, has ac- 

 quired the nature of amber. It must have been a vegetable resin, 

 perhaps of the nature of copal, before it was buried with its parent 

 trees; it cannot be, as professor Stermstadt supposes, a mineral ore, 

 thickened by the absorption of oxigen; nor, as is the opinion of 

 Mr. Parkinson, an inspissated mineral oil ; nor again, as Patrin 

 maintains, honey modified by time and mineral acids, which has 

 converted it into bitumen : in all these cases, it would have been in 

 a liquid state in the earth ; it would have been produced by the ve- 

 getable substances after they were buried : and we should find it in 

 the form of stalactites, below t!ie substances from which it was 

 generated — this is not the case at Cape Sable ; we find it in the 

 stratum of ligtfite on its top, and one foot and a half above it. — And 



