Dr. Troost on Amber, ^c. 9 



IS rough and of a dirty grey colour, covered, here and there, 

 with pyrites. This surface is an opaque crust, which has 

 in some pieces the thickness of one-eighth of an inch. 

 Of whatever colour and lustre the amber may be, this crust is 

 always of a dirty grey, and dull. It is found in an alluvial 

 formation at Cape Sable, on the north side of Magothy 

 river, western shore, Maryland. 



The surface of Cape Sable and of its environs is consid- 

 erably undulated — some of the hills rising as much as from 

 80 to 85 feet above the surface of the Chesapeake bay. 



The uppermost stratum is sand, the lower part of v/hich 

 is so strongly agglutinated by iron oxide as to form a coarse 

 ferruginous sand stone, usually employed by the inhabi- 

 tants to wall up their cellars. This stone is sometimes so 

 rich in iron as to constitute the compact brown oxide of 

 iron (dichter braun eisenstein of Werner). This stratum 

 varies from 15 to 60 and 70 feet, below which lies a stra- 

 tum of lignite of three and an half to four feet in thickness. 

 This bed contains nearly all varieties of lignite, such as Jet, 

 brittle lignite, bituminous wood and brown lignite, penetra- 

 ted throughout by pyrites. The junction of this stratum 

 with the above is a mixture of lignite and sand, no separa- 

 tion being perceptible. It is in this stratum that the amber 

 is found intermixed with the wood ; and sometimes also on 

 the very top of this bed — in one instance, a piece was found 

 one foot and an half above the bed in the sand. This spe- 

 cimen possesses all the properties of the amber of the Bal- 

 tic, and is of a light yellow colour." These circumstances 

 would induce the belief, that the amber was formed before 

 it was deposited in the earth. Some of the v^ood contains 

 also small grains of amber. This lignite seems to be formed 

 of three varieties of wood, or rather the wood has under- 

 gone three different changes, some pieces of wliich are en- 

 tirely charred, often changed into bituminous vsood ; and 

 others again having undergone very little change from the 

 brown lignite. All these varieties, particislarly the brown 

 lignite and the charred wood, are penetrated by pyrites, and 

 are sometimes entirely changed into it. This stratum offers 

 nearly an horizontal surface, at least no dip more than 5'^ In 



■ Sea Noic fir^t. nf 1ii(- end of i!io Mcmtii'. 



Vol. ITT No. ], :1- 



