Dr. Thomas on the Amber Beds of East Prussia. 379 



flora, but that they were that portion of it which actually 

 yielded it. The great variety in amber makes it not impro- 

 bable that many amber-bearing conifers existed in the flora, and 

 it is very conceivable that others coexisted which yielded no 

 amber. Since the fragments submitted to examination were by 

 no means especially chosen for this purpose, but were merely as 

 perfect an assortment as circumstances allowed of the species of 

 wood which occurred in the locality, it seems to follow, that the 

 principal mass of the trees, to which the lignite owes its origin, 

 is to be considered as belonging to the class of amber-yielding 

 trees. 



This result is certainly not without practical importance. For 

 though the in general insignificant nests of lignite which are 

 found in the beds of clay on the coast of Samland encourage no 

 great hope of a remunerative harvest, yet its connection with 

 such large quantities of amber makes it not improbable that 

 still larger masses of this useful fossil will be found in other 

 places of the South Baltic continent. It is not probable that 

 the wreck of the amber-forest, as far as regards its timber, 

 should have been reduced to these few remains ; it is possible that 

 the more important beds of lignite which must have originated 

 from them may have been floated away by the diluvial waves on 

 the destruction of the land, but even in this case strata of coal 

 may still be found. In this respect every fact is important which 

 gives a solution of the presence of lignite in these parts, should 

 it but tend to direct greater attention to the subject. At pre- 

 sent the number of these facts is very small. On occasion of 

 boring for water near Balga, a bed of lignite was pierced at a 

 depth of sixty feet beneath white sand, which by the structure 

 of its coal and the fir-cones which came to view appeared to be 

 perfectly identical with the coal-beds near llauschen. Herr 

 llupson, who conducted the work and is to continue it, will cer- 

 tainly not omit to pay particular attention to this circumstance 

 and to communicate the results of his labour. I believe a second 

 trace of lignite has been found at Sarkau, on the sea side of the 

 low ground, where a black bank of mould, which I took for lignite, 

 and which seems mixed with very isolated coarse grains of sand, 

 rises to the height of the sea-level. A third problematic trace of 

 lignite as I believe is found in a bed of peat to the south of 

 lleiligenbeil ; about four feet deep a mass of lignite is deposited 

 in undulated heaps. Did not an immense bed of undecomposed 

 peat exist beneath it, it might be considered as the usual produce 

 of turf- formation ; but it appears to me probable, that the remains 

 of a bed of lignite torn to pieces by waters are there deposited. 

 Many beds of turf indeed, which like that at Balga and near 

 Koppershagcn present immediately on the surface a very com- 



