102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DeC. 17, 



see grounds for any other determination of those chalk fossils. If, 

 as seems most prot3able, the Ornithichnites of the New Red Sand- 

 stones of Connecticut are the foot-prints of birds, species of the 

 feathered class may well have been associated with Pterodactyles in 

 the more recent secondary strata. 



We have no satisfactory evidence, however, of the existence of 

 birds in the Wealden. 



2. On Amber and on the Organic Remains found in it. By Pro- 

 fessor GoppERT of Breslau. 



[Communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, G.C.S.] 



Amber appears to be a product formed during the period of the 

 Molasse. The forests in which the trees grew whence this substance 

 was derived, were situated in the south-eastern part of what is now 

 the bed of the Baltic, in about 55° north latitude, and 37°-38° east 

 longitude. With the commencement of the diluvial period this 

 forest was gradually (probably at long intervals) destroyed, being 

 swept away by diluvial torrents, and possibly also by storms coming 

 from the north and north-east, and the amber was thus drifted to 

 the south and south-west, on the coasts and in the countries where 

 we now find it. Amber was a resinous exudation from an extinct 

 pine, Pinites succinifer, most nearly allied to Pinus abies and 

 P. Picea, but differing from these in several respects. The resin 

 exuded chiefly from the root stock, but also from the bark and the 

 wood, as is still the case with the resin called Copal, and others. 

 The different colours of amber are derived from local circumstances 

 of chemical admixture. 



Among the fragments of vegetable matter contained in this sub- 

 stance those of dicotyledonous trees are chiefly abundant, and the 

 tribe of Coniferce. no doubt occupied a great part of the amber 

 forest. Of Pine there are at least four species, and with these we 

 find Cypress, Taxodium, Thuia (five species), and also Juniper and 

 Ephedra. Of leaf-bearing trees we find Quercus, Fagus, Carpinus, 

 Betula and Populus; and of \x\\i\QX\\' ooA, Ericacece with coriaceous 

 leaves, &c., forming in the whole a flora comprising forty-eight 

 species, which has considerable resemblance to that of North 

 America. There was also a cryptogamous flora, including a beau- 

 tiful fern, Pecopteris Humholdtiana, several mosses, and some small 

 fungi, Confervce and liverworts which are yet undetermined. 



The fauna of this period was extremely numerous, upwards of 

 800 species of insects having been discovered, besides the remains 

 of Crustacea, Myriapoda, Arachnidea, &c. The insects include 

 Aptera, Diptera, Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Lihellulce, &c., but water 

 insects are rare. Only a few hairs and feathers of Mammalia and 

 Birds have as yet been obtained, and the fragments of Amphibia 

 and Fishes that have been described are artificial productions. 



All the remains, both of vegetables and animals, contained in the 



