CHAPTER VI. 



AMBER AND THE AMBER FISHERIES. 



Source of amber — Chemical composition of the resin — Uses and application — 

 Statistics of imports — Diving and fishing for amber — Prussian coasts of 

 the Baltic the chief source of supply— Statistics of the trade — Large speci- 

 mens found — Roumanian amber. 



Having dealt with tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, pearls, 

 and coral, we come now to consider a product of a some- 

 what amphibious character, and which, unlike those already 

 treated of, is vegetable in its origin. Still it is largely 

 dredged and fished for on the seashores, and as the 

 greater part is obtained from the sea, it properly comes 

 under the section of " Marine Contributions to Art." 



Amber is a resinous exudation from an extinct species 

 of conifer, called by Goppert Pinites succinifer. The source 

 of amber was long uncertain ; by some it was considered a 

 carbonaceous mineral. 



Professor Zaddach shows that the trees which yielded 

 the amber must have grown upon the greensand beds of 

 the cretaceous period, flourishing luxuriantly on the marshy 

 coast which then surrounded the great continent of 

 Northern Europe. Probably the temperature was miich 

 higher than it is now; and this even at that epoch ex- 

 tended to the now frost-bound Arctic regions, a fact 



