12 AMBER. 



Considerable quantities of Amber are cast 

 ashore during autumnal storms on the coasts 

 of Pomerania and Prussia Proper, and are 

 carefully collected. Amber is also found 

 along the whole line of the Baltic coast, but 

 the largest specimens are procured from the 

 Prussian shores, and the search for it is an 

 industry exercised from Dantzic to Memel. 

 This is distinguished as marine Amber. The 

 other description, called terrestial Amber, is 

 dug in mines and is generally found in allu- 

 vial deposits of sand and clay, associated 

 with fossil ATood, Iron Pyrites, and alum- 

 shale. It is also found on the Sicilian coast, 

 near Catania ; at Hasen Island in Greenland ; 

 in cla}" at Auteuil, near Paris ; but more plen- 

 tifully in certain lignite deposits of the 

 Aisne, and occasionally on the sea-coasts of 

 Norfolk, Essex, Sussex, and Kpnt. It oc- 

 curs in sand at Kensington, near London ; in 

 Ireland on the coast at Howth, near Dublin ; 

 at Craignashoke, in Ulster; and at Eathlin 



, Island, Antrim. Amber, to a considerable 

 amount, is also said to be taken to China 

 from a northerly part of Upper Burmah. 



The vegetable origin of Amber is noAV 

 fully ascertained, by the experiments of Sir 

 David Brewster on its optical properties, as 

 well as from its association with coal, and 

 lignite, and the occurrence in it of the re- 

 mains of insects and plants. According to 

 Goeppert, Amber is the mineralised resm of 

 extinct Conifers, one of which he has 

 named Pinites succinifer, or Amber-bearing 

 Pinetree. The insects inclosed in it, which 



. are mostly, if not all, of extinct species, ap- 

 pear to have been entangled in the then 

 viscous substance while alive, and, in many 

 cases, to have struggled hard to escape, as is 

 evident from the legs and Avings which are 

 frequentl}^ found separated from the bodies 

 to which they once belonged. 



Yellow amber, cut in facets, or simply in 

 beads for bracelets and necklaces, was long 

 in fashion, and is sometimes worn at the 

 present day. It is used in the East by 

 Turks, Egyptians, Arabs, Persians, and the 

 natives of India, to ornament their pipes, 

 arms, the saddles and bridles of their horses, 

 and even of their camels ; and in the West it 

 is made into beads, necklaces, brooches, 

 earrings, boxes, and small works of art, cane- 

 handles, mouth-pieces of pipes, and occa- 

 sionally into candlesticks, salvers, pipe- 

 tubes, and other larger articles. Four amber 

 mouth-pieces, set with brilliants, exhibited 

 in the Turkish Section of the Great Exhi- 

 bition of 1851 were valued together at 

 £1,000. The estimation in which Amber is 

 Iield ia Turkey for the mouth-pieces of 



AMBER. 



pipes, may be in some measure accounted 

 for by the current belief entertained in that 

 country, where it is a great mark of polite- 

 ness to offer the pipe to a stranger, that Am- 

 ber is incapable of transmitting infection. 

 The straw-yellow, slightly clouded, trans- 

 lucent variety is the rarest, and that pre- 

 ferred to all others by the Orientals, who 

 purchase it at extravagant prices. In other 

 countries the orange-yellow transparent 

 variety is decidedly preferred. 



",Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, 

 And the nice conduct of a clouded * cane :" 

 Pope, Rape of the Lock. 



In the Museum of Mineralogy in Paris 

 there is the handle of a cane made of Amber, 

 the colour of which is ef so pure a yellow, 

 and so limpid, that it might almost be mis- 

 taken for a Brazilian Topaz. 



The principal use of Amber in the Arts is 

 for obtaining, by distillation, succinic acid 

 and oil of amber, which it affords at a lew 

 temperature, leaving an extremely black, 

 shining residue, which is employed as the 

 basis of the finest black varnishes. 



Amber was known to the ancients, and 

 made by them into various ornamental arti- 

 cles. It was said by the common fable to 

 consist of the tears of those poplars into 

 which Phaeton's sisters were transformed. 

 Pliny says, because our ancestors believed 

 that it was the juice of a tree (succum) they 

 called it (in Latin) succinum. The Greeks 

 called it "HXixr^ov, (either from its resem- 

 blance in colour to the alloy of gold and 

 silver of that name, or from 'Hxixroj^, a name 

 of the sun), and whence, on account of its 

 electrical properties, the derivation of the 

 word electricity. By some of the ancients 

 Amber was called Lyncurion, and believed to 

 be produced from the urine of the lynx ; 

 from that of the males when of a deep and 

 fiery tint ; but when of a pale hue from that 



* These clouded canes were made of fine 

 marbles, richly mounted with gold, silver, amber, 

 &c. In the early part of the eighteenth century 

 the most fashionable sorts of walking-sticks were 

 made of certain fine marbles and agates, exhibit- 

 ing either a splendid variety of colour, or a rich 

 semi-opaque plain tint, which was most expres- 

 sively described by the English term '■'clouded.''' 

 These wands were made of the most slender pro- 

 portions, both on account of their specific gravity, 

 and the quality of the persons by whom they 

 were to be carried; and they were often richly 

 mounted with silver, gold, amber, or precious 

 stones. Such were the "clouded canes" of the 

 age of Pope and Gay, which were frequently so 

 greatly valued, as to be preserved in cases of 

 shagreen or sheaths of leather. — (See the Tatler 

 No. 103, 6th December, 1709.) 



