2/4 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Memel merchants, Messrs. Stantien & Becker. 

 Hence the figures of amber statistics soon went up 

 amazingly. Whereas, in former times, the result of 

 gathering was about six or seven tons a year, it 

 rose to twenty times as much. The expenses being 

 formerly very heavy, the actual gain did not amount 

 to more than ,£1,500, while with improved working 

 more than .£35,000 flowed into the treasury of the 

 State. To bring this about Stantien and Becker did 

 not stop at mining alone. They took over the leases 

 of part of the coast in order to scour it thoroughly. 

 The result at the time was evidently of great benefit 

 to themselves and also to the many workmen they 

 employed. 



On ttie north-western promontory of what is called 

 the amber coast, there stands a lighthouse, named 

 Briisterort. Some twenty-five years ago, its neigh- 

 bourhood was the scene of great stir and movement. 

 The amber merchants had a school for divers esta- 

 blished there. The beach, as well as the shallow 

 bed of this tideless sea, is strewn in many places with 

 large or small stones, and amber was found in great 

 quantities between them. A settlement grew up 

 within a short time. Workshops for making and 

 mending the divers' suits, dwellings for workmen or 

 officials, warehouses, stables and carthouses were 

 erected, while tradespeople of all kinds settled there. 

 Early in the morning the divers came marching up 

 in rank and file, their foremen at the head of each 

 battalion. The boats were manned, launched, and 

 having reached their destinations, the anchors were 

 cast. The divers then put on their unwieldy uni- 

 forms, the metal helmets with their round glass 

 windows being screwed over their heads. With pick- 

 axes in their hands to move the stones, and with 

 bags at their belts to hold the amber, they were 

 lowered into the sea, a few white bubbles marking 

 the spot where they had disappeared. On fine days, 

 for stormy weather meant a holiday with half-pay for 

 the divers, one could have seen them through the 

 transparent waters, kneeling, standing, or lying down 

 in their search. If they wanted to rise, they pulled 

 a line attached to their belts, the other end of which 

 was in the hands of one of the boatmen, who, 

 besides working the air-pumps to supply the divers 

 with the necessary atmosphere for breathing, had to 

 mind the boat and watch the changes in the weather. 

 It took several years to exhaust this field of action. 

 Then the settlement was abandoned and the divers 

 were established at Palmnicken. 



At the same time that this was going on, another 

 colony sprang up a little farther towards the north. Year 

 by year, in order to keep an open channel for naviga- 

 tion in the Kurische Haff for boats going and coming 

 to and from the towns of Memel or Kbnigsberg and 

 the river Niemen, the authorities had to dredge the 

 Haff. The mud produced, it was noticed, contained 

 a great amount of amber, whence it was concluded 

 that a considerable quantity of the precious substance 

 must lie on the bottom of the Haff. The amber 

 merchants then offered to pay for a lease for searching 



for the amber and to do the cleansing work into the 

 bargain, if they were allowed to dredge the Haff. 

 This offer was accepted. 



On the narrow strip of sandy hills which separates 

 the fresh waters of the Haff from the salt waters of 

 the sea, a colony sprang up near Schwarzort, with 

 wooden houses, dwellings for the labourers and 

 officials, warehouses, workshops, just as at Briisterort. 

 To these a wharf for shipbuilding and a harbour were 

 soon added. The dredging machines, at first pro- 

 pelled by oars, were soon replaced by steam launches, 

 their number rising to that of a small fleet. Here, 

 too, military discipline was kept among the workmen, 

 who, as the work went on by day and night, were 

 thrice relieved, thus realising a socialistic dream of 

 eight hours' labour. 



At the last station but one before we reached 

 Palmnicken and its amber mines, we were reminded 

 of the old lords of the soil, the Teutonic Knights, by 

 a church with high walls and roof ; the tower stand- 

 ing at a corner instead of at the entrance to the nave. 

 Once the building was a castle of the Order, and not 

 till later turned to religious purposes ; hence the 

 tower of the old castle now serves as the steeple of 

 the church. Not far from the village, there rose two 

 hills above the undulating plain. Their rounded tops 

 would not only afford a fine bird's-eye view over land 

 and sea, but their memories will surely be duly 

 impressed on the little school-children in this flat 

 country. Shortly before reaching Palmnicken, we 

 got a peep of the dark blue, choppy sea, with white 

 foamy crests on its short waves. 



The beach here, too, is scattered over with rocks 

 and stones — some red, some blue, some speckled. 

 They are boulders of granite, porphyry, sienite, 

 gneiss, in structure and colouring showing a close 

 relationship to the rocks of the Norwegian mountains. 

 Like Holland, east and west Prussia rose from the 

 sea by the action of its great rivers, the Vistula and 

 Niemen. As the current became slower, the gravel 

 and earth which they carried were deposited on their 

 beds near their entrance to the sea, and so formed 

 the shore-line. Having no mountainous backbone 

 of its own, this alluvial soil depends for its stones 

 and rocks upon wanderers from other parts of the 

 world. They are supposed to have been carried 

 thither by the glaciers which once covered this part of 

 Europe as they now cover Greenland. This moving 

 mass of ice, when coming to a standstill — that is, 

 when melting — left on its borders the fragments of 

 rock it had razed off and carried in its progress. 

 Hence there are districts in Prussia where, for miles 

 upon miles, not a stone is to be found on the fields, 

 the farmers being put to great inconvenience by 

 having to get them for building purposes from long 

 distances. In other parts the fields are literally 

 choked with stones, they not only being used there 

 instead of bricks for barns, stables, and houses, but 

 also for stone fences round the fields. 



( To he concluded. ) 



