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ant (formica rufa, linn.) These ants, he observes, form hills, which 
are sometimes six feet in diameter, and inhabit the old pine forests ; 
which forests, or at least the spots where they have been, are, he 
says, the places where the amber is chiefly found. His conjecture 
is founded on a substance having been found in the nests of these 
insects, of the consistence of honey, or of half melted wax ; having 
the yellow colour of common amber, yielding the same products by 
chemical analysis, and acquiring the same degree of hardness by 
remaining some time in a solution of common salt. It appears, from 
his observations, therefore, that we should consider amber as a 
vegetable oil, rendered concrete by the acid of the ants ; since wax, 
according to the experiments of La Metherie, is vegetable oil, har- 
dened by the acid of the bee. 
But the circumstance, perhaps, from which may be deduced the 
most powerful arguments against this substance being of animal 
origin, and also against its being entirely of a vegetable nature, is its 
being found in such large quantities at a considerable depth in the 
earth. From the account of Junker, which was afterwards copied 
by Neuman, and from that which is delivered by Hoffman, we learn 
that the king of Prussia gave orders that search should be made for 
the subterranean beds of this substance. Directed, most probably, 
by those marks which point out a spot particularly rich in bitumen, 
and which are very frequently observable in that part of the world, 
the required examination was commenced. After getting through 
the ordinary superficial stratum, they found a bed of sand, beneath 
which was a stratum of clay. On digging through this, a stratum 
appeared, which seemed to be formed of wood, very old and de- 
cayed, but which very readily took fire. This stratum of bitumi- 
nous wood they generally found immediately over a stratum of 
pyrites, which yielded sulphate of iron very copiously; immedi- 
ately below this was found a stratum of sand, the real matrix of 
the amber, in which this bitumen was most plentifully found scat- 
