THE natural science JOURNAL. 
41 
tapelle, respectively. The principal 
points of trade and export are Kdnigs- 
berg, Memel and Dantzig. The amber 
production amounted in 1893 to 405,000 
pounds, valued at $500,000. There are 
some indications of a failure in the yield 
of amber from this region, if not imme¬ 
diate, at least prospective. Her von 
Muder, the Prussian amber expert, is 
reported as saying that the supply is 
nearly exhausted. Much of the material 
now obtained is of inferior quality. In 
1894 only one seventh of the amber 
brought to that part was fine enough for 
working into ornaments; the rest had to 
be melted up for varnish and was worth 
only 3d. a pound for that purpose. On 
the other hand, it is stated that the re¬ 
serve supply of amber is so great that if 
at any time new mines were to enter as 
competitors the market could be kept de¬ 
pressed for years to prevent the new 
fields from entering into competition. 
Messrs. Stantin and Becker of Konigs- 
berg, Prussia, annually handle 132,000 
pounds of amber, employing 1,500 peo¬ 
ple—1,350 men, at 2 marks a day, and 
150 girls at 1 mark a day. This firm 
has for many years employed Professor 
Klebs to gather interesting amber speci¬ 
mens. As a result, they have a remark¬ 
able museum entirely of amber and amber 
articles, which is of special ethnological 
interest, since they furnish amber to 
India, Persia, Egypt, Tripoli, Senegam- 
bia, Korea and South America. They 
also exhibit some Chinese amulets and a 
tower-ring-shaped piece of amber drilled 
at one end, a finger piece intended for 
the Soudan, and many quaint ethnologi¬ 
cal forms. This, with the remarkable 
geological collection, showing almost 
every known occurrence and geological 
condition of amber, in the Provincial 
Museum at Dantzig, arranged by Dr. 
Conwentz, and the private collection of 
Dr. O. Helm, of the same city, affords 
the student of this interesting fossil gum 
facilities of study that have never existed 
before. 
In case of a failure of the Baltic am¬ 
ber supply, the question of its occurrence 
elsewhere assumes increased interest. 
Similar material is known to occur at 
various places and in various geological 
formations, from the Cretaceous to the 
Quaternary. Amber is found on the 
east coast of England, in Sicily, and on 
the shores of the Adriatic, but nowhere 
in any large amount. In this country 
some has been obtained both in the Cre¬ 
taceous and Tertiary deposits, but thus 
far only occasionally. It occurs on the 
Magothy River, in Maryland. 
Many fossil and semifossil resinous 
bodies exist which resemble true amber, 
but are not equal to it in hardness or in 
brilliancy. Some of these are important 
articles of commerce in connection with 
the manufacture of varnish. Of these, 
the principal ones are the copal of Africa 
and the Farther Indies, and the “kauri 
gum ” of New Zealand, both of which 
are of late geological age, apparently 
Quartern ary, passing into the Recent 
period, as they are semifossilized resins 
of trees still living, though frequently 
not now in the same immediate region. 
The kauri gum is the product of a 
large coniferous tree, Daramara sau- 
t7xdis, of Farther India, and New Zea¬ 
land, well known as a most valuable 
timber tree, under the name of kauri 
pine. Thirty years ago the Maori were 
the only people employed in procuring 
this gum, which was found on or near 
