a M e 
pear, an almond, a pea, See. Trt amber there have been 
fa id to be letters found very weii formed; and even He¬ 
brew and Arabic characters. Within home pieces, leaves, 
infects, See. have likewife been found included ; which 
feems to indicate, either that the amber was originally in 
a fluid (fate, or that, having been expofed to the fun, it 
was once foftened, and rendered fufceptible of the leaves, 
infects, See. which came in its way. The latter of thefe 
fuppolitions feems the more agreeable to the phenomenon; 
becaufe thofe infefts, &c. are never found in tire centre 
of the pieces of amber, but always near the furface. It 
is obferved by the inhabitants of thofe places where amber 
is produced, that all animals, whether terreftrial, aerial, or 
aquatic, are extremely fond of it, and that pieces of it 
are frequently found in their excrements. The bodies 
of infeifs, found buried in amber, are viewed with ad¬ 
miration by all the world ; but of the mod remarkable of 
thefe, many.are to be fufpefted a$ counterfeit, the great 
^price at which beautiful fpecimens of this kind fell having 
tempted ingenious cheats to introduce animal bodies in 
fuch artful manners into feemingly whole pieces of amber, 
that it is not eafy to detect the fraud. 
Of thofe infefts which have been originally inclofed in 
amber, fome are plainly feen to have draggled hard for 
their liberty, and even to have left their limbs behind 
them in the attempt; it being no unufual thing to fee, in 
a mafs of amber that contains a dout beetle, the animal 
wanting one, or perhaps two, of its legs ; and thofe legs 
left in different places, nearer that part of the mafs from 
which it has travelled. This alfo may account for the 
common accident of finding legs or wings of flies, without 
the red of their bodies, in pieces of amber ; the in lefts 
having, when entangled in the yet foft and vifeid matter, 
elcaped at the expence of leaving thofe limbs behind them. 
Drops of clear water are fometimes alfo preferved in am¬ 
ber. Thefe have doubtlefs been received into it while 
foft, and preferved by its hardening round them. Beau¬ 
tiful leaves of a pinnated drufture, refembling fome of 
the ferns, or maiden hairs, have been found in fome 
pieces ; but thefe are rare, and the fpecimens of great 
value. Mineral fubdances are alfo found at times lodged 
in mafles of amber. Some of the pompous collections of 
the German princes boad of fpecimens of native gold 
and diver in mafles of amber ; but as there are many fub¬ 
dances of the marcaiite, and other kinds, that have all the 
glittering appearance of gold and filver, it is not to he 
too hadily concluded, that thefe metals are really lodged 
in thefe beds of amber. Iron is found in various fliapes 
hnmerfed in amber ; and as it is often feen eroded, and 
fometimes in the date of vitriol, it is not impofiible but 
that copper, and the other metals, may be alfo fometimes 
immerfed in it in the fame date. 
Naturalifts have been greatly divided as to the origin of 
this fubdance, and what clafs of bodies it belongs to ; 
fome referring it to the vegetable, others to the mineral, 
and fome even to the animal, kingdom. Pliny deferibes 
it as “a refinous juice, cozing from ancient pines, others 
fay poplars ; whereof there are whole foreds on the coads 
of Sweden ; and difeharged thence into the fea, where, 
undergoing fome alteration, it is thrown, in this form, 
upon the Ihores of Pruffia, which lie very low : he adds, 
that it was hence the ancients gave it the derronvnation 
fuccinum ; from fuccus, juice.” According to Hartman, 
amber is formed of bitumen, mixed with vitriol and other 
falts. But, though this were allowed him with regard to 
the fodil amber, many difpute whether the fea-amber be 
fo produced. It is, however, apparent, that all amber is 
of the fame origin, and probably that which is found in 
the fea has been wafhed thither out of the cliffs ; though 
Hartman thinks it very poflible, that fome of it may be 
formed in the earth under the fea, and be wafhed up 
thence. The fea-amber is ufually finer to the eye than 
the fodil; but the reafon is, that it is diveded of that coarfe 
coat with which the other is covered while in the earth. 
Upon the whole, it feems generally agreed upon, that 
E R. 399 
amber is a true bitumen of foflil origin. In a 'ate volume 
of the Journal de Phyfujitc, however, we find it aflerted by 
Dr. Girtanner to be an animal produff, a fort of honey or 
wax formed by a fpecies of large ant called by Linnaeus 
formica rvfa. Thefe ants, our author informs us, inhabit 
the old pine foreds, where they fometimes form hills 
about fix feet in diameter ; and it is generally in thefe an¬ 
cient foreds, or in places where they have been, that foflil 
amber is found. This fubdance is not fo hard as that which 
is taken up in the fea at Pruflia, and which is well known 
to naturalids. It has the confidence of honey or of half- 
melted wax, but it is of a yellow colour like common am¬ 
ber ; it gives the fame produft by chemical analyfis, and 
it hardens like the other when it is fuffered to remain fome' 
time in afolution of common fait. This accounts for the 
infedls that are fo often found inclofed in it. Among 
thefe infects ants are always the mod prevailing; which 
tends farther, Dr. Girtanner thinks, to the confirmation 
of his hypothelis. Amber, then, in his opinion, isno- 
thing but a vegetable oil rendered concrete by the acid of 
ants, juft as wax is nothing but an oil hardened by the 
acid of bees ; a faift incontedably proved, we are told, 
(ince Mr. Metherie has been able to make artificial wax 
by mixing oil of olives with the nitrous acid, and which 
wax is not to be diftinguilfied from the natural. 
Amber of the fined kind lias been found in England. 
It is frequently thrown on the diores of Yorklhire and 
many other places, and found even in our clay-pits ; the 
pits dug for tile-clay between Tyburn and Kenfington 
gravel-pits, and that behind St. George’s Hofpita! at 
Hyde-park corner, have afforded fine fpecimens. Poland, 
Silefia, and Bohemia, are famous for the amber dug up 
there at this time. Germany affords great quantities of 
amber, as well dug up from the bowels of the earth as 
tolled about on the diores of the fea and rivers there. 
Saxony, Mifnia, and Sweden, and many other places in 
this tract of Europe, abound with it. Denmark has af¬ 
forded, at different times, feveral quantities of fodil am¬ 
ber ; and the diores of the Baltic abound witii it. But 
the countries lying on the Baltic adord it in the greated 
abundance of all ; and of thefe the mod plentiful country 
is Pruflia, and the next is Pomerania. Pruflia was, as 
early as the times of Theodoric the Goth, famous for 
amber ; for, this fubdance coming into great repute with 
this prince, fome natives of Pruflia, who were about his 
court, offered their fervice to go to their own country, 
where that fubdance, they faid, was produced, and bring 
back great dcres of it. They accordingly did fo ;. ‘and 
from this time Pruflia had the honour to be called the 
Country of Amber, indead of Italy, which had before 
undefervedly that title. This article alone brings his 
Prudian majedy a revenue of 26,000 dollars annually. 
The amber of Prudia is not only found on the fea-coads, 
but in digging; and, though that of Pomerania is generally 
brought from the diores, yet people who dig, on different 
occafions, in the very heart of the country, conflantly 
find amber. In the mines where it is found, the upper 
furface is compofed of fand, under which is a dratum of 
loam, and under this a bed of wood partly entire, but 
chiefly mouldered or changed into a bituminous fubdance. 
Under the wood is a dratum of vitriolic or rather alumi¬ 
nous mineral, in which the amber is found. Strong ful- 
phureous exhalations are often perceived in the pits. 
The fpecific gravity of amber is from 1,065 tor,000 ; its 
frafture is even, fmooth, and glody ; it is capable of a 
fine polifh, and, when rubbed or heated, gives a fragrant 
aromatic fmell, particularly when it melts, that is at 550 
of Fahrenheit, but it then loles its tranfparency ; projected 
on burning coals, it burns with a whitilh flame, and a 
whitifh-yellow fmoke, but gives very little foot, and 
leaves brownilh allies ; it is infallible in water and fpirit 
of wine, though this latter, when highly rectified, extracts 
a reddilh colour from it; but it is foluble in the vitriolic acid, 
which then acquires a reddilh purple colour, and is precipi - 
table from it by water ; no’other acid dilfolves it, nor is it 
foluble 
