AMBERGRIS. 
150 
AMBLE. 
the surface of the water, where it is collected by | ments prove that it resembles amber in its na- 
means of nets. It is, however, only after violent 
north and north-west winds that any large quan- 
tity is drawn to the shore. Quarries, or pits, 
have been opened at Dirschkemen, on the hills 
near the coast, and their produce is less variable. 
In digging for it, the first stratum is found to be 
sand, then clay, then a layer of branches and 
trunks of trees, then a considerable quantity of 
pyrites, whence sulphuric acid is prepared, and 
lastly a bed of sand, through which the amber is 
dispersed in small pieces, or collected together in 
heaps. It assumes various shapes, as that of a 
pea, an almond, a pear, and letters, very well 
formed; and even Hebrew and Arabic charac- 
ters. It frequently occurs amongst coniferous 
fossil wood, in beds of brown coal. Hence some 
have regarded it as nothing else than an indu- 
rated resin derived from trees of the coniferze 
family. It has also been found in Maryland and 
New Jersey. It is found in other places in the 
interior of Prussia; and one of the largest pieces 
of amber known was found at Schleppacken, 
about fifty miles from the Lithuanian frontier. 
| It is fifteen inches in length, and seven or eight 
in breadth, and may be seen in the museum at 
Berlin. A specimen was found in the kingdom 
of Ava, in India, nearly equal in size to that of 
a child’s head, and intersected in various direc- 
tions by thin veins of carbonate of lime. Amber 
is also to be found in the high hills of Goldapp, 
seventy-five miles to the south-east of Koenigs- 
berg, and in the heights and valleys on the Vis- 
tula, in the neighbourhood of Thorn and Grau- 
denz. A large piece of amber was cast ashore, 
about twenty-five years ago, at Peterhead, in the 
county of Aberdeen, in Scotland. 
The most remarkable properties of amber are, 
that, being rubbed, it attracts light bodies. The 
friction which elicits the electric fluid also ren- 
ders amber visible in the dark. Dr. Wall re- 
marked, that by rubbing amber upon a woollen 
substance in the dark, light was also produced 
in considerable quantities, accompanied with a 
crackling noise; and what is still more extraor- 
dinary, he adds, “ This light and crackling seems 
in some degree to represent thunder and light- 
ning.” An essential oil is prepared from amber, 
and is of a dark colour, and very disagreeable 
odour ; and this oil, by being rectified, loses 
some of its dark colour and bad odour, and re- 
tains its medical properties unchanged. The oil, 
either crude or rectified, is employed, in veteri- 
nary practice, generally in mixture with oil of 
turpentine or other oils, as an embrocation for 
sprains and bruises, and is given internally, in 
doses of from two drachms to half an ounce, as 
an antispasmodic. 
AMBERGRIS. A substance much of the same 
nature as amber, but differing from it by its par- 
ticular consistence, which nearly approaches to 
that of bees’ wax; sometimes it is granulated, 
and appears opaque, or of a dark gray. Experi- 
ture. When analyzed, it is found to consist of 
phlegm, a volatile acid partly fluid, oil, and a 
little coaly matter. It dissolves more readily 
than amber in spirit of wine. It is most com- 
mon in the Indian seas, on the eastern coast of 
Africa, Madagascar, &c., and it is found either 
floating on the sea, or cast on the sea-shore. In 
this substance, animal and vegetable remains are 
sometimes found, as, for instance, the parts of 
birds. The origin of ambergris is probably the 
same with that of amber. According to M. 
Aublet, in his ‘ Histoire de la Guiane,’ it is no- 
thing more than the juice of a tree, hardened by 
evaporation ; and if this be true, it is a substance 
which belongs properly to the vegetable kingdom. 
The tree which is said to produce it grows in 
Guiana. It is called cuma, but has not been ex- 
amined by other botanists. When a branch is 
broken by high winds, a large quantity of the 
juice exudes ; and if it chance to have time to dry, 
various masses (some of which have been so large 
as to weigh one thousand two hundred pounds, 
and more) are carried into the rivers by heavy 
rains, and through them into the sea; afterwards 
they are either thrown on the shore, or eaten by 
fish, chiefly by the spermaceti whale (Physeter | 
macrocephalus). This fish swallows such large 
quantities of this gum resin, that it generally 
becomes sick, so that those employed in the catch- 
ing of these whales always expect to find some am- 
bergris in the bowels of the lean whales. Father 
Santes, who travelled to various places on the 
African coast, says, in his ‘ Aithiopia Orientalis,’ 
that some species of birds, of whales, and of fish, 
are fond of eating this substance ; and the same 
assertion has been made by Bomare and various 
other authors. This accounts for the claws, beaks, 
bones, and feathers of birds, parts of vegetables, 
shells and bones of fish, and particularly for the 
beaks of the cuttle-fish which are sometimes 
found in the masses of this substance. M. Aublet 
brought specimens of this gum resin, which he 
collected on the spot, from the cuma tree at 
Guiana. It is of a whitish-brown colour, with a 
shade of yellow; while it melts and turns like 
wax in the fire. M. Pouelle examined very care- 
fully this substance brought over by M. Aublet, 
and found that it produced exactly the same re- 
sults as amber. These observations seem to place 
it beyond a doubt, that both amber and amber- 
gris are vegetable products, and that naturalists 
were mistaken in supposing these substances to 
be of an animal nature, from having found them 
in the intestines of whales. 
AMBLE,—Scoticé, Canter. A kind of pace in 
which the horse moves alternately his two right 
legs and his two left. In this pace, the animal 
maintains no proper equilibrium between his 
two sides, but supports himself by a forced oscil- 
lation from side to side, and in consequence is 
compelled to practise greater agility, and to keep 
his feet much nearer the ground, than in any 
