St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-03-01
ANIMALS u AMBER,

HOW They arr Eni ombci and Preserved fo,
lizards, Insects, Plants - What
amp er Is and Where il Comes From
'i-iuabie Observation-Disclosures Amber
There's an odd mouthpiece, said {
gentleman to Times man. hold
lng out large piece Il amber that had
been cut into an oddly-shapen cigar
holder. The piece was perfectly clear
OF a rich yellow or canary hue, and in
the interior was lizard, as perfe, It as
If II had crawled in a few minutes be-
fore.
Il got hold of this in Germany, con.
fmued the speaker, land had it bored
SO that the smoke-tuhe runs rght along
Side the creature and gives the impress
sion that II Is passing through him.
Are such cases rare?H asked the re-
porter.
NO" was the reply. "They are
rarely seen, but almost every collector
has more or less of them. In the earli-
est times it was known that animals
Were SO entombed. Martial wrote, A.
ID. 43:
''The bee is incasei and shines preserved in
I a OF t'e Sisters of haeton: SO il seems
IN rinei III its own nectar. 1t has obtained
worthy rewa for its great toIs. We ma,
suppose that the bee itself would have desired
such a death.
''In 1640 Thomas May thus translated
this:
Here shines bee inclosed in an amber
As if inferred in her own hone " omb.
a III e ard a c 10 her laborS gave:
IN hnr IN .l, -l~..Y
have.
INSECTS THEORETICALLY SEALED.
lin all, eight hundred different spe-
cies of insects have been found hermet-
ically sealed in this way and many of
them entirely new. They are, with
hardly an exception, extinct and nearly
ali tropical forms. In the British Mu-
scum there is a remarkable collection
of them and at Amherst College they
have a spider thus preserved. The
plants that are found entombed are
equally interesting, and Prof. Goeppert
has described one hundred and sixty
odd species. all of which are now ex-
tlnct. Various other articles are thus
found, such as water pebbles, bark.
fruit-in fact, anything that happened
TO fall in the way of the running resin.
I'm olden times amber was much
more esteemed than gold. Its nature
was known then, and two thousand
years ago Pliny told that it was the fos-
sill resin of an extinct confer succinun.
1i'tites. 1t is found ia many countries,
but the greatest deposits have been
found on the shores OF the Baltic, where
many thousand years ago confer for
est extended from Holland over the
German coast, far into the adjacent
countries. 1t was the resin that drop
ped from these trees, ust rs we see sim
liar depo sits of gum on our spruce and
other trees of to-day. As it ran down
it en- angled insects, caught lizards in
its sticky embrace, holding them fast
and finally burving them up, hardening
and preserving them intact for unknown
ages. One of the finest deposits is To-
Gated in the Hauptvaterlani, where on
tine Pomeranian plains the peasants
take it from the surface clay, and near
Brandenburgh pieces We Ching four
pounds have been found. The penin-
sula o Samland is noted for the rich
ness of It's deposits, and formerly all the
amber here was claimed by the Crown,
the finders being carefully watched by
gems d'armes and receiving only-one-
tenth OF its value"
RARE AND COSTLY SPECIMENS.
Are large pieces rare?' asked the
reporter.
Yes was the reply, "both rare
and costly. There is piece weighing
eighteen pounds in the Berlin Museum,
fer which $1,000 was paid, and previous
TO this $1,000 was refused for thirteen-
pound lump found in Prussia. In the
ca liest days amber seems TO have eX-
cited the cupidity of man. During the
reign of Nero an expedition was sent 10
the Baltic coast which brought back
5000 pounds ef it. including one
snec men that weighed thirteen pounds
This was nearly all obtained from the
regular vein or belt that lies between
Pillau and Gro Hubenicken, on the
Prnssan ooast. Here are REGULAR mines
f.S The workers of amber. They extend
tedepth of one hundred feet, pene-
Ha>fhg under stratum of sand and
clay then into a stratum of bituminous
woostforty or fifty feet in thickness.
These old trunks or remains are more
Or less impregnated with amber. The
supply Goes not dimin sh ana pieces are
washed up after storms, showing that
the ancient forests are now under water
far out in the Baltic, and the gum be-
inc broken off during storms rises and
is washed up. Such great quantities
came ashore formerly that the peasants |
used nets to catch it and dredges were |
used to drag the bottom of the sea.
The mines all along the Baltic |
coast yield yearly about $40 600 pounds,
and some one has estimated that the
amount still in the amber district is |
worth Si.250.010. The vast amounts |
taken seem incredible. vet probably |
since the beginning of this century 1900 |
tons have been quarried, and for the |
last three thousand years over 60, 900 |
tons have been taken from the Baltic /.
locality and made up into jewelry and
articles of luxury. As the amber is
taken from the mines it is packed in |