Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-08-29
SOMETHING ABOUT AMBER.
VI hat e Is and Where Ii L. Found.
Entombcd insects.


But what is amber: Two Thousand
years ago lliuy pronouncedi it the fossil
Ic-m OF an extinct confer, Succnun
rintes. and this belief, Endorsed by
Goppert, has di-placcd the romantic
and NEUROLOGICAL tear theory. Thou
sands of IcarS since vast confer forest
attended from what is now Holllnc
over the eruau coast of the lialti,
sca, and far into adjacent territory, and
Oh tbs shore tie most plentiful de
posts al the substance are nov
found. Tie amber, or rather til,
gum that formed II. eXude from
the trees as We now see gun
eXude from pine and spruce tees.
very boy who has been spruce gum
ming can understand the matter OF,
the l"morauian plains in the iIlupt
vatvrland pieces ~cighInS four pounds
have been taken from the surface clll
J.car Eradenburg. This is one OF the
fin, ST deposits. y similar one exists q.
the peninsula Of Sanland, whee il,
former TIM, ; the crown claimed IL
proprietary right to the treasure, dc
failing ccndauucs to watch the seeker
for il, and alIo@ing the finders onl,
one-tcnth OF the value of their dis
coycri,s.
As lonL 40 a, Ncro's reign an eNpc-
litIon WAS sent to tho shores Of the
Baltic to seek for amber with sigma
success, about $1,000 pounds BEN,
>ccured, nearly all of which Wa, Oh
tanned from the belt that runs between
Pillau and Grosz llubenicken, GA til,
coast oil Prussia. Here exist regular
mines OF the substance. Somes Of these
mines are $50 feet in depth, and extend
through strata Of bitrminous wood.
often forty to fifty feet in thickness, a
u great distance below tie surface o.
sand and clay. Here lie the trunks, OF
the remains of them, of the extinct
trees, more or less impregnated with
the precious resin, III apparently mex
haustible supply. There is evidence
that the old forests are now under water
far out in the Baltic, for after sever,
storms the gum is found floating Oh tin,
water, evidently broken oil from the
submerged base of supplies by til,
action of the waves.
The amber fishery, if it may be called
u fishery, is a regular industry at sucl
times, and the fishers, like the little
old man of the nursery rhyme, "clothcd
all Ill leather wade as lar out into
the water as their stature will permit
and, with bag nets attached to long
poles, scoop III rs much amber rs i,
within reach. Drag nets are also used
to remove it from the bottom. These
Baltic mines Weld an annual prod luce.
of about 100000 pounds, and it has
been estimated that the value of the
unmincd supply is still worth millions
of dollars. 1t is believed that not less
than 200 tons have been quarricd
during the present century. The amber
is packed i'll baskets and slowed away
III properly prepared vaults until de
manded by the market. The records
of one system of these vaults run back
As far as A. ID. 1910, and show that
since that the 90, % tons of amber
have been extracted from this l. tic
bonanza.
The most interesting fragments OF
amber are those which contain tn,
bodies of insects and reptiles, vegcta-
bic fragments and other Enclosures.
If, rs Peter Pindar has told us. King
George marveled rs to how the apples
got into the dumplings, what must he
have thought or wondered when he saw
spider SO perfectly intombed in ii
solid and transparent mass of amber:
Any one who knew could have told
him that the yiscid oxidation of the
tree, running its trunk, caught the un
lucky creature in an unrelenting EN-
brace, gradually envelopel him ard
carried him down to IL tertiary b. Il
where lie should lie for thousands o
years, until dug up, tomb and all, t.
figure in necklace or brooch oil
repose on the musty shelf of a scien.
tic cabinet. Many of them show eyi.
dences of having struggled to extricat,
themscl' es from the clinging mass.
legs and wings being sometimes found
at a distance from the body. in a pos
ton to show that they had become d.
tached i'll the efforts of their owners TO
escape.