The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-03-01
ANIMALS In AMBER.

A6SS- AiAftrusg AnSecUS, RIantS What
Amber Is and Where il Comes From
valuable Observation-Disclosures Amber
There's an odd mouthpiece," said q
gentleman to Times man, hold
ing out large piece of amber that had
been cut into an oddly-shapen cigar
holder. The piece was perfectly clear,
OF rich yellow or canary hue, and in
the interior was lizard, as perfect as
II 1t had crawled in few minutes be-
fore.
Il got hold of this in GERMANY" con-
tinued the speaker, land had it bored
SO that the smoke-tube runs right along
side the creature and gives the impress
sion that it is passing through him.
care such cases rareP" 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:
1.-THE bee is incase1 and shines preserved in
tear OF the sisters of thaeton: so it seems
en- 4 rined in its own nectar. 1t has obtained
a worthy rewal d for its great tolls We may
suppose that the bee itself would have desired
such death.
''In 1640 Thomas May thus translated
this:
Here shines bee inclosed in an amber
AS if Inferred in her own hont ysomb.
A fit leward ia e to her labors gave;
NO other death would she have wished to
have.
INSECTS THEORETICALLY SEALED.
t,Tn oil ainbt b,,1JroJ
cies of insects have been found hermet-
leally sealed in this way and many of
them entirely new. They are, with
hardly an exception, extinct and nearly
all 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
mas 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,
truit-in fact, anything that happened
to fall in the way of the running resin.
Hln 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 succi1suq,,
pInateS. 1t is found in many countries,
but the greatest deposits have been
found on the shores of the Baltic, where
many thousand years ago a 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, just as we see sim
liar deposits of gum on our spruce and
other trees of to-day. As it ran down
1t entangled insects, caught lizards in
its sticky embrace, holding them fast
and finally burying them up, hardening
and preserving them intact for unknown |
ages. One of the finest deposits is To-
Gated in the Hauptvaterland, where on |
the Pomeranian plains the peasants
take it from the surface clay, and near
Brandenburgh pieces weighing four
pounds have been found. The PENN |
sula OF Samland is noted for the rich |
ness of Its 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 rarep" asked the
reporter,
:. Yes" was the reply, ''both rare
and costly. There is a piece weiohino |
eighteen pounds in the Berlin Museum.
for which 81, 600 was paid, and previous
to this $4,000 was refused for thirteen
pound lump found in Prussia. In the
earliest 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
$4,000 pounds Of it, including one
spec men that weighed thirteen pounds.
This was nearly all obtained from the
Regular vein or belt that lies between
PiIlau and Grosz Hubenieken, on the
Prussian coast. Here are regular mines
ipr the workers of amber. They extend
d depth of one hundred feet, pene-
rating under a stratum of sand and
day, then into stratum of bituminous
GOOD forty or fifty feet in thickness.
these old trunks OF remains are more
b less impregnated with amber. The
apply does not diminish ana pieces are
vshed up after storms, showing that
be- ancient forests are now under water
II out in the Baltic, and the gum be-
tx broken off during storms rises and
mashed up. Such great quantities
enc ashore formerly that the peasants
nd nets to catch it and dredoes were
ND to drag the bottom of the sea.
THE mines all along the Raltic
cot yield yearly about 500, 900 pounds.
aasome one has estimated that the
annnt still in the amber district is
wh 81, 25o,000. The vast amounts
tan seem incredible, yet probably
y -. ( ~ .
TOD have been quarried, and for the
la4lhree thousand years over 10000
tonhave been taken from the Baltic
locsy and made up into jewelry and
ar1es of luxury. As the amber is
t.49 from the mines it is packed in