News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-10-18
THEY FISH FOR AMBER.
Caught in the Waves OFF a Little
Stretch of Baltic Coast.

The bulk of the amber supply of the
world comes now from the region known
as the Samland, on the east Prussia
coast of the Baltic, about half way be
tween Kurischos Hafand Frisches Hef,
and from the lighthouse at Brusterot
can be seen with the naked eye the
whole stretch of coast on which the
precious petrification is now found, and
from which it has come for 3, 900 years.
The belt of ''blue earth" in which the
detached fragments of amber are found
lies from twenty to thirty feet below
the surface of the beach. The amber
can be and is to some extent obtained
by mining, but under the water the vein
comes much nearer to the surface, and
is frequently exposed entirely by the
action of the waves, so that fishing for
the amber is easier than digging, and
most of it is obtained in that way.
The amber fishermen are not Germans,
bnt a Samaite race of kurish origin,
ancient foes of the Cossack and the
Russ. They are a vigorous and hardy
race, and need to be to carry on their
business. They work in stormy weather,
when the waves have loosened masses
of amber from the ocean bed, and are
rolling it about in the surf mingled with
great masses of seaweed. The fisher
men, with long hook forks and hand
nets, wade shoulder deep into the water.
The women stand along the shore as
near as they can to the waves. The men
with their forks poke up the masses of
seaweed, and drag them in toward the
shore as much as possible. With the
no 4 70 i1,n1
of amber that may be floating about in
the water. AS fast as the seaweed is
got to the shore it is passed to the
women, who pick from it the bits of
amber that cling to it, and put them
into bags to be sold to the dealers. Some
dealers stay about the beach while the
fishing is going on, hoping to catch up
some particularly valuable specimen be-
fore any one else has a chance at it.
After the storm is over there remains
the most profitable part of the harvest
to be gathered. The amber that can be
got while the storm is raging is mostly
in small pieces, but large blocks of it
by the waves are too heavy
to be washed within reach of the fisher
men. When the sea is smooth enough
for the bottom to be seen through from
five to fifteen feet of water the fishermen
row out and look for these blocks, recov-
ering them by long -pronged forks and
nets.
The amber is also obtained in more'sys-
from the reefs, some three
Iuarters of q mile off shore, where the
Meeting of different currents has caused
/ to be heaped up with immense Quanti- !
les of seaweed and rubbish. For ten
months III the year n little feet of black
boats is anchored over these reefs, the
argest and most valuable of which is
500 feet long by 400 feet wide, and
iiyers sent down, one from every boat,
ire poking about amid the seaweed, dis
covering blocks of the amber and rails
ng it to the surface. Each diver re-
mains under water for five hours at O
stretch, aud the labor is said to be very
rying. Sometimes blocks so large are
discovered that it takes two or even
hree men to bring them to the surface.
Such masses as this bring fancy prices,
rom S75 to $50 each, the ordinary
lmber bringing only about $3.50 a
pound. The water, during most of the
ishing season, is icy cold, and tho
livers have to endure great hardships.
The amber obtained from the water
S nearly all transparent and glasslike.
The pale, straw-tinted pieces go to Con-
tantinople and North Africa to be made
nto mouthpieces. The kone-colored |
nd veined slabs make jewelry for the |
Italian peasants, and the sherry tinted |.
pecimens go for ornaments for the Af- !
lean and South Pacific trade.