The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-11
FISHING FOB AMBER.
The Worlds Supply Caught Off a
Little Stretch of Baltic Coast.

The bulk of the amber supply CT the
world comes DOW from the region
known as the Samland, on the east
Prussia coast of the Baltic, about half
way between Kurisches Half and
Frisches Half, says the New York San,
and from the lighthouse at Brusterot
can be seen with the naked eye the
whole stretch of coast on which the
precious petrifaction is now found, and
from which it has come for 5000 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 veins
come 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 obt lined in that way.
The amber fishermen are not Ger
mans, out a SaLnaite race OF K9Fish
origin, ancient foes of the Cussack 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 fishermen, with long hook forks
and hand nets, wade shoulder deep
into the water. The women stand
along the shores 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 nets, they en-
deavor to gather in pieces of amber
that may be floating aboutin 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 60 - dealers. Some dealers
stay about |. each while the fishing
is going on, hop -ng to catch up some
particularly valuable specimen before
anyone else has 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,
disentaneled by the waves, are toe
heavy to be washed within reach of the
fishermen. When the sea is smooth
through from five to fifteen feet of
water, the fishermen row out and look
lteT these blocks. recovering them by
long -pronged forks and nets.
The amber is also obtained in more
systematic fashions from the reefs.
some three-Quarters of a mile of
shore, where the meeting of different
currents has caused it to be heaped up
with immense quantities of seaweed
end rubbish. For ten months in a
year, q little feet of black boats is
anchored over these reefs, the largest
and most valuable of which is 600 feet
long by 400 feet wide, and divers sent
down, one from eveHytboat, are poking
about amid 'she seaWeed, discovering
blocks of the amber and raising it to
the surface. Each diver remains under
water for five hours at stretch, and
the labor is said to be very trying.
Sometimes blocks so large are dis
covered that it te2,es two or even three !
men to bring them to the surface, |
Such masses as This bring fancy prices,
fTem!$75 to $3.50 each, the ordinary am
Der bringing only abouts$4 so pound. |
The water during most of the fishing |
season is icy cold, and the divers have |
to endure great hardships.
nke;amber obtained from the water |
IS nearly transparent and glasslike. |
The pale, straw tinted pieces go t. Con.
and North Africa to be
made Int mouth pieces; the bone
,olored and veined slabs make jewelry
.or the Italian peasants, and the
sherry tinted specimens go for orna-
nents for the African and South Pacific
.rade,