Pomerania
and Prussia proper, between Konigsberg and Dantzic; it is also obtained
there by sinking a shaft into the coal, and is mined in a systematic
way. All along the line of the Baltic coast, at Courland, Livonia,
Pomerania, and in Denmark, it is picked up. On the Sicilian coast, near
Catania, sometimes very peculiarly tinged blue, it is also found. In
Greenland, at Hasen island, it occurs in brown coal. Near Paris it
occurs in clay. It is also found in China. One of the largest specimens
ever met with on the Baltic was found in 1811, measuring fourteen
inches in length by nine inches in breadth, and weighing twenty-one
pounds.
I
had in my own collection, in the year 1831, a splendid wax-yellow
amber, from the Baltic, which measured about sixty cubic inches, and
weighed nearly two pounds. It is also found on the Danish coast, and in
Greenland, Sicily, Monrovia, Poland, France, and the "West Indies. A
sailor is said to have found a remarkable specimen, eighteen inches in
length, in a singular manner; the discoverer accidentally seated
himself on it, when he became so attracted to the amber, excited by his
natural heat, that it was with some difficulty he could detach himself
from it.
In
the United States we find amber at Cape Sable, in Maryland, in a bed of
lignite, in masses of four and five inches diameter; also, near
Trenton, and at Camden, New Jersey, where a transparent
specimen, several inches in diameter, was found. According to Professor
Hitchcock, it is found at Martha's Vineyard, Gayhead, and at
Nantucket. At the latter place, a light-colored specimen was found, of
three or four inches diameter, which is in the collection of T. A.
Green, Esq., of N"ew Bedford.
The
production of amber depends upon the position of the respective
localities; whether it is found among sand and gravel, in mines called
amber mines, or in the sea, on
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