UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO 201
Dr.
E. Goldsmith to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and the
specimens, described as having a specific gravity less than i, fusing
so as to be quite mobile, were regarded by him as related to the
variety of succinite called "krantzite." Dr. Charles C. Abbott'
mentions having several times found, in the bed of Cresswick's Creek,
small grains or pebbles of amber which he gave to William S. Vaux of
Philadelphia, and which are now in the Academy of Natural Sciences. One
of these pieces measures 1 x 4 x 5 inches in thickness. He suggests
that they are derived from beds of clay which are exposed in the bluff
forming the southern bank of the creek. There are cretaceous clays near
Trenton, in which occurs much fossil wood, in and upon which the
occurrence of grains of amber is not unusual. These grains are usually
very small and difficult to detect. The wood is soft and recent in
appearance, burning with an uncertain, flickering flame, and the amber
is evidently the fossilized sap of the wood found in these deposits of
clay. This same locality is referred to in Comstock's "Mineralogy"
(Boston, 1827). Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton has observed traces of amber
near Camden, in the cretaceous deposits. In February, 1883, the writer
describedJ a mass of amber 20 inches long, 6 inches wide,
and 1 inch thick, weighing 64 ounces, that had been found on Old Man's
Creek, near Harrisonville, Gloucester County, by Joseph B. Livezey. A
quarter-inch section showed a grayish-yellow color, while a similar
section, 1-1/4 inches thick, showed the color to be a light,
transparent yellowish-brown. The entire mass was filled with
botryoidal-shaped cavities filled with "glauconite" or green sand and
traces of vivianite. Its hardness was very nearly the same as that of
the Baltic amber, but it was perhaps slightly tougher, cutting more
like horn, the cut surface showing a curious pearly lustre, differing
in this respect from any other amber yet examined. The lustre is not
produced by the impurities, for the clearest parts show it best, and
the amber admits of a good polish. The specific gravity of a very pure
piece of this amber was found to be 1.061. This figure may be
attributable to internal cavities, amber usually ranging from
1 Science, Vol. I, p. 594.
8 Am. J. Sci. III., Vol. 25, p. 234, March, 1883.
