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Ch. 11: Amber, Malachite, Serpentine, Bowenite, Williamsite, ... Catlinite, etc.

Ch. 11: Amber, Malachite, Serpentine, Bowenite, Williamsite, ... Catlinite, etc. Page of 364 Ch. 11: Amber, Malachite, Serpentine, Bowenite, Williamsite, ... Catlinite, etc. Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEXICO
203
greatly increase our knowledge of the fauna and flora of past ages. Dr. Herman A. Hagen, of Cambridge, Mass., a native of Königsberg, in East Prussia, whence the principal supplies of amber are obtained, writes : " When I first saw the shores of the Lakes Huron and Michigan and the Island of Mackinaw, I was so struck by their resemblance to the shores of my native country, the very locality where amber is found, that I could not help thinking that here also amber would be found."1 It has been shown by Goppert that amber has been derived from eight species of plants besides the Pinites succinifer. He enumerates 163 species as occurring in amber. No one species has been observed in American amber.
AMBER
Jet occurs in the Wet Mountain Valley, Trincherà Mesa, southeast Colorado, and in the coal seams of most coal-bearing rocks of Colorado. Some specimens a foot long and from 4 to 5 inches wide and an inch thick have been found. It is sold only as mineral specimens, although it admits of as fine a polish as the finest jet from Whitby, Eng., where a large industry in the working of this material is carried on. The beautiful jet, rivalling any jet known, found in El Paso County, Col., is sold extensively as mineralogical specimens, but is little if at all used for ornamental purposes. This is chiefly owing to the fact that it has been almost entirely superseded by black onyx in the United States, owing to the hardness of the onyx and the cheapness with which it is furnished from Oberstein and the Idar. This onyx is colored black by allowing the chalcedony, which is porous, to absorb some carbonaceous sub-
1 On Amber in North America, Proc. Boston Soc. of Nat. His., Vol. 16, p. 296, Feb., 1874.
Ch. 11: Amber, Malachite, Serpentine, Bowenite, Williamsite, ... Catlinite, etc. Page of 364 Ch. 11: Amber, Malachite, Serpentine, Bowenite, Williamsite, ... Catlinite, etc.
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