Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/579

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before Chrift it was in efteem as a medicine; and Plato, Ariftotle, and Herodotus, and among the poets /Efchylus, and others, have commended its virtues. In the times of the Romans it became in high efteem as a gem ; and in the luxurious reign of Nero immenfe quantities of it were brought to Rome, and ufed for ornamenting works of vari- ous kinds. Long after this Theodoric, king of the Goths, fhewed a high efteem for it. However well known, and however highly eftcemed this fubftance was in thefe ages, its nature and origin yet remained unknown through a long fcries of time, and various conjectures were made about it in the different places where people were poffefled of it among their gems ; fome fuppofed it the product of Africa, others of Afia, and others of America ; and the gardens of the Hefperides, ./Egypt, /Ethiopia, and Numidia, were fup- pofed, in the firft mentioned part of the world, to give it birth. Thofe who made it the produce of Afia, gave Ara- bia, and fome parts of the Eaft-lndies, as the places of its production ; and thofe who fuppofed it brought from Europe, gave Italy, the river Eridanus, and the borders of the Adri- atic, as the only parts whence it came : but the Romans, when they fprcad the terror of their arms through Germany, found it on the fhores of the German ocean and the Baltic, and Spain, and afterwards Britain, were added to the lift of places where it was found.

The antients, who had lefs traffic, and Iefs knowledge of the world than we have, are the more pardonable in allotting fo great a number of places, and many of them falfc ones, for the production of amber, and for not difcovering the true place where it has been at ail times found in the greatcft plenty, and whence molt parts of the world have long been, and are to this day fupplied ; but the moderns are much more unpardonable, who in their accounts give us Afia, Africa, and America, as the places where amber is found, as if it were to be had no where elfe; and fome of them diftin- guifh the finer pieces under the name of Oriental amber. The generality of thefe falfc accounts of amber, have been owing to the ignorance of the perfons who have taken upon them to give the hiftory of it : they have, in general, taken upon hearfay what they have related, or borrowed it from books they were not able to underftand. Thus we find the many places in Afia and Africa celebrated for producing large ftores of amber, are taken upon credit from the old authors, who have mentioned ambra as being found there. Thefe copiers not diftinguifhing, that ambra in thefe places is not given as the name of fuccimtm, or amber, but as that of the rich perfume called ambergris, which is found there, though the real amber never was.

The name of Oriental amber, fo common with fome, feems to have been owing alfo to a miftake, but of another kind ■> the gum copal, brought from the Eaft-lndies, is very like amber, and fome of the fantaftic writers in chemiftry have called this by the forced name of Oriental amber. Hence thofe who read their works, without perfectly underftanding them, have fuppofed that amber was common in the Eaft- lndies ; and as all the gums of that part of the world are fuperior to thofe of other places, they began to call all the fine pieces of this foffil by the pompous name of Oriental amber.

We are not to limit the operations of nature fo far, as to fay that fhe does not, or cannot produce amber in Afia, Africa, or America ; but it is certain, that we have no au- thentic account of its ever having been found in any of thofe regions, and there is the greateft reafon in the world to believe that it is peculiar to Europe. This we are very well afiurcd of, that the Chinefe, who are as cunning a people as any in the world, expend annually with us vaft fums of money in buying European amber, and have done fo atall times fmce we have trafficked with them j and it is by no means to be fuppofed that they would purchafe it of us, if they had it nearer home. AH the intelligent perfons, who have refided in the Eaft-lndies, fay, that they never faw or heard of amber being found there. And, upon the whole, it feems very rational to conclude, that Oriental amber never exifted, otherwife than in the error before- mentioned, of calling copal by that name. Europe feems the only region of the world where amber is produced : it feems alfo to be produced almoft all over Eu- rope, but not in equal plenty, nor perfection ; the German dominions, and the country about the Baltic, claim the prerogative above all other places. Hartman, who has given the abovementioned account of the errors of the antients, ISc. in regard to the places of its origin, has been too free in cenfuring the moderns for giving it to fome parts even of Europe : he fcruples to believe that Italy, Spain, and even England, produce amber ; but in this he errs : he fuppofes that jet, which is called by fome black amber, being found in thefe places, has impofed upon the authors of thefe ac- counts, and made them fay amber was found there ; but no- thing is more certain, than that amber, and that of the fineft kind in the world, is found in England, at leaft, if not in the other places where he doubts of its production. Amber is at this time thrown on the fhores of York- shire, and many other places, and found at great depths un- Supfi., Voi,. II.

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der the earth, in ftrata of clay, as well about London, aa in more inland places ; and if we mention Dr. Woodward, and the other authors, who have themfelves taken it up, we fhall have no room to doubt its being real amber, not let, as Hartman fuppofes.

Poland, Silefia, and Bohemia, are famous for the amber duo- up there at this time. Germany affords great quantities of amber, as well dug up from the bowels of the earth, as toffed about on the mores of the fea and rivers there. Saxony, Mifnia, and Sweden, and many other places in this tract of Europe, abound with it. Denmark has afforded, at different times, fcveral quantities of foffil e amber ; and the fhores of the Baltic abound with ir. But the countries lying on the Baltic afford it in greateft abundance of all ; and of thefe the moft plentiful country is Pruffia, and the next is Pomerania. Pruffia was, as early as the times of Theodoric the Goth, famous for amber ; for this fubftance coming in- to great repute with this prilice, fome natives of Pruffia, who were about his court, offered their fcrvice to go to their own country, where that fubftance, they faid, was pro- duced, and bring back great ftores of it. The offer was accepted, the journey fuccefsful, and from this time Pruffia had the honour to be called The Country of Amber, inftead of Jtaly, winch had before undeftrvedly that title. The amber of Pruffia is not only found on the fea coafts, but in digging; and though that of Pomerania is generally brought from the fhores, yet people, who dig on different occafions in the very heart of the country, at times find amber. Philof. Tranf. N° 248. p. 5, feq. In Pruffia the cliffs are very high and abrupt, and are all of naked earth, except a few rocks ; the fhore is very even, and the fea fhallow for a long way ; after this there is a con- fiderable depth for fome furlongs, and behind this the fhal- lows rife again, and continue a great way. The ftormy feas, and high tides, wafhing againft thefe cliffs, break down vaft manes of them from time to time; in the matter of thefe maffes of earth lie great quantities of amber ; this mixture falling upon the flat fhore, is daily warned by the waves, and the earth wafhed, and broken to pieces in a little time, and carried back by the waves into the fea j while the lumps of amber, being too hard to break, and too large to be carried away fo eafily as the difunited particles of earth are, remain naked on the fhore, or in the fhallower water. If they are any of them wafhed away, they are only carried into the firft deep water, and by its rife and fall in the tides they are thrown up, either on one fide or the other, and lodged on the fhallows, from whence the peo- ple, employed to gather them, eafily obtain them. The whole country about thefe cliffs abounds in amber, but it is impoffible to get at it by digging, becaufe of the nature of the foil, which is boggy, and full of watec, rifing in fome places up into fprings, and in others making the ground fo foft, that there are a fort of bogs and quickfands, which fwaliow up cattle, and fometimes men and their horfes. A little higher up in the country, where digging is practicable, the earth is found of the fame nature as in the face of the cliffs, and abounds with minerals of various kinds. The pyritK, and vitriols of many forts, are found there, and ftrata of a fort of black earth, with white veins, in great abundance. Under thefe ftrata there is found a great quantity of a cortical fubftance, refembling the barks of trees, among, or under which the amber is ufually found. The whole face of the country is very barren ; in this part tracks of fand often cover vaft fpaces, and fometimes a few weeds of the hardieft kinds appear ; fometimes a bufh, but rarely, and fcarce any fuch thing as a tree is to be feen. The am- ber in thefe places, when dug up, is ufually foul, and co- vered with a rough opake coat, which muff be taken off, or broke through, in order to the feeing its beauty ; but that on the fhores is ufually found clear and fine, this outer criifr having been worn off by the wafhing of the waves. This amber on the fhores is fometimes found buried in the fand, fometimes naked on the furface of it, and fometimes covered over with large bundles of the fea-wrack, and other weedsl The vulgar have thought, from this laft accident, that the amber was a gum flowing out of the leaves of thofe plants, but that is a very abfurd opinion. . ;

Sand, vitriol, and ochre, with a blue clay, are the fubftances which make up the principal part of the ftrata in the cliffs ; and the vitriol, in particular, feems to have fome confider- able fhare in the formation of the amber, becaufe amber is fcarce any where found foffile, where there is not alfo vi- triol : but neither of thefe fubftances can be properly called the matrix of the amber, fmce it is feldom found bedded in them ; and when it is, only in fmall quantities. The blue clay contains more amber than cither of the other of thefe fubftances, but the true matrix of it is the wood, or cortical fubftance, which is found among thefe ftrata, and of which alone there are immenfe hills in fome places. Phil. Tranf, N° 248. p. 12. See the article Matrix fuaini. The bodies of infects, found buried in amber, are viewed with admiration by all the world ; but bf the moft remark- able of thefe, many are to be fufpected as counterfeit, the great price, beautiful fpecimem of this kind fell at, having 3 O o o temptei