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with that of Hotfman ; he supposing the amber to be formedby the combination of the oil of petroleum with fine earth,held in solution by the acid of vitriol.
Breynius, thus accounts for the frequent appearance ofinsects with other foreign matter in this substance, as fol-lows observing that many insects penetrate beneath thesurface of the earth to deposit their eggs, to change theirskin, or to relinquish life; and that vegetable matters arealso carried beneath the terrestrial surface. But Mr.Parkinson remarks, that insects make but a small way into the earth,and amber is discovered at very considerable depths ; thereappears but little probability that these substances becomeimprisoned this way. Besides, the substance which appearsto be the most common matrix of amber is bituminous wood,very unlikely to be visited by insects; it being a circum-stance also well known, and which has reference particu-larly to this question, that bituminous impregnations areinimical to animal life, no living creature being everfound therein. Although Lord Cromartie, in the Philoso-phical Transactions , has related, that in the peat-moss, nearthe town of Elgin, in Murray, although no river communi-cates with the moss, yet three or four feet of depth thereinare found little shell-fish, resembling oysters, with livingfish, in great quantities, though no fish are found in theadjacent rivers, or in the water-pits in the moss, but onlyin the solid substance of the moss. Dr. Darwin considersthis as a most curious fact, which is alleged to account forthe appearance of such shells which sometimes appear onthe surface of coal, and in the strata immediately abovethem; and also for the thin strata of shells which some-times exists over iron ore. It also appears, that, theinstances of these small insects, or flies, which may havebeen occasionally discovered in amber, are considered bythe naturalist as extremely rare; this paucity of theirappearance has occasionally induced the curious to offerlarge sums of money for such specimens. After discussingthis subject, Mr. Parkinson inclines to accord with thelearned Dalechamp, who, in his annotations on Pliny , hassaid—“ Amber is a bituminous substance, which exudingin a soft and fluid state from the clefts in the earth, wherebituminous strata exist, has, during its soft and tenaciousstate, inviscated and enveloped these different extraneousbodies.” Against this opinion, in the idea of our author,there cannot exist an objection. Since it is not at all diffi-cult to conceive that amber may be the solid form which thetransparent fluid naphtha assumes, from inspissation, under