PITTINF.A.

439

yellow, sometimes reddish, brownish, and whitish. Transparent—translucent.

According to Drapier and Ure, it contains

Carbon 8059 70'68

Hydrogen 731 1162

Oxygen. 6'73=94'G3, D. 7 77 90'07, U.

Drapier also detected minute portions of lime, alumina, and silica. It burns read-ily -with a yellow flame, emitting an agreeable odor, and leaves a black shining car-bonaceous residue. It becomes electric by friction. It is soluble in alcohol.

Obs. Amber occurs in the greatest abundance on the Prussian coast, in a bed ofbituminous coal, whence it is washed out by the. waves and thrown ashore. It isalso obtained at the same place by sinking a shaft into the coal. It occurs alsoalong the whole line of the Baltic coast, at Courland , Livonia, Pomerania , and inDenmark ; also near Catania on the Sicilian coast, sometimes very peculiarly tingedblue. At Hasen Island, in Greenland , it also occurs in brown coal; also near Paris ,in clay, and in China .

It has been often found in various parts of the green sand formation of the United States , either loosely imbedded in the soil, or engaged in marl or lignite, as at GayHead or Martha’s Vineyard, near Trenton in New Jersey , at Camden in Pennsyl­ vania , and at Cape Sable, near Magothy river, in Maryland .

The vegetable origin of amber is now fully ascertained. This is inferred, bothfrom its native situation with coal, and from the occurrence of insects encased in it.Of these insects, some appear evidently to have struggled after being entangled inthe then viscous fluid, and occasionally a leg or wing is found some distance fromthe body, which had been detached in the struggle for escape; frequently also awing or leg is found alone, which evidently the insect had broken off in its partiallysuccessful attempts to release itself.

Amber was early known by the ancients, and called riXi^rpov, electrnm, whence, onaccount of its electrical susceptibilities, we have derived our word electricity. Itwas called by some Lyncurium, though this name was applied, as is supposed, alsoto another mineral of remarkable electrical properties ; also Succinum , because ofits supposed vegetable origin, as stated by Pliny , “ quod arboris succum, prisci nostricredidere.”

Amber is extensively employed for ornamental purposes, and large fine specimensare highly' valued. In the Royal Museum at Berlin, there is a mass weighing 18pounds. A mass has lately been found in the kingdom of Ava, India , which is nearlyas large as a child’s head. It is intersected in various directions by veins of crys-tallized carbonate of lime, from the thickness of paper to one twentieth of an inch.

It is employed for the manufacture of a varnish, and for obtaining succinic acid,which it affords at a low temperature.

SCHEERERITE. Steatus aciculahis.

Prismatic Resinous N’apiithaline, Kocnlein.

541. Occurs in loosely aggregated crystalline grains and folias;also in minute acicular crystals, deposited in small cavities in coal.

Soft. 065, Macaire Princep. Lustre pearly, or resinous;feebly shining. Color whitish. Easily frangible. Tasteless. In-odorous. Feel not greasy. At 111°, F., according to M. Prinsep,it melts, and in the fused state resembles a fatty oil, and like it,penetrates paper ; these spots, however, may be removed by heat.On cooling, the mineral crystallizes in four sided acicular crystals.Its boiling point is at 197F.

It contains, according to M. Prinsep, (Pogg. Ann. xv. 294,) Cat bon 73, and Hydro-