SOURCE UNKNOWN.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 26, 29 March 1907, Page 7

SOURCE UNKNOWN.

The most striking example of the origin of the substance in everyday use being obscure is to be found in amber. For four thousand ■ years amber has been well known, being used for forming ornaments for royal necklaces, in medicines, witchcraft—ami later for the mouthpieces of various instruments, though its exact origin has inner been traced. The most that can be .said of it is that it is similiar to the \egetalile resins, and is* in all probability derived from various, extinct coniferous trees, while it differs from other resinous exudations owing to the changes induced by the fossilised condition. Often it is found to contain extinct species of insects and plants, though such only point to, while not indicating its natural source. A species of conifer has been established provisionally as the amber yielding live, but it has been shown that many trees may have yielded the exudation, and these not all necessarily belonging to the pine order. It is obtained in the greatest quantities chiefly from the coasts of the Jlaltic Sea, where, it is cast up by the action of ’the waves, especially after storms.