YELLOW AMBER. 407 Observations. 1. The only minerals with which it is likely to be confounded, are Honeystone and Fossil Copal.* its strong electrical property, and single refracting power, distin guish it from Honeystone; and its colour and difficult fusibility from Fossil Copal. 2. It frequently includes bodies of different kinds, as grains of sand, pieces of iron-pyrites, and also insects, which, according to Jussieu, are not natives ot Europe. Born mentions a specimen of amber, containing a species of <mr<ronia : another author describes a specimen con- o O taining the seed-vessels of the Pinus ahies: in some cabi nets, there are specimens including pinnated leaves, re sembling those of ferns, and other specimens inclosing drops of transparent water. 3 Masses of considerable size have been met with in the amber-mines on the coasts of the Baltic. Thus, i i the year 1576, a piece of amber weighing 11 pounds was found in Prus'siu, and sent to Prague, as a present to Iiodolph II.; and a few years ago, a mass weighing up wards of 13 pounds, and whose contents amounted to 318J cubic inches, was dug up in the ame country. Five thousand dollars are said to have been offered for this latter mass; and the Armenian merchants assert, that in Constantinople it would sell for thirty or forty thou sand dollars *. 4. Various conjectures have been proposed in regard to its origin and formation. By some, it is held to be a ve getable gum or resin, altered by processes unknown to Vs: others consider it a variety of mineral oil, thickened C c 4 by * Ncues allgemeines Journal dcr ChcmiCj b* u s* 221*