Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1883 — The World’s Supply of Amber. [ARTICLE]

The World’s Supply of Amber.

This appears to be inexhaustible. The “blue earth” of Samland the most important source of supply—extends along the Baltic for sixty miles, and possesses a breadth of about twelve miles and an average thickness of ten feet. Runge estimates that every twelve cubic feet of this earth contains a i pound of amber. This gives a total of some 9,600,000,000 pounds, which, at the present rate of quarrying, is sufficient to last for 30,000 years. Amber is the fossilized gum of trees of past j ages, and, on the supposition that these j tree« had the same resin-producing ca- i parity as the Norway spruce, and that the amber was produced on ihe spot ] where it is now found, Geoppert and ‘ Menge, in a new German work, esti- * mate that 300 forest generations of 120 | years each mi/st have grown on the Samland blue earth to giveit its present richness in the product. It is much more probable, however, that the amber came from a large area, and has been collected in its present position by the action pf water. It is also probable,that the trees were more ree* inous than the Norway spruce.