INSECTS FOUND IN AMBER.

Lake County Press, Issue 2145, 22 November 1906, Page 7

INSECTS FOUND IN AMBER.

Various opinions have been held in ! the past regarding the nature of amber, but to-day, according to the opinion of geologists, it can be asserted that amber is derived irom t lie sodifying of the resin of pine trees which grew near the Baltic region in prehistoric times. It is supposed that -100,000 years ago the arrangement of land and water was j very different from what it is to- ; day, and that an island, or perhaps, I even a vast territory existed, which ; communicated with Scandinavia and i extended as far as the North of Kng- , land. On that now submerged country there grow huge pine trees, which exuded yellow resin. Those trees rotted, and after a series of generations fossilised, leaving their sap which formed little by little the immense beds of amber, which arc being - excavated to-day. T his opinion is corroborated by certain specimens of amber bolding vegetable debris. However, the most curious phenomenon of all is that the amber is j the tomb of millions of insects. Thus 1 is formed the most ancient entomological museum in the world. insects arc found in their transparent tombs, where they are wonderfully preserved, so that we can see every detail down to the nerves of the wings. In their /light they must, have come in contact with the sticky resin and held as by a modern /ly-ca teller, the oily ether would soon kill them, and they would then bo covered by further deposits of the resin.