FISHING FOR AMBER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17894, 14 June 1920, Page 6

FISHING FOR AMBER

The principal source of the amber supply is the coast of the Baltic Sea, more particularly in the vicinity of Konigsberg Even in ancient times this district constituted the “Kimberley” of the amber world. At this place amber, which is really a mineralised resin of extinct pine-trees, is freely washed up by the sea, especially after a violent storm. The fishermen use nets with which they trawl the shallow waters. The harvest naturally varies. The more violent and destructive the storm to property ashore, writes Mr. Frederick Talbot, in "All About Treasures of the Earth” (Cassell), the more likely there is to be a heavy haul of amber, which the elements in their fury tear from the so-called “blue earth” in which it is imprisoned and which forms the sea-bed. The “nuggets” which are sometimes brought, in create as big a commotion as the unearthing of a large ragged mass of pure gold in an alluvial bed, or the discovery of a large diamond. For the most part, however, the amber is recovered in small lumps, it being very exceptional to alight upon a piece scaling 101 b. in weight. In Berlin there is a nugget, weighing 151 b., which is valued at £1,500, while the largest piece ever secured weighed 181 b. A fisherman once found a lump weighing 131 b. in his net and the sum of £l,OOO was promptly offered for it. The tempting reward was refused. Mining for amber is restricted to activity at the Anna Mine at Palm nicken, where both open and underground workings are somewhat extensive and afford employment for several hundred miners. The blue earth is broken down by pick and shovel, and the pieces of amber which are found are transferred to bags, each man surrendering his haul upon leaving the workings The blue earth is washed after the manner of washing for gold.