The commercial products of the sea, or, Marine contributions to food, industry, and art / by P.L. Simmonds.

  • Peter Simmonds
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The commercial products of the sea, or, Marine contributions to food, industry, and art / by P.L. Simmonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    484/500 page 472
    1 472 The Commercial Products of the Sea. Diggings of this kind exist at present in various spots of the Samland, more especially at Wanzen, Sassan, Gros- kuhren, Kleinkuhren, Kraxtepellen, Kreislacken, and Hub- nicken. Besides these works there are other establishments at Brusterort, where amber is obtained by divers from the bottom of the sea, and at Schwarzort, near Memel, where it is raised by dredging for it at the bottom of the Curish Hafif. Its importance and size have of late years increased considerably, and at present about 80,000 lbs. of amber are annually obtained by it. The total amount of amber obtained during the year 1869 was about 150,000 lbs., the value of which may be taken at about ^^82,500. The quantity collected (by fishing for it) in the sea and upon the shore is about equal to that raised by the digging and dredging works. Accord- ing to the opinion of competent persons, the produce of the diggings could be increased considerably by working them upon a regular mining system. Apart from the fact that no certain knowledge has hitherto been arrived at as to the actual extent of the amber-fields in the blue clay— and these fields exist, most probably, not only in the vicinity of the seacoast, but also in the interior of the Samland, and even beyond that district and the frontiers of Eastern Prussia—it is most likely that below the stratum of clay to which the diggings are at present confined, there are other strata in which amber would be met with. This supposition is based upon the circumstance that consider- able quantities of amber have been found amongst the soil washed away by the sea, during heavy gales, from shore portions of the coastal sand-hills which lie below the layer of blue clay first alluded to. The prices of the principal kinds of amber are stated by an official report to be about as follows ;—
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