width. The peninsula of Denmark, known under
the name of Jutland, stands like a barrier between the Baltic and the
North Sea, midway between the two extremes of the general western
configuration of the continent of Europe. We have called the Baltic
the Mediterranean of the North, but it has no such depth as that
classic inland sea, which finds its bed in a cleft of marvellous
depression between Europe and Africa. One thousand fathoms of
sounding-line off Gibraltar will not reach the bottom, and two
thousand fathoms fail to find it a few miles east of Malta. The
maximum depth of the Baltic on the contrary is found to be only a
hundred and fifty fathoms, while its average depth is considerably
less than a hundred fathoms. It cannot be said that these waters
deserve the expressive epithet which has been applied to the sea that
laves the coast of Italy and the Grecian Isles; namely, "The cradle
of the human race," but yet the ages ancient and modern have not been
without their full share of startling episodes in these more northern
regions.

It is a curious though familiar fact that the waters of the Baltic,
or rather the bottom of the basin in which it lies, is rich in amber,
which the agitated waters cast upon the shores in large quantities
annually,--a process which has been going on here for three or four
centuries at least. We all know that amber is an indurated fossil
resin produced by an extinct species of pine; so that it is evident
that where these waters ebb and flow there were once flourishing
forests of amber pines. These were doubtless submerged by the gradual
encroachment of the sea, or suddenly engulfed by some grand volcanic
action of Nature. Pieces of the bark and the cones of the pine-tree
are often found adhering to the amber, and insects of a kind unknown
to our day are also found embedded in its yellow depths. The largest
piece of amber extant is in the Berlin Museum, and is about the size
of a child's head. This is dark and lacks transparency, a quality
which is particularly sought for by those who trade in the article.
It is known that the peninsula of Scandinavia is gradually becoming
elevated above the surrounding waters at the north, and depressed in
an equal ratio in the extreme south,--a fact which is held to be of
great interest among geologists. The total change in the level has
been carefully observed and recorded by scientific commissions, and
the aggregate certified to is a trifle over thr