"It is a resin, or gum, of vegetable origin, supposed to come from a kind of tree now extinct, hardened into a mineral. It is noted for its electrical properties. About one hundred and fifty hogsheads of it are annually collected on this coast. A piece weighing a pound is worth fifty dollars; but like diamonds, its value increases in a much greater ratio than its size. The Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights took possession of the trade, and derived large revenues from it. At the present time the King of Prussia receives an income of sixteen or seventeen thousand dollars from its collection. Amber is exported in large quantities to Mohammedan countries, where it is used for mouth-pieces of pipes and for ornaments. In the city you will find many amber-workers, and a large assortment of goods made from it." The steamer ran up into the Pregel River, and the company landed. Königsberg was once the capital of Prussia Proper, and for a long time the residence of the Electors of Brandenburg. The old palace was the residence of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights, and of the Dukes of Prussia. In the church connected with it, Frederick I. placed the crown upon his own head; and here, also, the present king followed his example. The Cathedral is a Gothic building, five hundred years old, which contains the tombs of many Teutonic Knights, and that of Kant the philosopher, whose house is also pointed out in the city. "There isn't much here to be seen," said Lincoln, as he walked about the parade-ground. "No, not much; but it has been a royal residence, and visiting it makes the facts of history more real to us," replied Dr. Winstock. "Great events have transpired here and in this vicinity. Twenty-two miles south of this city is Eylau, where Napoleon defeated the Russians in 1807, and a dozen miles from there is Friedland, where he again routed them in the same year. These events led to the treaty of Tilsit, which is some ninety miles north-east of this city, on the Niemen, near the frontier of Russia. The treaty was signed on a raft, moored in the middle of the river, on which was a pavilion magnificently fitted up. The three sovereigns of France, Russia, and Prussia met upon it. By this treaty Prussia lost nearly half her territory, as Mr. Mapps told you, though she regained it in the treaty of Vienna." "What did they meet on a raft for?" "It was evidently a whim of Napoleon, and in our time the idea would be considered rather sensational," laughed the doctor.