[260] The cause of this was, probably, their confined situation, which did not permit them to wander in hunting and plundering parties, like the rest of the Germans. [261] This name was transferred to _glass_ when it came into use. Pliny speaks of the production of amber in this country as follows:--"It is certain that amber is produced in the islands of the Northern Ocean, and is called by the Germans _gless_. One of these islands, by the natives named Austravia, was on this account called Glessaria by our sailors in the fleet of Germanicus."--Lib. xxxvii. 3. [262] Much of the Prussian amber is even at present collected on the shores of the Baltic. Much also is found washed out of the clayey cliffs of Holderness. See Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 16. [263] Insomuch that the Guttones, who formerly inhabited this coast, made use of amber as fuel, and sold it for that purpose to the neighboring Teutones. (Plin. xxxvii. 2.) [264] Various toys and utensils of amber, such as bracelets, necklaces, rings, cups, and even pillars, were to be met with among the luxurious Romans. [265] In a work by Goeppert and Berendt, on "Amber and the Fossil Remains of Plants contained in it," published at Berlin, 1845, a passage is found (of which a translation is here given) which quite harmonizes with the account of Tacitus:--"About the parts which are known by the name of Samland an island emerged, or rather a group of islands, ... which gradually increased in circumference, and, favored by a mild sea climate, was overspread with vegetation and forest. This forest was the means of amber being produced. Certain trees in it exuded gums in such quantities that the sunken forest soil now appears to be filled with it to such a degree, as if it had only been deprived of a very trifling part of its contents by the later eruptions of the sea, and the countless storms which have lashed the ocean for centuries." Hence, though found underground, it appears to have been originally the production of some resinous tree. Hence, too, the reason of the appearance of insects, &c. in it, as mentioned by Tacitus. [266] Norwegians. [267] All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatia. These people, therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their manners they appeared of German origin. [268] Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations:--"The fifth part of Germany is possessed by the Peucini and Bastarnae, who border on the Dacians." (iv. 14.) From Strabo it appears that the Peucini, part of the Bastarnae, inhabited the country about the mouths of the Danube, and particularly the island Peuce, now Piczina, formed by the river. [269] The habitations of the Peucini were fixed; whereas the Sarmatians wandered about in their wagons.