The mining of amber generally take the same form throughout the island. The amber can be found through land slips which occur on the steep mountain sides. The fossil resin occurs in lignitic beds which when located are dug out. If the amber extends deep into the side of the mountain shafts are dug by hand to follow the deposit.
In pictures the author has seen, the mines look perilously unsafe with miners operating sometimes 200 feet into the mountain itself and in some cases without the mine being sheared or reinforced.
Interesting...love the frog with too many legs...
A rather interesting frog was discovered in amber on the island during 1996 which shed light on how colonisation progressed through the West Indies. It was also noted in this particular specimen that several additional leg bones were present, more than the frog must have possessed. It is speculated by scientists that the frog and the additional legs could have been dropped by a bird who may have been using a branch or tree overhanging an embalming pool of resin which received the dropped frog and leg bones and over millions of years became amber.
Oh goodness gracious me...
I have one piece filled with what looks like mayfly wings. I have one little piece containing a leaf that looks like an apple leaf, and another with what appears to be the tip of a branching coniferous plant. No spiders, frogs, or other vertebrates, though, but a few ants.