WHALES, SEALS AND WALRUSES 



all the theories and gave it as his opinion that the bitu- 

 minous one was the most strongly substantiated. One of 

 the very oldest theories, current among seafaring people 

 thousands of years before Neumann and his survey of the 

 numerous conjectures of his time, was much nearer the 

 truth : that ambergris was the excrement of the whale. 



The truth is that it comes from the intestinal canal of 

 the whale, being thrown up from its stomach. It is also 

 taken from the bowels of sickly whales after killing them. 

 It then has a soft consistency and a disagreeable smell. 

 On exposure to the air, however, it gradually hardens 

 and acquires its peculiarly attractive fragrance, which 

 makes it an article so precious to makers of perfume. In 

 Europe it is now entirely confined to perfumery, but at 

 one time it was used both in cookery and in medicine, 

 in Britain and on the continent. It is still used in these 

 connections in the East. 



Although modern reference books give one hundred 

 pounds as the hmiting size of the lumps of ambergris 

 which are found floating on the sea's surface, much 

 larger masses have been secured. The stuff fetches con- 

 siderable sums — even a hundred years ago it was priced 

 at five or six pounds an ounce. Reahzing that money was 

 worth far more two or three centuries ago, some of the 

 old finds were certainly fortunate ones. 



One lump of ambergris, taken from the sea near the 

 Cape of Good Hope in the latter half of the nineteenth 

 century weighed three hundred pounds. Another, found 

 at about the same time, is recorded in books of the period 

 as having a weight of fifteen thousand pounds, but in this 

 case the size is quite evidently exaggerated, and rehable 

 details are not given in the various accounts. Allowing 

 for exaggeration it probably weighed several hundred 

 pounds. 



The largest lump of ambergris found floating any- 

 where in recent centuries with a well-authenticated 

 weight, was bought from the native king of Tidore (an 



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