WHALES AND WHALING 305 



Ambergris, the most valuable whale product, is 

 obtained from the intestines of the sperm-whale. The 

 real nature and origin of ambergris is somewhat in 

 doubt. It is usually taken from sick whales but is 

 sometimes found floating on the sea or washed upon 

 the shore. Some scientists have assumed that the wax 

 is the indigestible portion of the devil-fish, or cuttle- 

 fish, which comprises a large part of the food of the 

 sperm-whale. Tliis theory is strengthened by the fact 

 that the small bones of the cuttlefish are found in 

 ambergris. This waxy substance is often worth its 

 weight in gold. Gray ambergris is much more valu- 

 able than the black product. Ambergris is also used 

 in the preparation of a toilet article, for its prin- 

 cipal use is as a fixative in fine perfumes. Its odor is 

 often bad, but it holds the perfumes as no other sub- 

 stance does. Ambergris has had many other curious 

 uses. Formerly it was supposed to possess wonderful 

 medicinal properties. The Asiatics have used it as a 

 spice in cooking; pilgrims who traveled to Mecca 

 sometimes brought it as an offering. 



Contrary to what one might think, whalebone is 

 not the bone of whales, but is the strainer-like 

 appendage attached to each side of the upper jaw of 

 the whalebone whales. The baleen or whalebone con- 

 sists of two parallel rows of thin horny plates which 

 hang from the roof of the mouth. Each plate is 

 roughly triangular, wide at the base and narrow at 

 the tip. The inner edges are frayed out into long 

 fibers or hair-like bristles, forming a thick mat inside 

 the mouth, which strains out of the water the small 

 shrimps and other animals upon which the baleen 



