AQUATIC PRODUCTS IN ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 247 



During the year 1901 the value of spermaceti greatly decreased, 

 sales during November being made at 22 cents per pound, tlie lowest 

 price reached in the last ten years. 



No exact figures are available to show the product of spermaceti 

 during a period of years, but the approximate yield may be deter- 

 mined from the figures on page 204, showing the yield of sperm oil, 

 remembering that about 25 i^ounds of spermaceti is obtained from a 

 barrel, or 31| gallons, of sperm oil. It should be noted, however, that 

 considerable crude sperm oil is exported and the spermaceti extracted 



abroad. 



AMBERGRIS. 



Ambergris is a wax-like substance found at rare intervals, but some- 

 times in relatively large quantities, in the intestines of the sperm w4iale. 

 With the exception of choice pearls and coral, it is the highest- priced 

 product of the fisheries, selling at upward of 140 per ounce. It has 

 been a valuable object of commerce for hundreds of years. It appears 

 to have been prized first by the Arabians, by whom it was called amber, 

 and by this name it was first known among the Europeans. The 

 name was later extended to the fossilized gum, the two being dis- 

 tinguished by their respective colors as amber gris and amber jaune. 



In the writings of early travelers to the shores of the Indian Ocean 

 and to southern Asia, references to ambergris are by no means infre- 

 quent. Before the time of Marco Polo (1254-1324), Zanzibar was 

 famous for its ambergris. So plentiful was it on the shores of Indian 

 Ocean in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that the name was 

 given to various Islands, capes, and mountain j)eaks of that region. 

 It was also found on certain shores of tlie Pacific, notably the coast of 

 Japan. From their station in Batavia the Dutch traders kept Europe 

 supplied, and also exported it to Asiatic markets. 



Though ambergris w^as a valuable commercial article, little or noth- 

 ing was known of its origin before the eighteenth century. Some sup- 

 posed it to be the "solidified foam of the sea," others that it exuded 

 from trees and flowed into the sea, or that it was a " fungoidal growth 

 of the ocean analogous to that on trees." 



It is now generally conceded that ambergris is generated in either 

 sex of the sperm whale, but far more frequently in the male, and is the 

 result of a diseased state of the animal, caused possibly by a biliary 

 irritation, as the individuals from which it is secured are almost 

 invariably of a sickly appearance and sometimes greatly emaciated. 

 It is not of frequent occurrence, many whalemen with half a century's 

 experience never having seen any. The victim of the maladj' may 

 eject the morbific substance, thus furnishing the lumps which have 

 been found on the shores or floating on the seas frequented by sperm 

 whales. 



Although ambergris is of such rare occurrence, the sperm-whalers 

 always search for it, especially in diseased or emaciated whales. It 



