26 



AMBERGRIS. 



AS this substance is a marine production, I 

 have thought proper to introduce some account 

 of it here. 



This delicious perfume is, without doubt, the 

 produce of the sperm whale*, and probably is 

 the result of a disease in the digestive organs. 

 Captain Poole, in pushing a lance through the 

 blubber, and near the passage of the abdomen, 

 felt it strike against something hard, which he 

 thought was a stone, and in drawing it out, the 

 edge was found to be broken. Having cut into 

 the intestine canal, he perceived that the lance 



« The fibres of the skin from the head of this whale, are of 

 great tenacity ; excellent ropes may therefore be manufactured 

 of them, especially for situations exposed to much friction : it is 

 said that thcj are stronger tliau catgut, and mate better fiddlc- 

 striuj;^- 



