47 
AMBERGRIS. 
AS this substance is a marine production, I 
have thought proper to introduce some account 
of it here. 
TuIs delicious perfume is, without doubt, 
the produce of the Sperm-whale*, and pro- 
bably is the result of a disease in the digestive. 
organs. Captain Poole, the commander of a 
whale-ship, in pushing a lance through the 
blubber, and near the passage of the abdomen, 
felt it strike against something hard, and on 

* 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 they are stronger than catgut, and make better strings 
for violins. 
