404. THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
exists to some depth in the interior. It possesses a soft, agreeable 
scent, capable of imparting its perfume to an unlimited extent. 
It consists of irregular masses, composed of concentric layers, 
one over the other, or sometimes granulated, the grains being 
unequal and more or less rounded. As a central nucleus are often 
found the solid remains of mussels and fish. These masses weigh, 
commonly, from two to twenty ounces ; but some have been found 
weighing as much as twenty pounds. 
The cachalot grounded near Bayonne in 1741, had in its inside 
a piece of ambergris of twelve pounds weight. A whaler obtained 
forty pounds from the entrails of one single whale, and more than 
100 pounds from another. The East India Company possessed 
one mass of 150 pounds. Valmont de Bomare saw a pile in 1695, 
weighing two hundredweight. It is said that foxes have a great 
partiality for ambergris, and that they come to the sea-coast in 
search of it. They eat it and return it exactly in the same state 
as they swallowed it, as regards its perfume, though changed in 
colour. To this taste is due the existence of white ambergris, 
which is found at some distance from the sea, in the province of 
Aquitaine, and which the inhabitants call ambre renardé This 
second produce of perfumed substance has thus travelled through 
the digestive systems of two different mammals, and still retains 
its delicate odour! 
