AMBERGRIS—IDYLL 381 
it is to kill old myths—or else to prove that the ancients were not as 
stupid as we sometimes like to believe ! 
With all its desirable characteristics, supposed and real, it is little 
wonder that ambergris has demanded a high price, especially in former 
times when the uses were more varied than they aretoday. A thousand 
years ago it was a familiar item of commerce in Africa and was classed 
with black slaves and gold as one of the important products of Magh- 
reb, the ancient Arabic designation for the northern part of the Dark 
Continent. Ambergris was once literally worth its weight in gold. 
The East India Co. normally paid between 50s. and 70s. per ounce— 
and in the valuable shillings of the 17th century! 
HOW MUCH TODAY? 
In 1942 a perfumer is quoted as saying that ambergris was worth 
$20 an ounce, but if this were in fact true then, it certainly is not today. 
It is, of course, impossible to state “the” price on the present market, 
since the quality of ambergris varies so greatly. In answer to an 
inquiry in 1958, four of the leading perfume manufacturers quoted 
the following ranges of prices per ounce: $2-$6, $3-$4, $4-$8, and 
$8-$9. 
Most of the ambergris of commerce comes from the whaling indus- 
try and, as our correspondents put it, “individuals connected with ship- 
ping.” Some of the notable finds have occurred in recent years. Dr. 
Robert Clarke, the British scientist mentioned earlier, found a piece 
weighing 926 pounds in 1953. This enormous chunk of ambergris, 5 
feet 5 inches long and 30 inches around in its greatest diameter, came 
from a 49-foot male sperm whale caught in the Antarctic. Dr. 
Clarke says this is the largest piece actually examined and authenti- 
cated. He lists four larger weights of ambergris mentioned in the 
literature but regards three of them as probably comprising more than 
one piece. The fourth, weighing 982 pounds and reported by the 
Dutch East India Company in 1880, may be the largest single piece 
ever recorded. 
Smaller, but still notable, finds of ambergris are numerous in the 
written accounts: A piece weighing 182 pounds purchased from the 
Kast India Co. by the King of Thydore; a 280-pound piece from New 
Zealand ; a 850-pound piece taken by a Norwegian whaler; 750 pounds 
from a whale in 1859, by a Nantucket whaler. A 53-pound piece 
found near Scotland was sold in London for $42,750. As late as 
1956, a piece weighing 151 pounds 8 ounces was sold in this country 
for $20,000. 
So, not only is ambergris no longer worth its weight in gold, but to 
further explode the myth that it provides riches to be picked up on 
the beaches of the world, the chance of finding it there is extremely 
slim. 
