372 CETACEA. 



Another American ship, the "Ann Alexander," was similarly de- 

 stroyed, and two months after the sinking of the unfortunate vessel, the 

 " Rebecca " captured a huge sperm whale which surprised the fishermen 

 by offering no resistance. They found embedded in its carcass two har- 

 poons marked " Ann Alexander," and discovered severe injuries in its 

 head from a terrible wound in which fragments of ship's planking were 

 projecting. A British ship, " Waterloo," was another victim to the fury 

 of the sperm whale, and Scammon expresses his belief that manv a ship 

 which goes to the fishing and never returns, has been sunk by the animal 

 it was engaged in pursuing to the death. 



We have not yet mentioned one of the most curious products of the 

 sperm whale, the strange substance called Ambergris. It is a light wax- 

 like material of various colors, and greasy to the touch ; it possesses a 

 very agreeable smell, and becomes soft when heat is applied, boiling 

 water reducing it to an oily fluid. It is used by perfumers for mixing 

 with sundry oils and soaps. In ancient times, and down to the last cen- 

 tury, it was employed in medicine as an anodyne and antispasmodic, but 

 modern science rejects it from our pharmacop£eia. 



The origin of this substance for a long time baffled all inquirers ; 

 some imagined it to be the excrement of a bird, which, being melted by 

 the heat of the sun and washed off by the waves, was then swallowed by 

 whales, who returned it in the condition we find it. Others took it for a 

 kind of wax or gum which distils from trees, and congeals in the sea. 

 Many of the Orientals say it springs out of the sea; others, that it is a 

 vegetable production issuing from the roots of trees ; others, that it is 

 made from honeycombs which had fallen from the rocks into the sea, 

 and witnesses were brought forward to depose that they had found 

 pieces half-ambergris, half-honeycomb, and even had taken honey from 

 a piece, when it had been broken. As it was usually found on the shore, 

 it obtained the name of amber, and to distinguish it from the genuine 

 amber of the Baltic coast, it received the epithet of gris or " gray." 

 Ambergris, therefore, means "gray amber." Amber, however, is a 

 resinous substance, and we now know that ambergris is a morbid 

 secretion found in the intestines of the sperm whale, a mass weighing 

 fifty pounds having been discovered in a single whale. The value of 

 this article is very variable, but is always costly, averaging five dollars 

 the ounce. 



The food of the sperm whale is mostly furnished by squids or cuttle- 



