THE WHALES AND PORPOISES. 89 



rings of landing-nets. I have used a landing-net with the 

 ring of whalebone for upwards of eight years of sea-fishing, 

 the sport that above all others tries the angler's tackle, 

 and it is still as good as new ; indeed, as the market price 

 has, after many fluctuations, risen above that at which I 

 bought it, its value has increased. The value of this 

 product varies considerably, and was at one time over 

 2000 per ton. At the time of writing I believe it stands 

 at rather more than half this figure. 



Spermaceti comes from the cachalot, being contained in 

 fluid form in the " box " within the forehead. This fluid 



hardens on cooling, and, after a simple treat- 

 Spermaceti. &> . ' . \ 



ment with alkalis, is of use in ointments. 



The spermaceti from a large whale will fill over a dozen 

 barrels. Sperm-oil is better than the commoner train-oil. 



The third of these commodities is unquestionably the 

 most interesting of all. It also has its origin in the cach- 

 alot, and a passing strange origin it is. In the court- 

 ^ . ing season, that huge cetacean repairs with 

 its mate, or maybe in search of her, to the 

 warmer waters of the Gulf Stream, where together they 

 gorge on the cuttlefish that swarm in those waters. In its 

 great haste, the whale swallows these cephalopods whole, 

 an indecent greed that is punished by the accumulation of 

 the beaks, the least digestible portion of the cuttlefish, in 

 the creature's inside. Here they presently set up so severe 

 an irritation as to give rise to the secretion of ambergris 

 in great masses, which are usually vomited in mid-ocean 

 and subsequently carried ashore, largely in the Bahamas, 

 by the tides. Less frequently the whale retains the 

 ambergris, which then accumulates by the time of its 

 death to an enormous bulk weighing many hundreds of 

 pounds a very acceptable addition to the marketable 

 value, when it is remembered that the price of this in- 

 significant, greyish, half -greasy substance is something 

 like ^5 per ounce. Some curious finds of this secre- 

 tion are on record. On one occasion an old negress 



