28q .Sxppofed Origin of Ambergris. [Book VI. 



ter. It difiblves more readily in fpirit of wine than 

 amber. 



It is rnofl common in the Indian feas, on the 

 eaftern coaft of Africa, Madagafcar, &c. and is found 

 either floating on the fea, or caft on the fea-fhore. In 

 this fubftancc animal and vegetable remains are fome- 

 times found, as for inftance, parts of birds, &c. 



The origin of this fubftance is probably the fame 

 with that of amber. According to M. Aublet (in his 

 Kiftoire de la Guiani) it is nothing more than the juice 

 of a tree infpiftated by evaporation ; and if this is true, 

 it is a fubftance which belongs properly to the vegetable 

 kingdom, j The tree which is faid to produce it grows 

 in Guiana, and is called cuma, but has not been exa- 

 mined by other botanifts. When a branch is broken 

 by high winds, a large quantity of the juice exudes ; 

 and if it chances to have time to dry, various maffcs 

 (feme of which have been fo large as to weigh one 

 thoufand two hundred pounds and more) are carried 

 into the rivers by heavy rains, and through them into 

 the fea ; afterwards they are either thrown on the more, 

 or eaten by fome filh, chiefly the fpermaceti whale, 

 known, by the name of pbyfiter-macrocepbalus among 

 ichthyologies This kind of whale is extremely 

 voracious of this gum-refin, and fwallows fuch large 

 quantities when it meets with it, that it generally 

 becomes fik; fo that thole employed in the fifhery 

 of thcfc whales always expecY to find fome amber 

 mixed with the excrements and remains of other food 

 in the bowels of thcfe whales' which are lean. Various 

 authors, among whom is Father Santes, in his Ethiopia 

 Orient dis, who travelled to various places- on the Afri- 

 can coaft, and Bornare, fay, that fome fpecies v of birds 

 are alfo fond of eating this Jubilance, as well as wha.Jes 

 and other fifhes. This accounts very well for the 



