MAMMALIA 285 



Fig. 189. These bundles are landed at the most convenient port; 

 San Francisco is the chief port for the Arctic fisheries. At the factories, 

 those of America being principally in New York City and Boston, 

 the baleen is split into long slender strips, suitable for whips, dress 

 stays, etc. In the early days of whale fisheries the valuable properties 

 of baleen were not appreciated and but little of it was brought to port. 

 It is supposed that the first importation into England was in 1 594. The 

 price has fluctuated like that of most commodities, varying from 10 

 cents a pound, in early times, to $5 or $6 a pound in recent years. 



Many substitutes for whalebone are on the market, but none of 

 them combines the various useful characteristics of the real article. 



Ambergris, a curious light solid, sometimes found floating on the 

 sea, or lying on the shore, was long a mystery. It is also found in the 

 intestine of the sperm whale; it is probably a morbid secretion, com- 

 parable, perhaps, to the gall stones of other mammals. It is mainly 

 used in making perfumery, but was formerly used as a nerve stimulant, 

 in medicine and for other medicinal purposes. Lumps worth as much 

 as $10,000 have been found in a single whale. It is worth from $5 to 

 $10 per ounce. 



Other ways in which the cetacea have greater or less economic 

 importance might be discussed. For example they are largely used as 

 food, especially by the Japanese; their offal, as has been said, is made 

 into fertilizer; the tusk of the narwhale consists of valuable ivory; 

 the teeth of some species are valued by some peoples; ribs and other 

 long bones are sometimes used by semi-civilized peoples in house- 

 building; the hides of porpoises are made into leather. Altogether 

 this small group of large animals has a verv considerable economic 

 value. 



