380 HABITS OF THE CACHALOT. 



repute. It entered into the composition of various 

 perfumes, and was also employed as a drug. The Moslems 

 who performed the Mecca pilgrimage offered it at the 

 shrine of their prophet as a sweet-smelling savour. By 

 some of the African peoples it is valued as a seasoning 

 for food. This incense, this medicament, this perfume 

 is now known, however, to be neither more nor less than 

 the excrement of the sick cachalot. When the animal is 

 captured in a diseased condition, the ambergris is found 

 lying hardened in its ccecum, and as much as one hundred 

 to one hundred and twenty pounds will be obtained from 

 a single individual. 



The cachalot or sperm whale feeds principally upon 

 molluscs ; but it is said that he will hunt the largest fish, 

 even sharks, and, among the mammals, both porpoises 

 and seals. Carcasses of seals upwards of ten feet long 

 have been found in the stomach of these monsters. With 

 open mouth they snap at their prey, plunge their fifty 

 teeth into its body, and bring their jaws together with 

 such force as to snap it in twain. 



The course of the cachalot is always direct and stead- 

 fast, like that of an arrow. Generally he faces the wind, 

 and he moves with remarkable swiftness, attaining to 

 twelve and even fifteen knots an hour. His jets or 

 " blowings " occur at intervals of less than a minute, and 

 are repeated fifteen, twenty, and even thirty times. As 

 lie remains for a considerable period on the surf ace of the 

 water, so he lingers long in the depths ; and, therefore, 

 when the fisher descries his puffs of vapour, he should be 

 alert to launch his boats, or his hoped-for prey may dis- 

 appear. 



