3g0 l'HILOSOVHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1783. 



here to the needle ; the needle however feels afterwards as if it had been put into 

 wax. It is so light, that it swims not only on the sea, but also on the surface 

 of fresh water. Its colour is white grey, or yellowish, or blackish, the first of 

 which is esteemed the best. All ambergris, when kept for a certain time, is 

 covered with a kind of white grey dust like chocolate. When broken it appears 

 to be of a granulated texture ; and in some pieces it seems to be laid on in strata. 

 It feels rather rough when first touched, but when rubbed with the finger, it 

 feels like hard soap, or rather like that kind of stone which the mineralogists 

 call Smectis. 



It is found swimming on the sea, or the sea-coast, or in the sand near the sea- 

 coast ; especially in the Atlantic Ocean, on the sea-coast of Brazil, and that of 

 Madagascar; on the coast of Africa, of the East Indies, China, Japan, and the 

 Molucca Islands ; but most of the ambergris which is brought to England 

 comes from the Bahama Islands, from Providence, &c. where it is found on the 

 coast. It is also sometimes found in the abdomen of whales by the whale-fisher- 

 men, always in lumps of various shapes and sizes, weighing from half an ounce 

 to lOOlb. and upwards. The piece, which the Dutch East India Company 

 bought from the king of Tydor, weighed 182 lbs. An American fisherman 

 from Antigua found some years ago, about 52 leagues south-east from the Wind- 

 ward Islands, a piece of ambergris in a whale, which weighed about 130 lbs. 

 and sold it for 500 pounds sterling. 



In all the pieces of any considerable size, whether found on the sea or in the 

 whale, which Dr. S. frequently examined with much care, he constantly ob- 

 served a considerable quantity of black spots, which appear to be the beaks of 

 the sepia octopodia. These beaks seem to be the substances which have hitherto 

 been always mistaken for claws or beaks of birds, or for shells. The presence 

 of these beaks in ambergris proves evidently, that all ambergris containing 

 them is in its origin, or must have been once, of a very soft or liquid nature. 



That ambergris is found either on the sea and sea-coast, or in the bowels of 

 whales, is a matter of fact, which seems to be universally credited. But it has 

 never been examined into and determined, whether the ambergris found on the 

 sea and sea-coast is the same as that found in the whale : whether that found on 

 the sea or sea-coast has some properties, or constituent parts, which that found 

 in the whale has not : and lastly, whether that found in the whale is superior or 

 inferior in its qualities and value to the i< rmer ? By conversing with many per- 

 sons having had experience in the facts, Dr. S. finds as follows : that ambergris 

 is sometimes found in the belly of the whale, but in that particular species only 

 which is called the spermaceti whale, and which from its description and delinea- 

 tion appears to be the Physeter Macrocephalus Linnsei. 



The New England fishermen have long known that ambergris is to be found 



