ABNEB'S WHALE. 79 



masticate his food, was compelled to tear it in sizable 

 pieces, bolt it whole, and leave his commissariat depart- 

 ment to do the rest. 



While thus ruminating, the mate and Louis began a 

 desultory conversation concerning what they termed 

 ** ambergrease." I had never even heard the word 

 before, although I had a notion that Milton, in " Paradise 

 Eegained," describing the Satanic banquet, had spoken 

 of something being " gris-amber steamed." They could 

 by no means agree as to wbat this mysterious substance 

 was, how it was produced, or under what conditions. 

 They knew that it was sometimes found floating near 

 the dead body of a sperm whale — the mate, in fact, stated 

 that he had taken it once from the rectum of a cachalot 

 — and they were certain that it was of great value — from 

 one to three guineas per ounce. When I got to know 

 more of the natural history of the sperm whale, and 

 had studied the literature of the subject, I was no longer 

 surprised at their want of agreement, since the learned 

 doctors who have written upon the subject do not seem 

 to have come to definite conclusions either. 



By some it is supposed to be the product of a 

 diseased condition of the creature ; others consider that 

 it is merely the excreta, which, normally fluid, has by 

 some means become concreted. It is nearly always 

 found with cuttle-fish beaks imbedded in its substance, 

 showing that these indigestible portions of the sperm 

 whale's food have in some manner become mixed with 

 it during its formation in the bowel. Chemists have ana- 

 lyzed it with scanty results. Its great value is due to its 

 property of intensifying the power of perfurnes, although, 

 strange to say, it has little or no odour of its own, a faint 

 trace of musk being perhaps detectable in some cases. 



