130 THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 
The enormous and curiously formed head is the great receptacle of the 
spermaceti, which lies in a liquid oily state, in two great cavities that exist 
in the huge mass of tendinous substance of which the head is chiefly com- 
posed. When the Whale is kiiled and towed to the ship’s side, the head is 
cut off and affixed to tackles for the purpose of supporting it in a convenient 
position for the extrac- 
tion of this valuable 
substance. A large 
hole is cut in the top 
of the head, and a 
number of sailors lower 
their buckets into the 
cavity and bale out the 
liquid matter. 
When first exposed 
to the air it has a clear 
oily appearance, but 
after it has been sub- 
jected to the action of 
the atmosphere for a 
few hours, the sperma- 
ceti begins to separate 
itself from the oil, and 
in a short time is suffi- 
ciently firm to be re- 
moved and put into a 
different vessel. 
SPERMACETI WHALE.—(Cdlodon Macrocéphalus.) The amount of sper- 
maceti which is pro- 
duced from the head of a single Whale is very large indeed. From a 
Cachalot that only measured sixty four feet in length, and was therefore by 
voor --=--., no means a large 
one, twenty-four 
barrels of sperma- 
ceti and nearly one 
hundred barrels of 
oil were obtained. 
Ambergris, that 
curious substance 
whose origin so long 
haffled the keenest 
inquirers, and which 
was formerly only 
found at rare inter- 
vals floating on the 
waves or cast upon 
the shore, is now 
often discovered 
within the iniestines of the Cachalot, and is supposed to be a morbid secretion 
peculiar to the animal, and analogous to biliary calculi. Fifty pounds weight 
of this substance have been found in a single Whale, and on one occasion a 
single piece of ambergris of the same weight was discovered on the coast of 
the Bermudas by some sailors, who immediately deserted their ship and 
escaped to England with their valuable prize. The value of the ambergris is 
rather variable, but it is always a costly article. 
SKULL OF SPERMACETI WHALE. 
