476 -tm TftOMCAL AQR5CULTURIST. [Januabv i, 1892. 
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LARGE PIECES OF AMBERGEIS. 
The exoeedingly high prioes (equal to fully three 
limes the weight in gold of the drug) which perfu- 
mers have been compelled to pay for the finest 
ambergris lately is the best proof of the indispensa- 
bility of the drug in the preparation of high-clasa 
perfumes. For over a year the price of the best 
ambergris has now ranged from 180s. to 200s. per 
oz., and until quite lately there did not seem to be 
any prospect of an early fall in prices. Iha small 
compass within which a very valuable quantity of 
thg drug may be imported without attracting atten- 
tion, and the ease with which the requirements of 
the Customs regulations that all goods imported 
shall be entered under their proper name and at 
their full value may be circumvented, where it is 
deemed advisable to keep quiet concerning a con- 
Bignment of ambergris, render it exceedingly diffi- 
cult to follow closely the imports of the drug. It is 
Btated, for iuEtauce, that although for many months 
fine ambergris has been thought to be exceedingly 
Bcaroe in our market — and the visible supplly has 
been so in reality — there has been a far greater supply 
available than has appeared on the surface. Under 
these circumstances, the recent importation, to 
which we drew attention in our trade report, of a 
piece of ambergris from Melbourne weighing, it is 
said, 136 lb., and valued at 10,000^., naturallv 
caused a good deal of excitement. The piece is 
believed to be the same which was captured by a 
black man in Tasmania some time ago, and of 
which we gave a description. But the matter still 
remains shrouded in some mystery, for the Loudon 
oonsigneea of the parcel refuse to show the piece 
to anyone, and even decline to give the slightest 
Information of any value. Whether this policy is 
a wise one or not is an arguable question ; it is 
certain, however, that the mysteriousness of the 
consignees has not assisted in allaying the fears 
of a heavy fall in the price of the drug that 
were the natural outcome of the announcement of 
the large importation. It may be presumed, 
however> that the oonsigness will want to dispose 
of the drug, and it is certain that they will not 
be able to do so without showing their hand. 
The historiological references to ambergris have 
recently been enriched by the publication, under 
the auspices of the Hakluyt Society, of the account 
of the voyages of Fran9ois Leguat, a French Hugue- 
oot, to the isles of Rodriguez and Mauritius, Java, 
and the Cape of Good Hope. The Sieur Leguat', 
voyages were made during the years 1691 and 1698, 
and in his narrative frequent references are found 
to the precious perfume. He states that it occurs 
plentifully on the shores of Mauritius, as well as 
of the island now known ae Reunion, in the Indian 
Ocean, due east of Madagascar, and also on those 
of the little island of Redriguez, in the same 
latitude, where, to quote his words, the sea brings 
up yellow amber and ambergreece." The word 
"amber-gris" (grey amber) was, in fact, given to 
the substance expressly to distinguish it from the 
ordinary or yellow amber. Possibly both were 
believed to be of common or allied origin. Amber- 
gris has been a prized and costly luxury for 
centuries, though the Sieur Leguat does not appear 
to have been quite alive to the value of the drug 
until taught by bitter experience. At Rodriguez he 
found a large piece of the substance, and carried 
it along as a curiosity, not knowing the true im- 
portance of the find. That piece of ambergris 
wrought its discoverer cruel misfortunes. It weighted 
about G lb, and as Leguat's party no longer oared 
to carry it, they disposed of it for a trifle to a 
Dutch artisan of the island, which was then a 
Dutoh colony, The oolonis^a were atriogently for- 
bidden to own or trade in the commodity, which 
was a monopoly of the Dutch Trading Company, 
who forwarded to Batavia all the ambergris iound 
on its outlying stations, and from that pen shipped 
the drug to Holland for sale. When tiae Governor 
of Rodriguez learnt that Leguat's party had traded 
in the enbstance, he seized all their belongings, 
and finally bani&hed them to a barren island rock, 
where they suffered greet hardships. In the 
"London Price Current of Colonial Produce" of 
1777, which wo reproduced in facsimile last year, 
ambergris is quoted at 40#, to 4.5-1. per oz- troy 
for " gray fine," while Irish amber, obtained on 
the Atlantic coasts of the Emerald Isle, was valued 
at 25s. per oz. Considering the respective purchasing 
powers of money two centuries ago and at the present 
day, these prices are quite equal to the average 
value of ambergris in recent years. 
So plentiful was ambergris on the shores of the 
islands in the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth 
and eighteen centuries that some islets oS the north, 
east coast of Mauritius became known as the " Isles 
d'Ambre." Ambergris waa also found in the Japa- 
nese waters ; and the Dutch traders not only kept 
Europe supplied with it from their emporium in 
Batavia, but also imported it into the dominions 
of the various Eastern potentates with whom they 
came into contact. A piece almost rivalling the 
latest giant find was imported from Batavia into 
Madras in 1699, and is described in contemporary 
chronicles as a " very stately piece of Ambergriese, 
upwards of 800 oz." On the Madras * islands, again, 
west of Ceylon, ambergris, according to another 
seventeenth century-traveller was more plentiful 
than in any other part of the Indies. Any of it 
found on shore had to be delivered up to the king, 
the penalty for failing to comply with this order 
being the cutting-off of the culprit's hand. 
In the writings of earlier travellers references to 
ambergris are also by no means infrequent. Zanzi- 
bar was famous for its ambergris from before the 
time of Marco Polo. But there is no need to hark 
back to the half- forgotten worthies who made history 
in the Indies centuries ago for accounts of gigantic 
pieces of the valuable drug. It is true that the 
largest single piece recorded in history as an authen- 
tic find (it weighed 182 lb.) was one purchased 
from the King of Tydore by the Dutch East India 
Company nearly two centuries ago, but from 
America stories have since come of pieces many 
times heavier than that of the King of Tydore's, 
It is only fair to say, however, that these American 
stories have never been backed by trustworthy 
evidence. Hence the account of the find, in the year 
1853, by the schooner " Watchman," of Nantucket, 
of 640 lb. of ambergris in a whale floating on the 
high seas, with the stories of a 560-lb. piece brought 
home by an American whaler in 1886, of a 266-lb. 
trophy captured by a New Bedford whaler, and 
of a 130-lb. piece taken out of a whale near the 
Windward Islands, may be dismissed as "not 
proven"; and the mass of detail with which some 
of these accounts are embellished may fairly be 
regarded as having been added simply "to lend 
artistic verisimilitude to a bold and unconvincing 
narrative," as Mr. Gilbert has it. 
It is a fact, however, that in 1882 a piece of 
ambergris weighing 12 lb., and found in a gravel- 
pit in New Zealand, was sold in the London market. 
It realised an average price of about 85s. per oz. 
There is also a story current that a well-known 
Mincing Lane broker was instructed some years 
ago to sell " a barreltul " of ambergris which had 
been for many years in the unappreciated pos- 
session of a gentleman who was altogether unaware 
' * Mdldive !— Ed. 2". A, ~~ 
