230 Dr schwediawer’s Account 
it is an animal proclu&ion generated in the ftomach as a kind of 
bezoar, according to clusius. ; or fecreted in a peculiar bag, ac- 
cording to Dudley, &c.? Or laftly* Whether it is, according 
to kzempfer, the excrement or dung of the whale? 
All thefe queftions ought to be diicufled and precifely an- 
fwered, before we can determine any thing with certainty 
about the origin of ambergrife. 
In order to clear up this point, we muft apply to the perfons 
who are employed in procuring and felling ambergrife. This 
is what I have had an opportunity of doing through the kind- 
nefs of Sir jo.seph banks, baronet, whole zeal to promote 
every part of ufefui knowledge is lo generally known and ac- 
knowledged by the public. Sir Joseph very obligingly pro- 
cured me the acquaintance of two captains of fhips, men of 
good fcnfe and veracity, who offered to tell me every thing they 
knew about the matter, and who began with alluring me that 
they would fpeak only as to what they themfelves had leen, and 
that not once only, but repeatedly, as they have both of them, 
been employed many years m what is called in England the 
South Fifhery. I have fince had an opportunity of converting 
on the fame fuhjefl with an intelligent native of New England,, 
who before the prefent war broke out was employed for l'everal 
years in the fpermaceti- whale fi (hery from Bo (Ion. From thefe 
three perfons I have collected the following fa£ts : 
Ambergrife is fometimes found in the belly of the whale, 
but in that particular (pecies only which is called the fpermaceti 
whale, and which from its defcription and delineation appears 
to be the Phyfeter Macrocephalus LinnaeL 
The New England fhhermen, according to their account, 
have long known that ambergrife is to be found in the fperma- 
ceti whale; and they are fo convinced of this fa£t, that when- 
ever 
