AMBERGRIS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3928, 19 July 1937, Page 8

AMBERGRIS

THE TREASURE OF THE SEA. Ambergris, the treasure of the sea, is literally worth its weight in gold. Ambergris is a solid substance, blackish in colour, with shades like variegated marble. It has an unusual sweet earthy smell. When found it is in lumps of various shapes and sizes, weighing from half an ounce to one hundred pounds. The largest haul ever found weighed 750 lbs, taken from one whale by the crew of a Nantucket (America) whaling ship. It is used in the manufacture of expensive perfumes, and nothing can take its place. In the seventeenth century it was also used as a fitting gift for kings, queens and princes. For many years scientists were puzzled as to its origin. The ancients thought that ambergris was formed at the bottom of the sea; Dutch East Indiamen considered it solidified sap of a certain tree; others called it “an odoriferous fruit.” In 1724 came final proof of the source, if not the cause, of this valuable material. It was “an animal production bred in the body .of the spermeceti whale.” Now it is known that ambergris comes only from sick, possibly dead whales. Only one in a hundred whales yields this “treasure of the sea,” so it may be easily understood why it is worth its weight in gold. This interesting paragraph comes from the new children’s section of the Australian Journal for July.