FLOATING GOLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17188, 3 November 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

FLOATING GOLD.

FORTUNES IN AMBERGRIS, j RICH SPERM WALES. There is gold in the sea tons and tons of it. Down at Black Rock. I b.eside Port Phillip, a scientist has f worked for years at the problem of I extracting it. He estimates that in I Port Phillip alone there is enough gold to pay off Australia’s Common- I wealth debts and leave him any ; amount over. The only trouble is that it does not pay to get it out. Take some land stocks, the mine is too heavily watered. The nearest approach to gold that the sea has. yet been found to yield is that curious substance called ambergris. AYe have borowed the name from the, French, who called the stuff “grey amber.” But the old-time whalers usually pronounced it “ ambergrease.” Jt has rather a greasy feel about it, anyway. THE AY CHILD'S RECORD. This “ floating gold ” is a good deal more valuable, weight for weight, than gold. There is no r'xed quotation for it. the price depending on the scarcity at the moment. \s far hack as 1904 it was quoted at ££ an ounce in America. To-day it might well be worth twice that. Tt is occasionally found, too, in quantities which make the world’s greatest gold nuggets, such as " The AYelcome Stranger,” look small. A« with gold nuggets, the world's record is probably 1 eld by Australia. Alany years ago Tasmanian fishermen found nearly IOOOIh weight—avoirdupois, not troy - of ambergris in a sperm whale which they came upon near Port Dnvey. They took the ambergris to Hobart, deposited it in a bank, and eventually sold it for £27.000. AY. G. Burn Murdoch states in Ids (i Alodern AA'haling ” that this huge mass of ambergris was found by Norwegians. This is not the c-flse; the tinders were four fishermen from Hobart. There is. however, a tradition that the whale had been killed by J v.halers. who had missed the ambergris. If that is true, tho feelings of the whalers when they heard what they had lost may be imagined. But whalers always keep a sharp look-out for ambergris when they kill a sperm whale. Before that the record was held by a mass of ambergris weighing (5001 b. which tli© schooner AA'atehman. of the famous American whaling port of Nantucket, brought home from the Bahamas in 1858. The Nantucket men had better luck, or managed their sales better, if the statement that tliev sold the ambergris for £60,000 is correct. SOLD FOR £IO.OOO. For a very long period the record in size was held by a lump of ambergris weighing J92lb, which the Dutch East India Company obtained troin the King of Tidore, in the Moluccas. The Grand Duke of Tuscany offered 50.000 crowns for it. About fifty years ago a block of embtrgns weighing 1621 b 1 loz mysteriously appeared in London, where it was sold for £IO.OOO. The seller stated that he did not feel disposed to say where the ambergris came from. ' here is a proposal on foot at nresent to revive Australias* long dead whaling industry, and to make Svdnev once more a whaling port. Even if sperm whaling is included, it will not fie possible to rely on ambergris as a steady source of profit. But if a lump or two of it could be found it would sweeten the business up. figuratively, nC \V, ht ; era ! lv ' *°,,- a remarkable extent'A bile the really big finds of ambergris have been made inside the whale, the substance is sometimes found floating on the sea or washed up on the shore- AA ith the decay of sperm whaling m the Pacific that is the only chance of any ambergris being found m Australian waters in these days. How small the chance is appears from the fact that it is thirty years since any ambergris came on the* market in Sydney. I N FULFILLED HO PES. It you wandered into a wholesale druggist’s or the business nlace of any j other likely customer for ambergris J with a lump as big as a prize pumpkin you would probably be received with incredulity. For in those thirty years all sorts of other things have been forwarded from various remote corners of Australasia in the fond, but always vain, hope that they wore ambergris i One such find was a lump of greyish substance picked up on an island in Torres Strait. Captain Bruce, a Torres Strait pilot. sent it to Sydney for analysis, with a feeling that ho need pilot no more. The analyst reported that the substance was tallow, but not very good tallow. A lump of paraffin wax. too. has I before to-day fired its tinder with a I dream of sudden riches. The next time I yon are in doubt about it warm the j substance. If it is ambergris it gives ' off a rather agreeable, but pungent, j odour. If it contains the l>eaks and other parts of cuttlefish, it is either ambergris or an unusually thorough I attempt at fraud. If it does uot coni’ tain them, it may still be ambergris. ITS USE IN COOKERY. In colour ambergris may range from , light grey to nearly black- It has a I waxy look, a low specific gravity, and j usually a rather unpleasant earthy j Bin ell when cold. It is now established that ambergris is a secretion of the sperm whale. No I oilier kind of whale yields ambergris. I I Nor docs one sperm whale out of a j 1 thousand. It is an abnormal product. | i beginning apparently in an over-hearty I meal of cuttlefish. The whales that ; i yield it are usually thin and miserable. • and look as if they had been suffering I 1 badlv from indigestion- Our hardy an- I I cestors used to eat ambergris when fhev could afford it. It wascurrently reported at the time that i hnrles M was poisoned bv some venom put into his favourite dish of eggs and ambergris. Tt sounds like eating not. the goose that laid the golden eggs, but the golden eggs themselves Most, ot us would probably find the dish deadly enough without the poison. Chinese mandarins still use am (••el-s'-is to flavour the tea of honoured guests, and rich Arabs use. it for tlieir coffee. |