“Well, if that’s ambergris, I believe there’s another bit of it over there,” said Breeze, standing up and looking eagerly in the direction from which the wind blew.
He was right; there was another bit, and beyond that they found another, and still another, until they had gathered up a number of the small floating lumps that had been strung out over several miles of water.
“What is ambergris, anyway?” asked Breeze, while Nimbus was rowing towards one of these pieces.
“Don’ know,” was the answer. “Sick whale heave um up.”
“Sick whale!” exclaimed Breeze, in a tone of disgust. “I hope you don’t expect me to believe such a yarn as that, Nimbus.”
In spite of the boy’s disbelief, the black man was right; for ambergris has been found in the intestines of sperm-whales, but only of such as were very thin and evidently diseased. It has also been thrown up by such whales in their death-struggles after being harpooned. It is valuable on account of its delightful odor, and is used in the manufacture of most of the delicious perfumes for the handkerchief that chemists devote so much time and ingenuity to preparing and naming.[naming.] Nothing has ever been found to take its place, and it brings, according to the state of the market, from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars an ounce, or about five hundred dollars per pound.
Although Breeze and Nimbus had no distinct idea of the value of what they were finding, they knew enough about it to become intensely excited as they discovered piece after piece, and the little pile in the bottom of the boat began to assume very respectable proportions. In their eager search they forgot everything else, and paid no attention to where they were going, nor how far they had come. They even failed to notice the little squall of rain and fog that came whirling past them, bringing with it a change of wind. That they neglected to observe this was because, just at that moment, they sighted the great parent mass of gray stuff from which all the little pieces they had been picking up had broken off and drifted away.
If they were excited before, they were wild with excitement now, and both of them very nearly pitched into the water in their eagerness to secure their prize and get it into the dory. They estimated its weight to be nearly, if not quite, a hundred pounds; and its bulk was so great that they had hard work to squeeze it into the boat.
When at last this had been safely accomplished, they sat and gazed at it and at each other.
“I shouldn’t wonder if it was worth a thousand dollars,” said Breeze, at length.