If but a small amount of ambergris is produced it will often pass off with the excreta and, since it is very light, may be found floating in the water, but the entire intestines of dead whales have been known to be clogged with the substance. It is exceedingly valuable, the black ambergris being worth at the present time $12.50 an ounce, and the gray, which is of superior quality, $20. As much as $60,000 worth has been taken from the intestines of a single whale.
It is not itself used as an odor but as a fixative in perfumes; that is, to make the fragrance last. Many substitutes for ambergris have been adopted in commercial work, but as yet none has been found which is as effective as the original substance.
For hundreds of years ambergris has been known and used in various ways. It was formerly supposed to have wonderful medicinal qualities (which, however, are largely mythical) and in Asia was employed as a spice in cooking. The Turks have long considered it of the greatest value, and pilgrims who traveled to Mecca used to bring it as an offering. Ambergris has a peculiar and not disagreeable odor which, when once identified, will not easily be forgotten; after touching it traces of the smell will still remain even though the hands have received several washings.
During the last eight years at least fifty persons have brought to my office for identification almost as many different substances which they have found floating or washed up on the seacoast, and which they devoutly prayed might prove to be ambergris. One man brought as a sample a large piece of tallow from a barrelful which he had collected at considerable trouble and expense; another had a portion of a jellyfish, and a third carefully treasured a mass of dirty soap. But as yet no one has brought “the real thing.” Ambergris is soluble in alcohol and this is a good first test for those to whom the substance is unknown.
The sperm is by far the largest member of the toothed whale family and has from eighteen to twenty-five massive teeth on each side of the lower jaw; these fit into sockets in the upper jaw and assist in holding the whale’s food. Upper teeth are also present but are in a rudimentary condition and, except in rare cases, do not protrude into the sockets; undoubtedly in ancient times the upper teeth were as well developed as the lower but since they have not been needed they have gradually atrophied and almost disappeared. Like the teeth of other animals, those of the sperm whale are hollow in the basal half of their length for the reception of nerves; in young whales this nerve cavity is wide and deep but it almost closes with increasing age.
“The sperm ... has from eighteen to twenty-five massive teeth on each side of the lower jaw; these fit into sockets in the upper jaw and assist in holding the whale’s food.”
Quite frequently the lower jaw of an immature animal will be injured and as the whale grows its jaw becomes twisted like an enormous corkscrew. The widespreading posterior part of the jaw is called the “panbone” and from it the sailors make walking sticks, pie-markers, hairpins, and carvings which are often beautifully executed. “Scrimshawing,” or drawing upon whale’s teeth, also helps to while away many weary hours when the ship lies still in a tropic calm.
Cutting away the “junk” from the “case” of a sperm whale. The junk is a mass of cellular tissue which also contains spermaceti.