The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-08-27
THE AMBERGRIS MYSTERY.
Facts Concerning This Valuable
Substance.

From the Boston Evening Transcript.
Three spermaceti whales were COM
panionably:f FLOATING about in Southern
waters one sunshiny day not so very
many years ago. Two we're fine speci-
mems of the genus physeter; the third,
however, though of the same species,
was lank and scrawny, and lolled list
lessly on the dark blue surface of the
Gulf Stream, while its more rotund
and sportive comrades slashed about
vigorously, and sent the limpid waters
far above them to fall in refreshing
sprays. 1t was mystery why any
whale at that season should have pre-
sented an ill-fed condition, as the
feeding grounds had been unusually
we'll populated by the tentaculated
and foul-mouthed cutie fish, ,Sepia
octopodia, and no whale had need to
go single day with an empty stom.
ach. Perhaps if the two well-condi-
toned animals had been less frolicsome
and the third more aroused, they
would have been on the alert for de-
fence. AS it was, a long narrow boat,
pointed at both ends, bore down I'M
observed upon them, and the whale
men sent with unerring aim their
weapons straight into the bulky crea-
lures. The scrawny whale escaped,
though it made no motion to get away !;
but because it was evident there
would be but little, if any, oil or sper-
maceti in the animal, and because the
capture of the two splendid specimens
had been more than was expected, it
was left unmolested, still rocking
lazily in the sea.
Next day, to the amazement of the
whalemen, the animal was seen almost
exactly in the same spot, as though
inviting death.
"Well," called out the Captain of
the whaling feet, who had been one
of the party the day before, eff you
wish to die, you poor, crazy lubber,
you shall,' and forthwith it, too, was
disposed of, the easiest task, the men
agreed, that they had had in many a
day. But little more than two barrels
of oil we're found in the emaciated
whale. Another and vastly more inn
portant discovery was heslargest sim
gle lot of ambergris ever sold in this
country. 1t was exchanged for a
check signed by well-known drug
firm of this city, whose figures round
ed close onto 100000 Never had so
large check been seen till then in the
little Cape Cod fishing town where it
was divided among the whalemen of
the fleet, as each man on whaler re-
ceives a certain percentage of the pro-
ceeds of a voyage. The number Of
pounds aggregated over $50, valued
at $50 per ounce the price paid for the
best ambergris.
It would seem that the animal had
sickened of a malady caused by the
unnatural growth, and such was I'M
doubtedly the case, and, if it's sufferings
had not been brought to an end by
the whalemen, it would have fingered
till the disease itself had finally caus-
ed death. Such profound mystery
has surrounded this strange subject,
and so many fallacies have been writ
ten in regard to it, that some of the
larger encyclopedias have-perhaps
wisely-left it untouched, or, if treat
ing it at all, have ventured on but the
barest generalities, for trustworthy
facts relating to this most interesting
and singular product are few and far
between.
We need touch but lightly on the
history of ambergris, though the de-
lusions that we're primitively INDUCED
in are extremely fascinating. In the
arabian Nights" we are told of East
ern beauties whose cheeks were mark
ed with moles like bits of ambergris;
and in the story of the sixth voyage of
"Sinbad the Sailor" we read in the
description of the place where the
the voyagers we're wrecked: "Here is
also fountain of pitch and bitumen
that runs into the sea, which the fish
es swallow, and then vomit up again
turned into ambergris" That antique
author, Robert Boyle, considered it to
be of vegetable production and similar
to yellow amber; thus it received it's
name, amber-gris (gray), gray amber.
This and other even more plausible
theories are hut indeed fa1lacias that