![]() ![]() Like many other substances regarding the origin of which there existed some obscurity or mystery, ambergris in former times possessed a value, and had properties attributed to it, more on account of the source from which it was drawn than from its inherent qualities. An American fisherman from Antigua found, Inside a whale, about 52 leagues south-east from the Windward Islands, a piece of ambergris which weighed about l 30 lb, and sold for 500 sterling.ĭ. ![]() A piece which the Dutch East India Company bought from the King of Tydore weighed 182 lb. It is also sometimes found in the abdomen of whales it is always in lumps in various shapes and sizes, weighing from 1/ 2 oz. Being a very lightweight material, ambergris is found floating upon the sea, on the sea coast, or in the sand near the sea coast.It is met with in the Atlantic Ocean, on the coasts Of Brazil and Madagascar also on the coast Of Africa, of the East Indies, China, Japan, and the Molucca Islands but most of the ambergris which is brought to England comes from the Bahama Islands. It is now known to be a morbid secretion formed in the intestines of the sperm whale, found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It possesses a peculiar sweet,earthy odour not unlike isopropyl alcohol. Ambergris is a solid, waxy and flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish color, with the shades being variegated like marble. Ambergris and amber are related by the fact that both wash up on beaches. There, the trees and their resins became covered with sediment, and over millions of years the resin hardened into amber.Ĭ. In the dense forests of the Middle Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, between 10 and 100 million years ago, these resin-bearing trees fell and were carried by rivers to coastal regions. Although considered a gem, amber is a hard, transparent and wholly-organic material derived from the resin of extinct species of trees. Amber is the fossilized resin from trees that was quite familiar to Europeans long before the discovery of the New World, and prized for jewelry. Amber, however, is quite a different substance from ambergris and this discrepancy has puzzled some people. ![]() Ambergris was also decorated and worn as jewelry, particularly during the Renaissance.It occupies a very important place in the perfumery of the East, and there it is also used in pharmacy and as a flavouring material in cookery.ī. Its high price varies from $15 to $25 an ounce, though it formerly occupied on inconsiderable place in medicine. The use of ambergris in Europe is now entirely confined to perfumery-as a material of perfumery. The name ambergris is derived from the Spanish “ambar gris”, ambar meaning amber and gris meaning grey, thus the name signifies grey amber. ![]()
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