are the principal places where it has been found. In the "Philosophical
Transactions" there is an account of a lump found on the beach of the
first-mentioned county, in the year 1691, which weighed 52 oz., and was
bought on the spot for 20_l._, but which afterwards was sold in London
for more than 100_l._ (Philos. Trans. No. 227, p. 509). We are quite
within limit in stating that many volumes concerning the origin of
ambergris have been written, but the question respecting it is still at
issue. It is found in the stomachs of the most voracious fishes, these
animals swallowing, at particular times, everything they happen to meet
with. It has been particularly found in the intestines of the spermaceti
whale, and most commonly in sickly fish, whence it is supposed to be the
cause or effect of the disease.

Some authors, and among them Robert Boyle, consider it to be of
vegetable production, and analogous to amber; hence its name
amber-_gris_ (gray) gray amber. It is not, however, within the province
of this work to discuss upon the various theories about its production,
which could probably be satisfactorily explained if our modern
appliances were brought to bear upon the subject. The field is open to
any scientific enthusiast; all recent authors who mention it, merely
quoting the facts known more than a century ago.

A modern compiler, speaking of ambergris, says, "It smells like dried
cow-dung." Never having smelled this latter substance, we cannot say
whether the simile be correct; but we certainly consider that its
perfume is most incredibly overrated; nor can we forget that
HOMBERG found that "a vessel in which he had made a long
digestion of the human fæces had acquired a very strong and perfect
smell of ambergris, insomuch that any one would have thought that a
great quantity of essence of ambergris had been made in it. The perfume