Lyle Phillips, age 12, of Mullen, Nebraska, for his question:

Why is amberstris so expensive?

Not so long ago, an ounce of ambergris was worth about $15. A 400 pound lump of the stuff was found washed up on a tidal beach and sold for $100,000. Nowadays, the price of ambergris is still high, but not so high as it was. We live in an age of miracles and our clever chemists have learned how to create the chemical characteristics of ambergris by using more plentiful substances. Real ambergris is rare because it forms in the intestines of the sperm whale    and this hunted monster of the deep is getting rarer every year.

When a substance is rare and much in demand, people pay high prices for it. Ambergris is used in the perfume business to make the fragrance of certain scents last longer. You would never guess this from handling a chunk of the valuable stuff. It is a streaky grey wad of waxy material with a most. repulsive odor. However, in small quantities it enhances pleasant smelling perfumes and its natural odor is masked. Lumps of true ambergris are found on beaches and in slaughtered sperm whales. But it is rare, still very useful and therefore expensive.