Bennie Newman, age 10, of Batesburg, S, C:, for his question:
Sometimes a lump of ambergris washes up on a lonely beach. While still wet with the foamy tide it is a soft, fatty substance, streaked with light and dark shades of grey. In the dry air it soon becomes solid and you might mistake it for a lump of soft, marbleized rock. Chances are, you would leave it right there on the beach, for ambergris gives off a strong, musky and very disagreeable smell. But if you knew its value, you would hold your nose and claim it as treasure trove, For it may b e worth more than two hundred dollars a pound.
Ambergris is found in pebble‑sized lumps and in chunks as big as boulders. A big chunk weighing 400 pounds was once sold for one hundred thousand dollars. Many a. lucky beach comber has become rich, just because he did not turn up his nose at a lump of smelly ambergris.
Can you guess why ambergris is so valuable? If no one tells you, you could make a million guesses and. still be wrong. Of all things, this smelly treasure trove is used in the making of fine perfumes. Also, in the Middle East it is used as a delicate food spice and in China it is used to flavor certain wines. Of course, the strong odor is diluted and toned down to a faint whisper before it is put to use.
A fine perfume is blended from many sweet and tangy scents, most of them from the plant world. These scents are captured from lavender and lemons, from pines and sandalwood, from violets and roses. These sweet smells are very delicate and‑soon fade away in the air. A tiny drop of diluted ambergris is added to the delicate blend to save its sweet smell. It acts to fix the scent and preserve it over a long period of time.
No one has figured out how to make precious ambergris. It is made only by the big sperm whale who lives in the deep ocean and he refuses to make it to order. Sometimes it is found in the stomach of a captured whale and once in a great while a lump is washed up on a beach. The most likely beaches are around Australia and New Zealand, but it can be found on almost any beach. Lighter than water, it floats in on the tides and is left stranded for some lucky treasure hunter.
The monster whale does not want to produce ambergris, far from it. To him., it is a terrible tummy ache and may cost him his life. And it all happens because his dinner disagrees with him. The big animal, sometimes 80 feet long, feeds mostly on cuttlefish and giant squid and he needs to eat a ton of food every day of his life. He can use the fifty or so huge teeth in his lower jaw to gobble by a ten‑foot shark.
The giant squid of the deep ocean are soft‑bodied creatures, but each has a hard parrot‑like beak. The whale gobbles them down in giant gulps, beaks and all. Sometimes the hard beaks get stuck in the soft walls of his stomach. It is thought that the stomach wall tries to embed the hard dagger in a wad of soft ambergris. The whale may b e able to throw up the whole mass, beak and all .‑ or it may cost him his life.