Betty Hobbs, age 12, of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, for her question:
Where does ambergris come from?
Ambergris was used to perfume cosmetics in the days of ancient Mesopotamia, but nobody at that time knew where it really came from. Experts still were guessing its origin thousands of years later. It is mentioned in a science text of the 1(90s. This book states that the strange stuff is a marine sulphur that breaks up from caverns under the sea and washes up on the shores. The long ages of guesswork ended in the 1724s, when Nantucket whalers found gobs of the costly material inside the bodies of the sperm whales.
Through countless ages, people have found pieces of ambergris on sandy beaches. It was named grey amber to distinguish it from golden amber, another rare treasure found washed up along certain shores. The glassy yellow amber was treasured as a hard gem stone and later investigations proved it to be deposits of resin from ancient conifer trees. Soft ambergris, mottled or streaked with light and dark greys, was treasured because of its most unusual odor. It enhances the fragrance of flowers and the flavor of wines. In bygone days, it was claimed that tiny doses improved the heart and brain and were good for almost anything that ailed the human body.
More than 200 years ago, it was proved that ambergris originates inside the adult male sperm whale. Then large amounts of it also were found in the female. Obviously the strange substance comes from the digestive processes of these monsters of the deep ocean. When modern scientists at last analyzed its chemical contents, they decided that it may be produced only by sick and possibly dying whales. One of its complex chemicals somewhat resembles those found in pesky human gall stones.
The sperm whale dines almost entirely on squid and cuttlefish. Most samples of ambergris contain fragments of their hard beaks. Some biologists suggest that these tough items irritate the whale's internal organs. Perhaps his digestive system strives to protect him by oozing gobs of this soft and very special organic substance. In any case, old time whalers found more ambergris in sick and scrawny whales than in healthy ones.
We can guess how so much of it gets washed up on the sea shores. Possibly a sperm whale is able to throw up his digestive problem and recover. Otherwise he most likely dies and the ambergris escapes as his enormous body decomposes. Since it is only nine tenths the weight of water, it floats. Tides and currents carry it on long ocean voyages and once in a great while some of it is washed ashore.
Ambergris was always rare and the best qualities are more costly than gold. It is rarer now because the great sperm whales have been hunted almost to extinction. An ordinary person might mistake it for a waxy, mottled stone that becomes soft when held in the hand. It takes a perfume expert to detect its genuine odor and a chemist to verify its complex chemical nature.
A few people find the odor of raw ambergris downright repulsive. Others describe it as a fascinating earthy scent with a blend of extra fragrances all its own. The raw stuff is sifted and powdered. Each ounce is mixed with nine ounces of cold alcohol and aged for six months. Then it becomes a very costly ingredient used to enhance and prolong the quality of fine perfumes.