Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

ipiS
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t DC in-
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Ms.
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f bably a
P crna-
fub-
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s .1 as a
fume.
tion which exhales the odour of the fluid in which it is
formed j and that the bag which contains thcfe fra¬
grant maffes is the urinary bladder.
But if this be the ufual mode in which amber¬
gris is produced, it appears difficult to account for
the large raaffes which are found floating in the waters
of the ocean in different parts of the world, as among
the iflands in the torrid zone, and in the Indian and
African feas.
According to the information colle&ed by Dr Swe-
diaur, and which the reader will find more fully de¬
tailed under the word Ambergris, it appears that
it is generally confidered by the New England fiflier-
men as a produ&ion of the fpermaceti whale. Some¬
times they find it floating in the fea ; and when this
happens, they fearch for the whale, fuppofing tlftt it
has been voided by this animal. Sometimes they
out it out from a fwelling or protuberance on the
belly of the dead whale. And from all the informa¬
tion which Dr Swediaur could obtain, he concludes,
that ambergris is generated in the bowels of the
fpermaceti whale (P/iyfeter Macrocephalus, Lin.), and
that it is there mixed with the beaks of the fepia
oRepodia, which is the principal food of this w hale.
He therefore confiders this fubltance to be the faces
of the animal preternaturally indurated, mixed with
the indigeltible relicks of the food. See Amber¬
gris.
Later information has verified feme part of the doc¬
tor’s opinion, as well as fome of the conjeflures of ear¬
lier naturalifts. Mr Coffin, mafter of a ffiip employed
in the fouthern vhale-filhery, brought home, in the year
I79r» 362 ounces of ambergris taken from the body
of a female fpermaceti wffiale on the coaft of Guinea.
Part was found floating in the fea, and part was feen
coming from the anus while the people were employ¬
ed in cutting up the blubber. More was found in the
mteffines, and the reft in a bag communicating with
them. I his whale was lean, fickly, and old, and yield¬
ed but a fmall proportion of oil. When the fpermaceti
whale is ftruck, (he generally voids her excrement \
and, if ftie does not, it is conje£lured that flie has no
ambergris. Mr Coffin fuppofes, that the production
of this fubftance is either the caufe or the effect of
lome difeafe, as he thinks it is molt likely to be
found in ffckly fifti, as was the cafe with the filh which
yielded him fo large a quantity. Perhaps it may be
found by future and more accurate investigation to be
a natural produftion of the animal, fecreted to anfwer
fome important purpofe in its economy j and that it is
preternaturally increafed in quantity, either by the
exceflive or the diminilhed aftion of the vital powers
in age or difeafe, and then it is excreted, or difeovered
in the body of the filh after death.
Ambergris is one of the moft fragrant perfumes j
and for this purpole it is chiefly employed in this as
well as in moft other countries. In Alia, and in fome
parts of Africa, it is alfo ufed in medicine and cookery.
It is bought up in conliderable quantities by the pil¬
grims who travel to Mecca, by whom it is fuppofed to
be ufed in fumigations in religious ceremonies, in the
hftne manner as the burning frankincenfe or other
fragrant perfumes makes part of the religious rites of
other countries.
^ V. Part I.
C E T O L O G Y.
Chap. III. Of the W hale-Fifhery.
, 353
Whale-
Fifliery.
Nothing, perhaps, difplays in a more ftriking man-power^of
tier the power and dexterity ot man than the facility man in fub-
and fucccfs with which he conquers and deftroys the
moft enormous and the moft formidable of the animated lal?eft a:!I*
productions of nature. The elephant and the w'hale,1’™"*
the largeft animals known, the one feemingly fecure
in the midft of the huge icy mountains of the polar-
regions, and the other roaming at pleafure in the al-
moft inacceffible wilds and deep woods of the torrid
zone, yield to his power or fall beneath his all-fubduing
arm. The fwifteft and the moft ferocious, as well as
the moft fagacious, and the moft cunning and artful,
efcape not the toils and fnares which he contrives,
or the deadly aim of the inftruments of his inven¬
tion.
Whether man was originally urged by neceffity, as
is moft probable, to attack fo huge a montter as the
whale, or whether it was indireftly to gratify the artifi-
cial demands of luxury that he firft attempted and
ftill continues to perfevere in an occupation fo full of
danger and fatigue, it muft be allowed to be one of
the boldeft and moft daring enterprifes that can be con¬
ceived. And indeed were it not quite familiar to us,
we ftrouid ftill behold w ith dread and aftonifhment fo
feeble a creature as man preparing to attack this mon-
fter of the deep, whofe ftrength, were it properly di¬
rected, no power could refill ; nor would our w onder
be diminifhed, when we find that he feldom fails to
fucceed in the attempt. But knowledge is power $ and
the triumphs of intellectual power are equally confpi-
cuous, in accommodating the molt unwieldy and molt
unmanageable parts either of the inanimate or ani¬
mated creation to the fupply and gratification of hu¬
man wants and defires, in guiding through the traek-
lefs ocean, the Ihip from which the fpear is launched
for the deltruCtion of the whale, or in digging from the
bow-els of the earth the metal with which the compafs
and the harpoon are conftruCted. 2c#
So early as the 9th century, in the time of Alfred NTorwet,!-
the great, it appears that the Norwegians were ac-an'firft
quainted w-ith the whale-filhing This prince received 3C5ualri.te*'
an account of the difeoveries of a Norwegian about thl3
the North Cape, in w-hich he fpeaks of his having been 1
as far north as the places to which the whale-hunters
refort ; which is confidered as a proof of its antiquity 5 * Avder~
although it is fuppofed that it was purfued merely on s
account of the oil, the ufe of the whalebone not beincr •^^cCoOT,”*
then known *. ' 5 ^ S42QI
But the people who are recorded in hiftory as hav- Bitcayaas
ing profecuted this fifhery w-ith fuccefs, were the Bif- !: ex"
cayans. The fpermaceti whale, as well as the whale-^ert*
bone whale, w-ere at that time frequently feen in thefe
latitudes. The firlt attempts were made in the bay of
Bifcay, and in the gulf of Gafcony. Ships w-ere fit¬
ted out, inftruments were conftruCted, and aneftablilh-
ment was formed for carrying on the filhery. It was
obferved that the whale only appeared at certain fea-
fons of the year, which led the new fifhers to fuppofe
that his rclidence in other feas was more perma¬
nent. And difeovering that they retreated towards
the polar regions, (hips w-ere fitted out and manned
Y y with
1