1.For centuries, perfume-makers have been obsessed with ambergris, a rare, gross-looking substance that gives fragrances a long-lasting, animalistic odor.
9.The indigestible parts of giant squid, in particular their beaks, accumulate in sperm whales' stomachs into the substance known as ambergris, which is used as a fixative in perfumes.
10.It came to pass, that in the ambergris affair Stubb's after-oarsman chanced so to sprain his hand, as for a time to become quite maimed; and, temporarily, Pip was put into his place.
11.A sperm whale's colon can bulge to five times its usual diameter to accommodate one of these snowballing concretions, but eventually, it ruptures, killing the whale and releasing a huge butt-pearl of ambergris into the ocean.
12.Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject.