Floating Gold
The Search for Ambergris, The Most Elusive Natural Substance in the World
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A fascinating modern hunt for a treasure from a most surprising source -- a whale's stomach.
Journalist and biologist Christopher Kemp discovers, after reading an odd news report, a hidden world of money, intrigue and amazing wealth. A lump of something turns up on a beach in NZ, the lump so strange it may well have come from out of space. But it's not a dead alien, it's ambergris. Ambergris is a by-product of sperm whales, used for centuries as a perfume, medicine and aphrodisiac. It appears on beaches all over the world and depending on what state it's in, can be mistaken for all manner of things. For those in the know, it's an amazing source of wealth - ambergris trades for US$20 a gram, which is nearly as much as gold but it's harder to find and it cannot be mined. Christopher Kemp travels from the shores of NZ, to the Smithsonian and New Nedford Whaling museum; he meets amateurs, professional hunters, scientists, elusive vendors who traffic ambergris, people who won't confess to have found any, and strangers denying what they are looking for. As he discovers more about ambergris' origins, its uses present day and historic, the outrageous lengths people have gone to find it and the intriguing efforts people go to in order to keep what they know about ambergris a secret, the more his infectious obsession grows.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kemp, a molecular biologist, travels far from his intellectual roots to explore the recondite world of ambergris the odd-smelling regurgitation of sperm whales that has been a component of fragrances its collectors, buyers, and sellers. There are two remarkable facts about ambergris: first is its value gold is now worth $30 per gram, ambergris $20; second, a lucky ambergris hunter might find "something worth $50,000" on any windswept beach from New Zealand to Cape Cod. Kemp weaves fascinating facts about sperm whales (bulls weigh 50 tons and consume up to a ton of food a day), ambergris's central role in creating the world's perfumes, and personal reflections about his quest for ambergris into a pleasing, easy-flowing story. Much of the book recounts spectacular past and recent finds of ambergris and the secretive individuals who search for the elusive substance. They're so secretive that one collector reportedly walked backward to "disguise the direction he was traveling." And Kemp's descriptions of the close-mouthed ambergris traders provide a satisfying glimpse into a little-known parallel universe in which readers vicariously share the thrill of the hunt and dreams of fortune that drive the ambergris obsessed. 12 color and 21 b&w illus.
