Ambergris

Out for a stroll on Bolinas Beach, north of the Golden Gate, one afternoon last fortnight went Alf Harrodon, 33-year-old radio operator. Striding along with head in air he stumbled on something soft. Looking down, he saw a large mass of greyish stuff, mottled and opaque. In his hands it felt and smelled like limburger cheese.

Never in his life had Alf Harrodon seen ambergris, which begins as a secretion in the bowels of a sick sperm whale, ends as a base for precious perfumes. But he had been raised on the coast of Norway and like coast children throughout the world had been taught to keep his eyes peeled for it. With shaking hands he scooped up the cheesy stuff, 60 lb. of it, and carried it home. Next day he got a schoolboy friend to take a sample to his chemistry laboratory. That night the boy came back to report that the sample had assayed 70% ambergris. Ambergris, he had heard, was worth $26 an oz. His find would bring him $17,500.

While Alf Harrodon sat dazed the news shot through the poverty-stricken little colony of 250 at Bolinas. All that night the beach was bright with torches and bonfires, moving with bent shadows. Miles Pepper, 12, was the first in his family of eleven to hear what had happened. Father Pepper had just been dropped from CWA. A bank had just foreclosed on the home, beach tearoom and land which Mother Pepper had inherited from her father. While the other ten Peppers sat gloomily thinking of their misfortunes, Son Donald slipped quietly out of the house. Few minutes later he burst back, shouting that there were heaps of the stuff on the beach just opposite the tearoom. The whole family rushed out, scooped up 55 lb.

Other Bolinas folk were lucky too, and soon about 300 lb. had been amassed. Then followed days of dreadful suspense. All Bolinas could not scrape together $15 for a professional analysis of its treasure. Finally last week the San Francisco Examiner got a local firm of chemists to test a sample of the Pepper find. It, too, assayed 70% ambergris.

Joy in Bolinas touched a new high. Ralph Kenyon, 24, father of twins, who had just received his last CWA check, had found 75 lb. Cried he: "I've always been poor. Now I can build a home and educate my children." Mail Carrier Harold Henry and wife stopped worrying about how they would pay for their new baby, expected any day. Ronald Gandee, 24-year-old Coast Guardsman, shouted that at last he could marry his sweetheart Frances Longley. Tony Roberts, 26, milker; Warren Wosser, 28, jobless fireman; Eddie Souza, 24. substitute fireman and James Nettro, 26. trainman, all gloated over hauls of ten to 75 lb. and dreamed their dreams.

Meantime Emory Evans Smith, head of the chemical firm which had analyzed the Pepper sample, was having other emotions. Last week he had to crush the hopes of 35 eager-eyed people who brought him soap, potatoes, sponges, sewage, a dead rat. Nor was he optimistic about the ones who had found what seemed to be ambergris. First, he warned, he had tested only a sample. It was by no means sure that all the stuff was ambergris. Even if it were, there might be no ready market for so much of it. Used to "fix" the odors of other substances, only minute quantities of ambergris are needed by perfume makers. Lately synthetic substitutes have been developed. Said Chemist Smith: "There is potential tragedy in this situation. I have refused to take money for analyses from these needy people until an authentic report on the commercial value of ambergris has been received from New York."

Ambergris has been a puzzle and treasure to the world for centuries. It is mentioned in the Arabian Nights Tales. Medieval Europeans used it in cosmetics, medicines, love potions. When in the 18th Century a whaler found some inside his haul, marvel-lovers still insisted that the whale had simply found and swallowed it. But other whalers discovered it in the intestines of rare sperm whales, usually scrawny specimens, and finally scientists agreed upon its source. No one knows yet, however, whether ambergris floating loose in the sea has been expelled by a live whale or has fallen from the decaying body of a dead one.

Ambergris is hard to recognize. Though it is usually ash-grey, it may be white, black, yellow or mottled like marble. It may have a fragrant odor, or an overpowering stench. Some experts claim that even chemical analysis is shaky and that ambergris, like a fine wine, may be truly identified only by its bouquet. For use in perfumes raw ambergris must be ground in a mortar, soaked for six months in 95% alcohol.

Late last week a first report, from the New York Essential Oil Co.. arrived in San Francisco. It was crushing. There was. it said, almost no market for ambergris. A fresh supply of 300 Ib. would glut the market, force the price down to from $2 to $5 an oz. But still crowds flocked to sift the sands of Bolinas and the Peppers, the Henrys, the Kenyons sat tight, held fast to their faith in miracles.

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