“Ole Nim catch um dreckly, young cap’n, den you see. Better’n fish! better’n gole! better’n ebberyting!” What could he mean? And when Nimbus stopped rowing, and, stretching out his arm, lifted the little gray lump, about the size of a man’s fist, from the water, Breeze was no wiser than before. “What is it, Nimbus, and what is it good for?” he asked, in perplexity. “Amble grease! Good for sell! Heap money! P’r’aps fin’ more!” answered the black man, smelling of his prize and patting it with his great hands, while his eyes roved over the water in search of another like it. “Ambergris!” shouted Breeze, who had heard from old fishermen stories of this precious substance, and of its fabulous value, but had never before seen it. “You don’t mean, Nimbus, that that dirty-looking stuff is ambergris!” “Yes, sah. Him amble grease sure ’nough,” answered the black man, who had more than once seen this most valuable of all the products of the sea on his native African coast. “Well, if that’s ambergris, I believe there’s another bit of it over there,” said Breeze, standing up and looking eagerly in the direction from which the wind blew. He was right; there was another bit, and beyond that they found another, and still another, until they had gathered up a number of the small floating lumps that had been strung out over several miles of water. “What is ambergris, anyway?” asked Breeze, while Nimbus was rowing towards one of these pieces. “Don’ know,” was the answer. “Sick whale heave um up.” “Sick whale!” exclaimed Breeze, in a tone of disgust. “I hope you don’t expect me to believe such a yarn as that, Nimbus.” In spite of the boy’s disbelief, the black man was right; for ambergris has been found in the intestines of sperm-whales, but only of such as were very thin and evidently diseased. It has also been thrown up by such whales in their death-struggles after being harpooned. It is valuable on account of its delightful odor, and is used in the manufacture of most of the delicious perfumes for the handkerchief that chemists devote so much time and ingenuity to preparing and naming. Nothing has ever been found to take its place, and it brings, according to the state of the market, from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars an ounce, or about five hundred dollars per pound.