發佈時間：2013-01-31
An unemployed English man Ken Wilman has received offers of over $60,000 for a piece of ambergris he found while walking his dog Madge on the beach.
http://www.theprovince.com/life/fash...ter+fixates/7899282/story.html
LONDON — One very smelly sperm whale secretion may soon make one lucky British beachcomber a happy man.
Ken Wilman told British broadcasters he had been walking along Morecambe beach in northern England when his dog, Madge, discovered a hard, soccer ball-sized piece of smelly rock.
“She wouldn’t leave it alone. I picked it up and it smelt horrible so I knocked it with my walking stick and a small lump came off,” he told Sky News television in comments broadcast Thursday.
“I put both pieces back on the beach but something in the back of my mind told me it might be something unusual.”
One Google search later and Wilman realized Madge had found ambergris, a waxy byproduct of sperm whale digestion that has traditionally been used in perfumes, spices and medicines — and can fetch large sums of money. He said he immediately drove back to the beach to find the ambergris. He said he has been offered 50,000 euros ($68,000) for the musky material.
Callum Roberts, a professor of marine conservation at the University of York, said the find appeared legitimate.
“It’s a waxy, yellow-grey piece of flotsam. I’m sure that 95 per cent of people would walk past it without further thought,” he said in a telephone interview.
He praised Wilman’s quick thinking, invoking the scientific dictum that “fortune favours the prepared mind.”
Wilman, 50, had a slightly different take on his find, telling BBC television that people should trust their dogs.
“If your dog pays an interest in something, YOU pay an interest in something,” he said. “Because you never know. There’s gold out there on that beach — floating gold.”
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/龍涎香
名稱與來歷
簡介：龍涎香(Ambergris)是抹香鯨科動物抹香鯨的腸內分泌物的乾燥品。其味甘、氣腥、性澀，具有行氣活血、散結止痛、利水通淋、理氣化痰等功效；用於治療咳喘氣逆、心腹疼痛等症。 名稱：漢代，漁民在海里撈到一些成品龍香，乾燥後能發出持久的香氣，點燃時更是香味四溢，於是被當著寶物貢獻給皇上，在宮庭里用作香料，或作為藥物，並叫做「龍涎香」。後來歐洲人把龍涎香叫做「琥珀香」，羅馬人叫做「撒克」，法國人叫做「黃色的香料」，英國人乾脆就叫做「琥珀」。
形成原因
研究認為龍延香其實是抹香鯨的消化產物，因為大烏賊和章魚的角質顎和舌齒不容易消化，當被抹香鯨吞食大型軟體動物後，那些顎和舌齒在胃腸內積聚，刺激了腸道，腸道就分泌出一種特殊的蠟狀物，將食物的殘核包起來，慢慢地就形成了龍涎香。
Ken Wilman posing for pictures with his dog Madge and a yellowish stone which he thinks is a rare form of whale vomit, or ambergris. A British man has been offered 50,000 euros for the strange-smelling substance used in perfumes, the BBC reported Thursday.
Photograph by: NIGEL SLATER , AFP/Getty Images※ 編輯: ott 時間: 2013-02-01 12:46:37
※ 看板: ott 文章推薦值: 0 目前人氣: 0 累積人氣: 680
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