Articles by Ben Shattuck
May 24, 2012
The Hunt for Hyper-Condensed Sperm Whale Poop: Christopher Kemp’s Floating Gold 2
It’s hard not to fall in love with ambergris. Here is a solid lump of whale feces, weathered down to something that smells, depending on the piece and whom you’re talking to, like musk, violets, fresh-hewn wood, tobacco, dirt, Brazil nut, fern-copse, damp woods, new-mown hay, seaweed in the sun, the wood of old churches, or pretty much any other sweet-but-earthy scent.