the Fossil Jaws of Stohesfield. 643 



The first of these fragments, and the one which has been 

 longest known, is that in the Ashmolean Musem at Oxford ; 

 being the one seen by Cuvier at the residence of Dr. Buck- 

 land, at the time of his first visit to Oxford, and which was 

 afterwards so carefully examined and so accurately figured 

 by M. C. Prevost, in his memoir already cited ; and which has 

 since been re-figured by Dr. Buckland in his Bridgewater 

 Treatise. This, however, is not the most perfect of the frag- 

 ments in question. 



It consists of the right half of the lower jaw, the outer as- 

 pect of which is visible, while the inner adheres strongly to 

 the rock in which it is fixed. In form it is long and narrow, 

 being only three lines in depth by nine or ten in length in its 

 horizontal ramus, which is almost straight, with its upper and 

 lower edges slightly bowed in opposite directions; the ascend- 

 ing ramus, of which little more than the impression remains, 

 is barely half the length of the horizontal one. A tolerably 

 large coronoid process may however be distinguished, with 

 edges somewhat arched ; a sort of angular process ; and mid- 

 way between these a rounded and but slightly projecting 

 condyle; so that the extremities of these three projections are 

 upon the same vertical line. The horizontal ramus, which 

 gradually attenuates in front, is imperfect, that is to say, form- 

 ed of two plates only in its posterior half; its anterior being 

 fortunately deprived of the external plate, which exposes to 

 view the roots of the teeth. We may feel pretty certain that 

 the anterior extremity is incomplete ; but it is impossible to 

 say anything more respecting the deficient portion, than that 

 its size must have been very inconsiderable. 



The teeth are not quite in contact, but separated at equi- 

 distant intervals, and form a continued series throughout al- 

 most the whole length of the ramus, being about the same 

 shape and size ; they however decrease a little from the sixth 

 to the tenth posteriorly, and more particularly to the first in 

 front. They all appear as much compressed in their crowns 

 as in their roots. They are small, all of them tricuspid, with 

 the middle tubercle, particularly of the anterior teeth, generally 

 more elevated than the lateral ones ; the roots are all similarly 

 composed of two very slender fangs, which are very pointed, 

 and two or three times the length of the crown. 



There cannot however be distinguished in this continued 

 series any teeth which we might look upon as anterior or pos- 

 terior molars, and still less canines or incisors ; we therefore 

 conclude, with the late M. G. Cuvier, that the two latter kinds 

 are entirely absent, and that all the teeth in the series may 

 be regarded as molars. And as a certain number of the hind- 



Vol. II.— No. 24, n. s. 3 s 



