Correspondence. 561 



by a friend, measures \\\ inches wide, from which we may suppose the 

 body could not have been less than 10 feet long. The length of its 

 largest teeth is scarcely one inch, yet as each tooth is an inch in 

 breadth, with sharp cutting serrated edges, it must have been a fright- 

 ful monster, particularly when we recollect that there are 22- vertical 

 rows of teeth, and 12 in each row, making a total of 264 teeth. How- 

 ever formidable such an animal must be, yet it sinks into insignifi- 

 cance when compared with one whose single tooth is equal in volume 

 to twelve of the largest teeth of the Scyllium, just alluded to, whose jaws 

 are twelve inches broad. 



The fossil tooth has a perfectly recent appearance, the only injury it 

 appears to have received is the loss of the point, which is broken off; 

 before this accident happened the length of the tooth could not have 

 been less than 2| inches, while the breadth is \\ ; the edges are sharp 

 and serrated, thickness from the inner to the outer surface half an 

 inch. We found the base of the tooth below the enamel only afford 

 10 per cent, of animal matter, while the corresponding part of the tooth 

 of the large Scyllium contained about 67 per cent, of animal matter, 

 and it is for this reason alone that we regard the former as fossil, for 

 the enamel is as perfect, and the marks of dentition are as fresh look- 

 ing upon it as on a recent tooth. The individual to which it belonged 

 must have corresponded very closely with the white shark found in the 

 Bay, whose tooth, fig. 4 a, though comparatively minute, corresponds 

 almost exactly with the fossil. 



These gigantic teeth are found on the sea-shore of the Arracan coast, 

 10 or 12 miles north of the Myoo, along with the fossil crabs, and are, 

 says Lieut. Phayre, called by the natives Moo-gyo-Rhyouk, or lightning 

 stones. Further researches in that neighbourhood it is probable will 

 lead to the discovery of some great fossil deposit. 



Plants resembling Thea viridis, in Arracan and Tipperah. We were fa- 

 voured by Capt. Bogle, the Commissioner of Arracan, some time since with 

 the leaf of a plant which is found in that province, and which the na- 

 tives believe to be the tea plant. We have also been favoured by Mr. 

 Wise, of Dacca, with a similar leaf of a plant in the Tipperah hills, of 

 which the natives prepare a tea which they use. We have seen so 

 great a difference between the leaves of the veritable tea plant itself, as 

 to render it impossible to decide in such cases from the leaf alone ; as far 

 as can be decided from the leaves in question, we are inclined to regard 

 neither of them as the tea leaf, but from their appearance we should 



