Dr. F. Porter Smith[268] states that there can be no doubt that the costly, odorous, light yellow, gummy substance, found floating on the sea, or procured from the belly of some large fish in the Indian Ocean, and known by the Chinese of the present day as _lung sin_, or dragon's spittle, is actually ambergris. The dragon is said to cough it up. "A similar substance, called _kih-tiau-chi_, brought from Canton and Foochow in former days, is said to be the egg of the dragon or a kind of sea-serpent named _kih tiau_. The name _kih tiau_ is singularly like the Greek name for a sea-monster." One of the most remarkable accounts of sea-monsters, which I believe to be thoroughly trustworthy, is of an animal seen in the Malacca Straits in 1876. The first notice of it appeared in the _Straits Times Overland Journal_ for September 18th, 1876, in the form of a short editorial. "Our friend Mr. Henry Lee, of _Land and Water_, who in his late work has taken so much trouble to enter into and describe the habits and peculiarities of the sea-serpent,[269] will be glad to hear that the passengers and officers of the S.S. _Nestor_, which arrived here this morning, are unanimous in the conclusion, and vouch for the fact, that an extraordinary sea-monster was seen by them between Malacca and Penang on their voyage to this port, on Monday, about noon. It was about two hundred and fifty feet long, about fifty feet broad, square-headed, with black and yellow stripes, closely resembling a salamander." This was followed, on the succeeding day, by a letter from the captain. SIR,--In reference to your paragraph in your yesterday's issue, relating to our having seen a sea-monster answering to the popular notion of a sea-serpent, I am prepared to vouch for the correctness of the statement already made to you by the doctor and a passenger by my ship. Being on the bridge at the time (about 10 A.M.) with the first and third officers, we were surprised by the appearance of an extraordinary monster going in our course, and at an equal speed with the vessel, at a distance from us of about six hundred feet. It had a square head and a dragon black and white striped tail, and an immense body, which was quite fifty feet broad when the monster raised it. The head was about twelve feet broad, and appeared to be occasionally, at the extreme, about six feet above the water. When the head was placed on a level with the water, the body was extended to its utmost limit to all appearance, and then the body rose out of the water about two feet, and seemed quite fifty feet broad at those times. The long dragon tail with black and white scales afterwards rose in an undulating motion, in which at one time the head, at another the body, and eventually the tail, formed each in its turn a prominent object above the water.