145 



genera as in Scotland have continued to exist in their new abode ! 

 The Miocene deposit of Taman, therefore, with its herbivorous ce- 

 taceans, brackish and marine shells, is only an example, in an earlier 

 period of the world, of the formation of a true Caspian, the creatures 

 in which necessarily differed from those of the pure marine period 

 which went before them. 



MASTODONTOID AND MEGATHEllIOID ANIMALS. 



For a season our metropolis contained within it a magnificent 

 skeleton of a Mastodontoicl quadruped, which, in common Avith all 

 geologists and palaeontologists, I hoped to see permanently esta- 

 blished in our national Museum. This gigantic animal was discovered 

 by a persevering Prussian collector, M. Koch, who for some time 

 resided in the United States, and who disinterred it, together with a 

 great profusion of heads, teeth, and numerous bones of similar animals, 

 from amid the alluvia of a tributary of the St. Louis river, where 

 the chief remains had probably been an object of superstitious tra- 

 dition on the part of the Indian tribes. It does not appear 

 whether the zealous Prussian had any scruples to overcome ; 

 but I presume they must _ have been considerable, if I were to 

 judge from my own experience in other Mdld countries. In tra- 

 velling along the eastern flanks of the Ural Mountains, it was my lot 

 to visit many sites of gold alluvia in which bones of the mammoth 

 and other extinct quadrupeds are found, and for these remains the 

 poor Bashkirs, the original inhabitants of the tract, preserved so 

 deep a veneration, that in freely permitting the search after the 

 true wealth of their country which they were incapable of extract- 

 ing, their sole appeal to the Russian miners was, " Take from us 

 our gold, but for God's sake leave us our ancestors." 



Overcoming, however, all difficulties, M. Koch succeeded in ex- 

 tracting, and afterwards in setting up, the most complete specimen 

 of the species which has ever been seen. Applying to it the pro- 

 visional name of " Missourium," he exhibited it for some time in 

 the United States, and then brought it with many of the associated 

 bones to London, in the hopes both of having the remains perfectly 

 described and of obtaining for them a price worthy of the British 

 nation. 



The arrival of such a collection could not fail to excite the most 

 lively interest and curiosity among our naturalists, and the bones 

 having been attentively examined by many members of this Society, 

 produced a diversity of opinion respecting the generic character 

 of the chief remains. North America had long been a fertile 

 mine of such reliquiae, and the naturalists of the United States 

 had not been backward in studying and describing them. It is not, 

 therefore, a little remarkable that the same difference of opinion as 

 to the generic and specific identity of the animals that prevailed 

 across the Atlantic, is presented in the Memoirs which have recently 

 been read before us ; Dr. Harlan and Mr. Cooper having main- 

 tained opinions, with which, to a great extent. Professor Owen con- 

 curs, whilst Dr. Grant and M. Koch have supported the views of the 

 late Dr. Godman. 



