34 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



the British Isles, pass under the lowest strata of the carbo- 

 niferous era, and serve as the base line for thin beds of coals^ 

 associated with Unio sulcatus, and Productus gigas (hemis- 

 phericus, Sow.) 



During the past month the newly discovered fossil remains 

 of an immense quadruped, to which the designation, " Le- 

 viathan Missourrii," has been assigaed, have been exhibited 

 at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, to which we propose devot- 

 ing a short space, so well for the purpose of recording a 

 description of the characters of the animal, as also for ex- 

 amining the circumstances under which it is purported to 

 have been found, and which M. Albert Koch (the discoverer) 

 has presented in the form of a small pamphlet. The bones 

 were discovered near the shores of the river Pomme de Terre, 

 a tributary of the Osage, in the state of Missouri, in a strata 

 of alluvium, abounding with vegetable remains of a tropical 

 character. The skeleton measures thirty-two feet in length, 

 and fifteen in height, and from the extremity of the head to 

 the spine of the neck six feet. The number of teeth is 

 eight, four in the upper and four in the lower jaw, in addi- 

 tion to two tusks ten feet in length, formed of coarse ivory, 

 forming somewhat of a semicircle from both sides. The fore 

 feet are larger than the hind feet, and the former consists of 

 four toes and a thumb, whilst the latter are deficient of the 

 thumb. All the bones, without exception, are firm, and con- 

 tain no marrow, the vertebrce are remarkably narrow, and 

 must have given the animal a superior degree of action in the 

 back ; this is more strikingly exemplified in the vertebrse of 

 the neck, which gives it the appearance of being very short ; 

 the ribs are remarkably small and slender in proportion to 

 the size of the animal, and have had a great deal of cartilage 

 attached to them ; whilst this animal is quite distinct from 

 the Mastodon, on account of its having no trunk, and its 

 toes being armed with claws or nails. From these circuro - 



