NOTES AND QUERIES. 



217 



Remains of American "Mlssoubium." Associated with Eeint Iuple- 

 MEHTS. — Deaii Sir, — If you have not seen the enclosed "Description of the 

 Massourium, or Missouri Leviathan, together with its supposed Habits and 

 Indian Traditions," by Albert Koch (London, E. Fisher, 1S11), it will perhaps 

 interest you, as bearing upon the flint -implement question. You will find the 

 notice of flints at pages 22-21. The part of the pamphlet about the "Levia- 

 than" is purely a myth, or a puzzle, which any one may accept or reject as he 

 pleases. The account given by Mr. Kock is as follows : — 



11 This gigantic skeleton measures thirty feet in length and fifteen in height ; 

 the head measures, from the tip of the nose to the spine of the neck, six feet ; 

 from one zygomatic arch to the other, four feet ; from the lower edge of the 

 upper lip to the first edge of the front tooth, twenty inches ; from the front 

 point of the lower jaw to the first edge of the front tooth, eight inches ; from 

 the edge of the upper lip, measuring along the roof of the mouth to the socket 

 of the eye, three feet ; from thence to where the atlas joins the head, ten and 

 a-half inches. The whole number of teeth is eight — that is, four upper and 

 four lower, not including the two tusks. The two upper fore-teeth are four 

 inches broad and four and a-half inches in length, and are situated in the head 

 in such a manner that they slant towards the roof of the mouth, insomuch 

 that their outer edge is one and a-quarter inch higher than their inside edge. 

 The back teeth in the upper jaw are seven inches in length, and where they 

 unite with the front teeth, they are like those four inches broad, and from 

 thence ruu narrower back until they end almost in a point (p. 7). * * * 

 The bones were found by me near the shores of the river La Pomme de Terre, 

 a tributary of t lie Osage river, in Benton county, in the state of Missouri, 

 latitude forty and longitude eighteen. There is every reason to believe that 

 the Pomme de Terre, at some former period, was a large and magnificent 

 stream, from one-half to three-fourths of a mile in breadth, and that its waters 

 washed the high rocky bluffs on either side where the marks of the rolling 

 surges are now perfectly plain : they present a similar appearance to that of 

 the Missouri and Mississippi. It appears, from the different strata, that since 

 the Missourium existed, six or seven different changes have taken place here, 

 by which the original bed of the Pomme de Terre was tilled with as many different 

 strata, which are as follows : — The original stratum on which this former river 

 flowed at the time it was inhabited by the Missourium, and up to the time of 

 its destruction, consisted of quicksaud : on the surface of its stratum, and 

 partly mingled with it, was the deposit of the before-described skeleton. The 

 next is a stratum from three to four feet in thickness, consisting of a brown 

 alluvial soil : in this all the remainder of the skeleton was contained, and 

 covered by it. This stratum was mixed with a great quantity of vegetable 

 matter, and most of this is in a wonderful state of preservation ; but what is 

 still more surprising, all the vegetable remains are of a tropical or very low 

 southern production. They consisted of large quantities of cypress burs, 

 wood and bark ; a great deal of tropical cane and tropical swamp moss ; several 

 stumps of trees, if not logwood, yet bearing a very close resemblance to it ; 

 even the greater part of a flower of the Strelitzia class, which, when destroyed, 

 was not full blown, was discovered embedded in this layer ; also, several stems 

 of palmetto leaf, one possessing all the fibres perfect, or nearly so. To those 

 who are not acquainted with the nature of this plant, it is well to remark that 

 it is not found at present farther north than the northern parts of Louisiana. 

 The time when the revolution of the earth took place, during which this before- 

 described animal lost its life, was between the loth of September and 20th of 

 October, which is proven by the fact just mentioned of the cypress burs being- 

 found ; from which circumstance it might be readily inferred that they had been 

 torn by force from their parent stem before they had arrived at perfection, and 



[SUPPLELIENT TO THE " GEOLOGIST," No 41. 



