NOTES AND QUERIES. 
217 
Remaixs of American "Missourium" Associated ttith Flint Biple- 
MENTS. — Dear Sir, — If you have not seen the enclosed " Description of the 
Missourium, or Missouri Leviathan, together with its supposed Habits and 
Indian Traditions," by .Ubert Koch (London, E. Eisher, 1811), 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 pampldet 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 : — 
" This gigantic skeleton measures thiily 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 
pomt of the lower jaw to the first edge of the front tooth, eight inches ; from 
the edge of the upper lip, measuriug 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-teetli 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 run 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 the Osa^e 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 bluft's 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 filled 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 quicksand : 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 v*^as 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 lea<^, 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 
[supplement to the " GEOLOGIST," No 41. 
