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conclusions in the above statements may he accepted with con- 
fidence because made by a geologist, or a man of scientific 
training ? 
In the account of the second case above cited, Dr. Koch says 
that the Missourium was embedded in 44 a brown alluvium of 
the Eocene region,” resting on the 44 upper green sand ; ” that 
next over it there was plastic clay of 44 the Eocene region ” and 
beds of 44 the Pliocene region.” He thus makes his Missourium 
to have come from the Lower Tertiary, and from a bed just 
above the upper green sand (Cretaceous), when actually from 
Quartenary beds ; and he uses the term Eocene and Pliocene 
as if he had no familiarity with geological facts or language. 
The earlier pamphlet of 1840 avoids this bad geology, the 
44 upper green sand ” in that being called simply quicksand, and 
the other beds merely beds of clay and conglomerate. All the 
pamphlets sustain the conclusion that Dr. Koch knew almost 
nothing of geology, and that what he gradually picked up from 
intercourse with geologists he generally made much of, but sel- 
dom was able to use rightly. 
In zoological knowledge he was equally deficient. The ac- 
count of the Missourium, in the pamphlet of 1841, recognises a 
resemblance to the Mastodon and Elephant ; but, notwithstand- 
ing this, it says that 44 his feet were webbed ; ” that he had 
44 been without doubt an inhabitant of water-courses such as 
large rivers and lakes,” as his webbed feet, solid bones without 
marrow, short and thick legs, flat and broad tail, &c., proved ; 
that his curving tusks, 10 feet in length, 44 were carried by him 
almost horizontally [as represented on the cover of the pamphlet 
of 1843], so that it would be impossible for him to exist in a 
timbered country ; ” that his food (the teeth having before been 
described rightly as eight in number, 44 four upper and four 
lower ”) 44 consisted as much of vegetables as flesh, although he 
undoubtedly consumed a great abundance of the latter ; ” that 
he 44 was capable of feeding himself with his forefoot , after 
the manner of the beaver or otter;” and that he 44 possessed, also, 
like the hippopotamus, the faculty of walking on the bottom of 
waters, and rose occasionally to take air ; ” that 44 the singular 
position of the tusks * has been wisely adapted by the Creator 
for the protection of the body from the many injuries to which 
it would be exposed while swimming or walking under water ; 
that it appears that the animal was covered with the same 
armour as the alligator, or perhaps the megatherium.” 
* The position which one chanced to be in when the Missourium was 
exumed. In the newspaper article by Mr. Koch, cited in “ Sill. Amer. Jour.” 
p. 191, vol. xxxvii., a Mastodon is reported as having been found with the 
tusk in this position, and Koch’s u Missourium ” is mentioned as a non- 
descript animal the head of which he found near the same place. 
