Description of the Missourium, or Missouri leviathan : together with its supposed habits, and Indian traditions concerning the location from whence it was exhumed : also, comparisons of the whale, crocodile, and Missourium, with the leviathan, as described in 41st chapter of the Book of Job / by Albert Koch.

  • Koch, Albert C.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of the Missourium, or Missouri leviathan : together with its supposed habits, and Indian traditions concerning the location from whence it was exhumed : also, comparisons of the whale, crocodile, and Missourium, with the leviathan, as described in 41st chapter of the Book of Job / by Albert Koch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    succeeded by a layer of yellowish clay, from 2 to 3 feet in thickness; over this, a third layer of gravel, of the same ap- pearance and thickness; and, at last, the present surfrce, con- sisting of a brownish clay, mingled with a few pebbles, and covered with large oak, maple and elm trees, which were as near as I could ascertain, from 80 to 100 years old. In the centre of the above mentioned deposite was a large spring which appeared to rise from the very bowels of the earth, as it was never affected by the severest rain, or did it become lower by the longest drought. About 200 yards from said deposite stands a singularly formed rock, which not only bears the appearance, but can be considered as a monument of great antiquity, formed by nature, against whose rough and rugged sides can be dis- tinctly traced, in deep and furrowed lines, the former course of angry waters; yet its summit is full 30 feet above the present level of the Pomme de Terre. The rock has the appearance of a pillar, on whose top rests a table rock far projecting over on every side; from the base of the pillar to the lower edge of the table is 30 feet, and from the base down to the deposite of the bones, is 16 feet—making, from the stratum on which the bones were deposited to the edge of the table 46 feet. By a minute and close examination, I found that the forma- tion of the said rock, as it now appears, was produced by the long action of the river against and around it; and had the river continued to act with the same force for one or two hundred years longer, the pillar would have been so far worn away, that the table must have fallen. It now stands as an indisputable witness, that the water, at the time these animals existed, was at least 46 feet in depth. INDIAN TRADITIONS. It is perfectly true that we cannot, with any degree of cer- tainty, depend on Indian traditions; but it is equally true that generally these traditions are founded on events which