Journey through a Part of the United States of North America in the Years 1844-1846 (Travels on the Western Waters)

xxxv, 177 pp. In 1844, Albert Koch, then an obscure but passionate paleontologist, began his remarkable journey. His objective was paleontological exploration, and his travels took him by land and water from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, to New Orleans and Alabama in search of the gigantic sea serpent, or Zeuglodon. His full, day-by-day, record of his journey was excerpted and published in Germany in 1847. The book, which is extremely rare, is here translated and published in English for the first time. Not only was Koch a passionate scien­tist; he was also a shrewd observer of the social and political scene. His observa­tions are replete with staggering detail, and his impressions given in vivid de­scriptions. An unusual and important contribution to the history of American civilization.