Four-and-a-Half Months’ Stay in New Harmony
Description of the region – Natural history – Messrs. Say, Lesueur, and Owen – Hunting excursions in Indiana and Illinois – Wabash, Fox River – Illinois prairies – Albion – Black River – Mr. Bodmer’s trip to New Orleans
December 12, 1832
Morning beautiful and clear. At seven thirty, 2 1/2°R [37.6°F, 3.1°C]. In bright sunshine we left Harmony at about nine o’clock and traveled down the Wabash. The carpenter Danny rowed our boat. We landed at the usual place on Fox Island, and on the Fox River I shot a female Mergus merganser, which I later brought in with the boat. This bird had been shot through the head and was constantly turning in a circle until we seized it with our hands. Mr. Bodmer sketched at the mouth of the Fox River. Here, in the densely entwined vines of Vitis and Bignonia, the magnificently red cardinals (Loxia cardinalis) were rather numerous, and we shot several of them, as well as Picus villosus. A whole flight of delightful little warblers, or flycatchers, with yellow lower backs and crowns (Muscicapa coronata) had also arrived, and they crept through the dense vines. Urubus were soaring high in the air.
After we had eaten our frugal lunch of bread and cold meat while sitting on old fallen Platanus trunks, I had myself rowed across the Fox River into the forests of Illinois situated along the Wabash. At noon it was so warm that we were perspiring. At twelve o’clock, temperature of 9 3/4°R [53.9°F, 12.2°C] in the shade. We walked through tall cane and stepped over many fallen trees; we worked our way through vines until we came into the sparse forest. Here the Wabash has several branches on which we found many ducks that we could not reach. But soon, on the opposite side of one of these branches, we heard the loud calls of wild turkeys, just like domestic ones at home. The [males] called “tsick! tsick!” From the hens a simple loud call could be heard, from the toms a gobbling sound, [as] they rustled close by in the foliage.
Our boat was too far away for us to be able to cross; therefore, we turned into the forest and, after 300 to 400 steps, were standing near a deep ravine with tall timber and low, mossy thickets, which from time to time are inundated by water. Here we suddenly heard a rustling noise in the foliage and, behold, ten to twelve magnificent wild turkeys were standing in front of me. Unfortunately, I had no rifle; otherwise I would have fired. It was a little too far away for my shotgun, since I had loaded it with light shot. When the beautiful birds noticed us, they very quickly ran away in single file. Afterward I stationed myself 500 to 600 [paces] farther up and had the birds driven toward me, but they were too far away when they passed me. Afterward I shot a gray squirrel and returned, whereupon we began the return journey from the Fox River.
The evening grew magnificent; the sun set splendidly; the sky and the broad, beautiful Wabash were painted a glorious golden color. The snow-white Platanus gleamed in the serene, calm landscape surrounding us on all sides, the solitariness of which was interrupted only by wild ducks flying up into the air. We had ourselves rowed across to Cutoff Island, went through its tall forest once more, and found the burrow of a raccoon or mink or the old-world otter, into which a number of mussels had been taken. Evening at the home of Mr. Say.