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
February 17, 1833
Early in the morning, dreary, foggy weather. At seven thirty, 5 3/4°R [44.9°F, 7.2°C]. Today in Adam Hodgson’s Letters from North America (London 1824), I found a list of the trees that occur in the Mobile Basin between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi, at least the most prominent ones. They are the following:
1. Pinus rigida—pitch pine
2. Pinus taeda—loblolly or water pine
3. Quercus tinctoria—black oak
4. Quercus rubra—red oak
5. Quercus sempervirens—live oak, only near the sea
6. Quercus ferruginea—blackjack [oak]
7. Quercus alba—white oak
8. Juglans squamosa—shellbark hickory
9. Juglans laciniosa—black hickory
10. Juglans nigra—black walnut
11. Acer rubrum—red maple
12. Acer nigrum—black sugar maple
13. Acer negundo—box elder
14. Cupressus disticha—cypress
15. Carpinus ostrya—ironwood
16. Castanea pumila—chincapin
17. Cerasus virginiana—wild cherry
18. Cornus florida—dogwood
19. Fagus sylvestris—beech
20. Fraxinus tomentosa—common ash
21. Gleditsia triacanthos—honey locust
22. Juniperus virginiana—red cedar
23. Laurus sassafras—sassafras Liquidambar styraciflua—sweet gum
24. Liriodendron tulipifera—poplar or tulip tree
25. Magnolia grandiflora—large laurel
26. Nyssa sylvatica—black gum
27. Nyssa aquatica—tupelo
28. Platanus occidentalis—sycamore, buttonwood
29. Tilia pubescens—linden or lime tree
30. Ulmus rubra—red elm
31. Ulmus americana—mucilaginous elm
32. Ulmus aquatica—water elm
33. Diospyros virginiana—persimmon
Hodgson (vol. 1, p. 183) also provides a list of the distances of the mouths of rivers that empty into the Mississippi from the mouth of the latter river.
| Principal streams that contribute to form the Mississippi River | Distance of their mouths from that of the Mississippi (Miles) | Distance of their sources from the mouth of the Mississippi (Miles) | Latitude of their sources | Seasons when their inundations commence |
| Red River | 300 | 1,750 | 37° N | February |
| Arkansas | 650 | 2,300 | 41° N | March |
| White River | 630 | 1,300 | 36° N | February |
| Osage | 1,350 | 3,400 | 36° N | February |
| Kansas | 1,550 | 3,400 | 40° N | March |
| Platte | 1,800 | 2,900 | 42° N | April |
| Missouri | 1,200 | 4,000 | 45° N | April |
| Yellowstone | 3,050 | 3,900 | 43° N | April |
| Bighorn | 3,300 | 3,800 | 42° N | April |
| Mississippi | 1,200 [sic] | 2,300 | 48° N | May |
| Illinois | 1,215 | 1,700 | 42° N | April |
| Wabash | 1,150 | 1,650 | 41° N | May |
| Tennessee | 1,050 | 1,750 | 31° N | February |
| Ohio | 1,000 | 3,200 | 42° N | March |
I have seen only the first volume of this travel account by Hodgson; the second one may well contain additional interesting information.
At twelve noon, 8°R [50°F, 10°C]. The live and very tame coati that Mr. Bodmer brought back and I had given Mr. Twigg died quite suddenly today. Today I read Benjamin Tappan’s speech, borrowed from Mr. Lesueur, which was delivered at the meeting of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio in 1830 [sic] (A Discourse Delivered before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio at the Annual Meeting of Said Society, in Columbus, December 22, 1832, by Benjamin Tappan, President of the Society and President of the Board of Canal Commissioners, Columbus, Emrie, 1833), in which he expresses the idea that the old fortifications from prehistoric times might have served to protect human beings from mammoths— a unique, comical idea, for who, indeed, in Bengal [India] uses earthworks to protect himself against elephants?
During my walk in the afternoon, I found that the Wabash and Cutoff rivers had risen greatly. Crows called out in the tall forest. Ducks and other birds were not to be seen. I found only flights of little finches, several of which I shot. All of them were of the variety Fringilla canadensis that, together with Fringilla hyemalis, look for food on the seed plants. Mr. Bodmer and Dreidoppel went out after I did. They did not return until late and brought back an Anas rufitorques that Dreidoppel had shot. Mr. Bodmer tried to retrieve it from the Wabash but fell into the water up to his waist. He had been on the Fox River and had shot two ducks, neither of which he obtained. They had found very many ducks.
In the evening I paid a visit to Mr. Say. We talked at great length about the Indians, and Mr. Say told me some interesting anecdotes. An Indian and several others had been in a theater in Philadelphia. When he came home, the interpreter asked him if he had liked the actresses. He replied that one of them had kept her eye on him continually. The interpreter then asked him how he could believe that such a pretty thing would look at such an ugly thing as he was. This so offended him that he immediately knocked the man down with his fist.
We talked much about the famous chief Petalesharo, who is poorly depicted in Godman’s Natural History. On the other hand, this work includes a picture of Ongpatonga (Big Elk) that, according to Mr. Say’s statement, is [a] good likeness. This chief once delivered a speech to Mr. Say. The latter had told him not to go to the military post at Council Bluff because the mortality from scurvy was so high there, and they were not eager for this chief to learn about the sad, weakened condition of this fort. When he was warned not to go there, Ongpatonga stood up and delivered a vigorous speech to Mr. Say, in which he stated that he was never afraid and feared nothing in the world, for he was in the hand of Wacondá (the Great Spirit), who completely guided his destiny; he would not stay away for fear of contagion. If, however, Mr. Say did not wish him to go there, then he would not do so.