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 22, 1833
Early in the morning, clear blue sky and sunshine. At seven thirty, 1°R [34.3°F, 1.3°C] Later the weather became windy. At twelve noon, 7°R [47. 8°F, 8.8°C]. Today I wrote letters to Mr. Nicolet (banker) in New Orleans, to send him the receipts for the money received there by Mr. Bodmer, and enclosed a letter to Mr. Barrabino. In the afternoon, nice warm sunshine but also much wind, sometimes harsh. The Wabash is receding, so that steamboats cannot go to Vincennes and downstream because of the rapids in the river. The cooper arrived, and we packed nine turtles from New Orleans in a small cask. Afterward I took my walk.
The sun was shining, and it was very warm and pleasant. The glow from the swollen Wabash was especially beautiful, but one did not see any ducks on it at all today. I heard Bodmer shooting over on Fox Island, where he had gone with young Duclos, whose little dog retrieves the downed ducks every time. On the Cutoff River I saw only the golden-winged woodpecker (P. auratus) and small birds, some of which let their spring song be heard. Dreidoppel went out after I did. He brought back a male mallard. He had also seen a flight of snipes in the dark.
Mr. Bodmer returned with two ducks, one of them an Anas rufitorques, and Duclos had killed an Anas crecca. On the bank of the Wabash, Bodmer had seen a full-grown mink close to him, but it so happened that because of the bushes he could not shoot. He had seen an extraordinarily large number of ducks, most of which are now returning from their southern migration. Achilles brought a number of roughly split staves of hickory wood to make ramrods, for which it is excellently suited; the Indian nations who once inhabited these regions made their bows from it.
In the evening we visited Mr. Say, where we examined numerous issues of the English sporting magazine. This work contains a large number of clever hunting illustrations (especially fox hunting but also all other kinds of hunting) in black-and-white and colored sketches, as well as about horses (racing and hunters), breeds of dogs, and the like. Other issues deal with boxing. In general this work includes a large number of pages characteristic of England [but] suitable for a collection [i. e., a variety] of peoples. Here Artaria’s great boxing scene would make an interesting addition. The title of the sporting magazine is the following: Annals of Sporting and Fancy Gazette, London, printed for Sherwood, Jones, and Co., Paternoster-Row (price for each issue, 2 shillings, 6 pence). Another, similar work, published by the same book dealer in London, has appeared in England: Boxiana, Containing All the Transactions of Note Connected with the Prize Ring, etc. at Sherwood, etc.