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
January 14, 1833
Early in the morning, nice, bright weather. The snow is still on the ground. At seven thirty, −3°R (25.3°F, −3.8°C). The sun is shining brightly along the Wabash, and in the entire region there is dense fog. Yesterday I talked with local residents about the value of land in the area along the Wabash around Harmony. The conclusions were more or less the following. The soil is black and so rich that one does not have to fertilize it for many years in order to grow corn. In the vicinity of the town, land is no longer cheap, but several miles away along the river there is still much Congress land, which can be bought for one dollar, twenty-five cents an acre. This Congress land (belonging to the government), which is located nearby, has the disadvantage of being inundated frequently by the river, whereby cattle often drown and some of the residents move to Harmony for a while. Such flooding, however, does not occur every year. Fertility is thereby improved. There is also Congress land several miles from Harmony that cannot be inundated.
Today our landlord drove to the Illinois prairies to get me 100 pounds of tow that I had ordered there. This necessity, so essential for natural history collections, as [is] cotton, had not been available at Harmony or at Mount Vernon for quite some time. I paid three cents a pound for the tow. Some flax and hemp are grown in this region, but not much.
Dreidoppel accompanied my landlord in the direction of the Black River to hunt there. I went out to check my mousetrap and found the tracks of foxes, which had been everywhere during the night, in the fields and thorn thickets and, especially, on the little trails. I also tracked a mink in the forest and wounded a nice kite (Falco pygargus or cyaneus fem.), which skimmed over a desolate grassy area with tall plants near cornfields, and there flushed a prairie hen. The latter alighted on a tall oak, the bird of prey on a felled tree. Since I already had several of the former, I shot at the falcon, which, unfortunately, I could not find afterward. In the forest along the Wabash I found many small birds: woodpeckers, titmice, nuthatches, tree creepers, finches, even a partridge. I shot some birds and at twelve forty-five arrived home again.
At twelve o’clock, temperature of 3 1/4°R [39.3°F, 4.1°C]. Most pleasant weather. Today, for the first time in a long while, Russel, the hunter, again brought four turkeys; I bought a young one, some of the tail feathers of which had grown out only halfway. In addition, he had sold me a very strong old raccoon, which had badly bitten his fine, strong red dog in the face. It is now rapidly thawing, and water is running from the roofs. Dreidoppel returned toward evening. He had shot at a gray fox and a mink without getting them. In the evening I went to Mr. Say’s, where we talked about various topics, including taxes levied in the United States. They consist of the following: 1) the poll tax (capitation tax), about thirty-seven and one-half cents yearly per head; 2) a land tax, a small duty of about one and one-half cents per acre; 3) a tax on watches: twenty-five cents for silver ones, fifty cents for a golden watch; 4) a tax on horses over three years old; 5) a tax on working oxen, twenty-five cents for two oxen (a yoke). The state of Indiana levies all these taxes.