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 2, 1833
At seven thirty, temperature of 11°R [56.8°F, 13.8°C]. The sky was slightly overcast and pointed to a beautiful day. There was a genuine spring temperature. I rode with Danny, the carpenter, to the Fox River, where we wanted to collect river mussels. The weather was most pleasantly warm, and a light breeze from the water blew upon us. We landed at the usual place, and before long I was at the Fox River, where I saw two skeins of ducks—one of common goldeneye ducks (Anas clangula), the other of common mergansers (Mergus merganser)—near the shore right below me. They suddenly flew up, whereupon the dog jerked against the leash and ruined my shot.
From the Fox River we rowed to Turkey Island and there found only woodpeckers, several small birds, and a pair of cardinals (Loxia cardinalis Linn.), of which we shot the magnificent male. Just as we were ready to have lunch near our boat, a rabbit (Lepus americanus) jumped out of the tall, dry vegetation close to us, but because of the many vines—some of which were thicker than an arm—I could not shoot. The dog did not follow its trail. From there we moved up the Fox River again [and] saw individual ducks, which flew up far ahead of us. We looked in several places for the large, nice Unio and Anodonta, of which we obtained only about twenty, however, because of the high water. On a thick trunk lying in the water sat a large turtle; [it] did not wait for us, however, but immediately submerged. I returned across Cutoff Island while the boat followed.
When I arrived in Harmony, Mr. Lesueur told me that today he had pursued a flight of twenty to thirty prairie hens (Tetrao cupido), which had turned up here. Dr. Troost from Nashville on the Cumberland River had written him that he had discovered a huge new [species of] freshwater turtle, which grew to 200–300 pounds. It lived in the western ponds and streams of that region. He had received its head and had placed orders for dead or living specimens. This discovery is most interesting. If one could only obtain this creature here! Dreidoppel had observed the thermometer at noon and had taken a reading of 14°R [63.5°F, 17.5°C]. He had finished work on the nice otter and then gone out.
In the evening I had a visit from Messrs. Say and Lesueur, and we had an interesting conversation about natural history. We talked about Dr. Troost’s huge turtle, and Mr. Say assumed that this was probably the so-called snapping turtle (Testudo serpentina Linn.), of which Mr. Lesueur assured us that he had seen huge specimens near New Orleans and promised to provide me with the measurements of one. We spoke about the geologic formation of the Harmony region. It is a secondary formation with a foundation of limestone and, upon this, layers of sandstone and hardened clay. From the hills that bound the Wabash valley or its lowland in the direction of Mount Vernon, straight across the river at a distance of about 4 to 5 miles, there are similar elevations; it therefore seems that the river formed this flat valley, or rather, this low plain.
We talked further about the strange weather and the fact that at this temperature almost all people experience deviations from their usual healthy condition and unpleasant feelings in the viscera. The atmosphere seems to have been very unhealthful during th past year, for even injuries, as many persons assured me, were far more difficult to heal. This evening I wrote a letter to Mr. Charles Volz in Pittsburgh, in which I asked him to forward to St. Louis for the time being my four chests, cases, and the amphibian container that he was holding for me. This might well require a long time