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 26, 1833
By nine o’clock in the [previous] evening, the ground was already frozen. Early in the morning, dreary sky, slight frost. At seven thirty, −2 1/2°R [26.4°F, −3.1°C]. We worked at home all morning. At noon the thermometer registered 1°R [34.3°F, 1.3°C]. In the afternoon I discovered that the mousetrap I had set in the field had been stolen. I found the Wabash and Cutoff River filled with more wild ducks than I had ever seen before. Here there were Mergus merganser, cucullatus, [and] Anas boschas and clangula in large numbers. The streams were completely open.
In the evening, visit at the home of Mr. Say. We talked much about the descriptions of his country, and he gave me some interesting notes. He knew Beltrami, the Italian author of the Découverte des sources du Mississippi, very well and told me how deplorably this man had behaved in America and how worthless and full of errors his work was.