In the morning, mostly overcast sky and warm. We find the fire in our rooms unnecessary and unpleasant. At seven thirty, temperature of 13 1/4°R [61.8°F, 16.6°C]. It is so warm that butterflies and big flies are flying around in the prairies along the Wabash. We had already seen this yesterday. At nine o’clock Mr. Say and I climbed into Mr. Maclure’s small bench wagon to drive to one of Mr. Maclure’s tenant farms, 12 miles from Harmony. Two old but strong, completely white horses pulled the wagon. Achilles Fretageot drove, and a young engraver with Achilles’ rifle sat beside the driver. At first we followed the road to Mount Vernon and turned off to the right as soon as we reached the hills that border the low plain of Harmony. They initially consist of yellow ridges, and the first one, which is steep, was difficult for the horses.

From here on, the road always led through lofty forest, [in which] various kinds of tall, slender, shaftlike trees stand mingled together; among these the shellbark is distinguished by its strangely scaly bark. A large number of tall tulip trees (Liriodendron) were of an enormous thickness, had deeply furrowed bark, and grew tall and erect like masts. The wind had left their seeds on a few of them.

Storax trees, various kinds of oak, ash, walnut trees, elms, Gymnocladus (coffee tree), Gleditsia triacanthos, and the like have a light undergrowth of Corylus, Annona, and the like, while Rubus, Amorpha fruticosa, and several kinds of tall, dry plants cover the open areas. Among the latter we find the Frasera walteri, which gets to be 8 to 10 feet tall. In several open places, the land was covered with Rhus typhinum, which is used for coloring leather red (Moroccan leather).

Near an isolated sawmill situated in the tall forest, we found the redheaded woodpecker (Picus erythrocephalus), which I had not seen for a long time. From there we reached a sandy region, sand hills covered with tall forest, on which giant cane (Miegia) grows but is kept short by livestock. This entire region consists of nothing but rather steep hills that are separated by numerous small, narrow valleys.

Everything is covered with tall timber, on the hills as well as in the valleys. In one such valley we found a winding creek, called Binsen or Rush Creek, which we crossed on a very poor bridge made of tree branches or sticks. Hydrangea arborescens, with its dried-out but still completely surviving flowers, stood along the bank. Enormous Platanus and tulip trees, some entwined with very thick grapevines, held my attention. The creek, or brook, does not have a strong current; it gets its name from the rushes (Equisetum hyemale?) that are said to grow along it.

From here on, we again had steep hills, and in the forest we found very many nice tall beeches as well as ash trees. Near an isolated log house, where scrawny dogs set upon us, we turned off to the right of our path in deep mud and down into a small, steep valley, where we soon saw the Wabash glimmering through the branches. Numerous fallen trees hampered us at times.

On the hills that we passed, we saw huge, tall, rough-barked maples growing here, which shoot up like masts and often cannot be spanned by three men. (We saw) the holes that had been cut into them and from which their sap is tapped for the preparation of sugar. For this sugar preparation, one uses the Acer saccharinum and Acer nigrum, both of them tall, sturdy forest trees. Certainly, however, not all the maples here have been correctly identified, and probably several species are used for this purpose.

The nicest American maples, which we cultivate in our gardens in Europe, do not resemble the local trees of this species, for here one sees these trees so very old. They have grown to such an enormous height, surrounded by forest, that our tallest oaks cannot match them.

Creepers, especially poison vine [poison ivy] (Rhus radicans), encircled the trees. Their stems cling firmly to the bark of the trees, from the ground to the very end of the trunk, and spread a dense tangle of small aerial roots like a dense mossy cover, with which they adhere everywhere. From these roots the slender twigs shoot out at right angles and later curve upward. Far thicker and more sturdy than the branches of the Rhus radicans, however, are the vines of the Vitis labrusca, some of which are thick, have soft bark, and are entwined in rings and intricate curves. Its wood is very firm. Today we saw here a stem of this kind that was climbing up a moderately tall forest tree and covered the crown with its branches in such a way that, in its entirety, it formed a perfect parasol, or umbrella, for the summer.

In the valley mentioned above, we did not have to travel far before we found ourselves at the mouth of Rush Creek, which we had passed earlier and which here enters the Wabash, now broad and beautiful and bordered everywhere by tall woodlands. The view up the creek was very picturesque because of the huge, tall trees that shade it; some of these fall across it and form natural bridges. In this outlet a flatboat had been built, on the deck of which we sat down to eat the frugal lunch brought along by Mr. Say. While we were thus occupied, a beautiful kingfisher (Alcedo alcyon) came from the Wabash and flew up the creek. We pursued it but did not get it.

We were now close to the cornfields of Mr. Maclure’s tenants, which we went around, and then came to a small log, or block, house. A rather poor-looking woman was occupied with household chores. Her children were gnawing on bones, probably from wild turkeys, and eating corn bread with them. Scrawny dogs were slinking about. The head of the house was absent. Through the doors one saw the bed standing in the dark hut, which was built of beams placed on top of each other, the intervening spaces of which were filled with laths. A fire is kindled in the fireplace during cool weather, but it was not burning now.

In front of the house lay freshly split logs of catalpa wood. It gives off a unique, pungent odor and has a yellowish brown color. This is about what all the huts of the small or poor settlers in Indiana and Illinois are like. The woman told us about a spring nearby that was dangerous and had already killed two men living here. Our companions, who were familiar with the region, remarked, however, that [it was] not this spring but brandy (whiskey) that had killed these people, since one of them had drunk this water without any ill effects.

After we had examined the cultivated fields and prowled about for birds without success (because the ducks on the Wabash were too shy and the cardinals [L. cardinalis] and the woodpeckers we saw here were too small for our coarse shot), we started back again and reached Harmony at five or five thirty—after the small wagon had twice broken loose from its forecarriage on this journey, something that gave rise to comical scenes. The temperature at five o’clock was 16°R [68°F, 20°C]; even with the windows open, we could not tolerate a fire. At twelve noon the Réaumur thermometer registered 17° [70.3°F, 21.3°C], a very unusual phenomenon, as I was assured, even here. I spent the evening at the home of Mr. Say, and as I was going home, the full moon shone brightly and it was most pleasantly warm. The young people of Harmony took advantage of this magnificent evening to play their ball games until ten o’clock.