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
November 4, 1832
During the night there had been lightning and rain; in the morning, mist and light fog descended. At seven thirty, temperature of 9 4/5°R [54.1°F, 12.3°C]. Today is Sunday, but no one pays any heed to it. In our house they play dance music on their violins and idle people loaf about. They shoot at birds near the houses. The young people grow up wild and completely without religion.
Dreidoppel went hunting several miles away; he left at five o’clock. From Mr. Say I received a mouse, quite similar to our large field mouse (Mus sylvaticus) but with a far shorter tail. I made a description of it, since it could well be a special species.
Today I did not feel so well as yesterday, a condition to which last night’s visit with Mr. Lesueur might well have contributed. Mr. Bodmer sketched at home today, since the air was murky. At twelve thirty in the afternoon, temperature of 12 1/2°R [60.1°F, 15.6°C]. The young people of Harmony are playing a ball game in front of our house (the Lafayette Hotel) in a fenced-in, rectangular plot, which is overgrown with Datura between the little intersecting paths found inside. They toss the ball at each other and run around; they have several rules for this game. In the meantime, one sees a large number of planters from the countryside riding now and then. Among them [are] many women of the lower class; all of them have large veils and straw hats and, usually also, coats made from a plaid material. They often have a child on the horse behind them, more often two children on a second horse beside them.
Toward evening Dreidoppel returned. He brought several Anas sponsa, several Podiceps, a partridge, a cardinal, etc., nice Unio species, several kinds of seeds, including nuts of the pecan walnut tree, which he had picked up from the ground. He had shot several ducks, which could not be reached in the shallow water. He had not found any turkeys. He saw many turtles on the old trunks lying across the water, but they plunged into the water as soon as anyone came near them.
A huge Platanus trunk measured 31 1/2 feet in circumference. On the other side of the Fox River, the timber was not as tall as on this side. His companion shot at a flock of parakeets; they were too high. In the evening, conversation with Mr. Say.
