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
December 13, 1832
Seven thirty, 1°R [34.3°F, 1.3°C]. The sky overcast; fog. At seven thirty we went to the Fox River and walked down on the west bank of the Wabash. We saw many interesting trees in this forest. Gymnocladus canadensis, with their large pods, also Bignonia radicans covered with seeds. Thousands of vines of climbing plants and huge Platanus, with their strange shapes and hollow trunks. Along the bank among tree roots, we found piles of river mussels, which mink seek to collect there. Some people here maintain that muskrats (Fiber zibethicus) do this, a claim that is certainly unfounded. At one burrow, as well as at some other ones, we found some very fine Unio, which we took with us on our way back.
Having arrived at the Fox River, we let Mr. Bodmer out at the place where he did his sketching; I continued on and landed at an island between two branches of the Wabash. At the tip of the island, so much driftwood was piled up that it looked like a tall bulwark. We climbed over it and entered the forest. I soon found raccoon droppings, filled with black berries of the Smilax and their red seeds. Earlier we had found a dead raccoon on a sandbar along the Wabash and had taken the head along. In part, the forest on that island was clear underneath. There were very old, enormous trees—Platanus, oaks, hickory, shellbark, Gymnocladus, Ulmus, and near the banks, cottonwoods (with round branches) and tall willows. In many places there were tall, dry plants of the Syngenesia, especially Liatris, which at the slightest touch immediately release their woolly seeds. Smilax was still mostly green, as was Bignonia crucigera, and the wildly intertwined grapevines had very thick wood. We scoured the island with Mr. Bodmer’s dog and found nothing except a wild turkey behind a thick Platanus at the other end. Before I could shoot, it had streaked across the river. Several woodpeckers, including Picus pileatus and several small birds, appeared.
We went back across the island again, and the dog found a doe (Cervus virginianus), which he chased past me. I shot at it without success. Having again arrived at the tip of the island near the driftwood, we crossed over to the mainland, and there on the bank I saw a pair of cardinals, the male of which, with its beautiful scarlet color, looked very splendid. When I returned to the Fox River several hours later, I found Russel, the hunter, by Mr. Bodmer’s fire, and in his canoe he had three turkeys and an opossum. I bought the latter and a nice turkey-cock. Toward evening we returned on foot as far as Cutoff Island and covered only the last stretch of the way by boat, since it was very cold and unpleasant on the water. Mr. Bodmer had shot a large mallard, Anas boschas fera. We spent the evening at home.