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
February 25, 1833
In the morning, beautiful clear sky with sunshine. Cold. At seven thirty, -6 1/2°R [17.4°F, -8.1°C]. We did some packing of our chests and worked at home. At twelve o’clock, 1°R [34.3°F, 1.3°C]. During my walk in the afternoon I saw little that was interesting. In the forest along the Wabash beyond the ferry, Dreidoppel and I saw enormous trunks on the ground, most of which, to be sure, no longer had any tops but were still 130 of my feet in length.
We saw few birds, just woodpeckers, titmice, and nuthatches. On the Cutoff River, I watched a flock of Anas rufitorques for a long time as they dived near a sandbar with willows, where the water was shallow, but they did not come within range. In the orchard I found large numbers of bluebirds. Achilles and a young book printer were building a little house right here, for which they were trimming the lumber. He wants to lease land from Mr. Maclure and establish a farm. Small pools of standing water were still frozen in the shade; in the sun it was very warm.
That afternoon I received a live Strix asio, a nice rust-red little horned owl that, when perched, resembled a ball with ears.
In the evening we went to Mr. Say’s, where we stayed until ten thirty. We conversed about various subjects, and among other things Mr. Say told me several Indian names of North American rivers. Father Hennepin called the Mississippi “Mechasippi”; the Indians called the Ohio the River of Blood, another river the “Nischnebotona” [Nishnabotna], and the Platte River, which empties into the Missouri, “Nibresca.”