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 18, 1833
In the morning, nice, bright weather, slight frost. At seven thirty, −2 1/2°R [26.4°F, −3.1°C]. Last evening we had talked much about New Orleans and the changeability of the climate there. This is said to be very striking and to occur even more rapidly than here. Winter and spring until into July are, as a rule, healthful, but summer and fall are especially unhealthful and, at least for outsiders, dangerous. Then the upper-class residents often go to the Baton Rouge area, where the hills provide more healthful air. During very cold winters, ice as thick as a finger has been found in New Orleans—as a rule, a very rare occurrence. This year, too, the cold is said to have done damage to some plants. There was something in the newspapers about this. Orange trees and sugar cane had suffered damage.
I took my walk and saw seventeen prairie hens, also large flights of Columba carolinensis migratoria, as well as many ducks (Anas clangula) on the Wabash. I shot several birds and met a man who brought me a wolf. This wolf seems completely identical with the European one; it has the same color. I paid four dollars for it. At noon, 5 1/2°R [44.4°F, 6.9°C]. In the afternoon Messrs. Say, Lesueur, and Nohl called to see the wolf. In the evening, visit at the home of Mr. Say.