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 5, 1833
Early in the morning, dreary sky, warm. At seven thirty, temperature of 12 1/2°R [60.1°F, 15.6°C]. After breakfast I left with Dreidoppel and Danny for the Black River, which empties into the Wabash about 3 miles from [New] Harmony. The sky seemed to threaten us with rain, and it was pleasingly warm, so that fish were jumping out of the water. The current was strong and we had to struggle against it. Before the forest on the sandbar off Fox Island, which remained to the left of us, trotted a bunch of eight nice horses of various colors; the white and gray ones, especially, looked very nice against the tall timber, with [an] understory of high green forest reed (Miegia). Finally [the horses] crowded together at a certain place and drank. We could hear the bells of the cattle and horses in the lofty forest, with its considerable admixture of white Platanus trees.
Everywhere ducks flew up because of our oar strokes. Wild geese, too, heard the whistling of our rifle bullets. At several small log houses in the tall forest, people were busy clearing and cutting down the timber, and our boatman told us that this was Congress land (it belongs to the government) and that people cut this timber without permission of any kind and go unpunished.
Across the river on the Indiana side, Dreidoppel had walked through the tall timber in order to hunt. Here we took him into the boat again and on the bank found a big fish with the general appearance of our carp but with a larger head. Here it is called buffalo (Catastomus carpio Lesueur), a rather good, edible fish. Somewhat farther on, we noticed a mink trap made of wood in the tall forest on the high bank. It is a deadfall and will be described at another time.
At ten or eleven o’clock, on the right, or Indiana, bank, we reached the mouth of the Black River, a rather shallow stream that nevertheless has some wide, beautiful stretches and rather dark-green water. Its bed is mostly sandy or clay. At its mouth it is narrow and has piled up a heap of sand where many poplars and tall Platanus trees, in particular, grow. There were enormous grapevines here, and with an ax we cut off a large piece and took it with us. While our boatman, Danny, the carpenter, was to look for mussels, Dreidoppel and I walked up along the bank of the brook for several miles. The crisp, withered Platanus foliage rustled so much that we could not get close to the ducks resting there. In some places the brook is very wild and picturesque. It has deposited pure white sand, which is overgrown with slender poplars (with round branches), here called cottonwood. These places contrast very nicely with the tall wild forest filled with vines on both sides.
In the forest we found blue jays and heard several unknown birdcalls, including a very loud “hugh! hugh! hu! hu!,” somewhat like that of our ring dove. This call seemed to be coming from an old Platanus with hollow branches and probably came from some large variety of owl. A kingfisher (Alcedo alcyon) dived into the stream for fish, and Dreidoppel shot it but was unable to get it. In the sand along the bank, we tracked otters and raccoons (Procyon lotor), and probably mink (Mustela lutreola) as well, which are very numerous here. Even though our bag of birds did not increase, I nevertheless did obtain some interesting plant seeds, including, for example, the beautiful orange-red fruits of Celastrus scandens, which entwines the bushes, and the fruits of which resemble those of the Euonymus. Sturdy stems of Euonymus verrucosus, of the Amorpha, Hamamelis, Corylus americana, and other plants grew along these banks in the shade of the tall forest giants.
With a temperature of 13°R [61.3°F, 13.3°C] at noon, rain drove us back to the boat, where Danny had found only one kind of mussel, Unio plicatus. While our guns lay protected from the rain beneath thick fallen tree trunks, we had lunch here and then traveled rapidly down the Wabash. We had not gone far when, on a sandbar near Fox Island, we noticed seven large wild turkeys, which flew ahead of us across the river.
Our plan of attack was made at once. Dreidoppel was put ashore and was supposed to go around the magnificent birds and conceal himself in the forest while I intended to set the dog on their trail and pursue them. But a nearby hunter with his dogs got ahead of us. The turkeys flew back across the Wabash, and the cane on the island was so drenched from the rain that we refrained from further pursuit. Dreidoppel shot yet another Anas clangula and four redheaded woodpeckers (Picus erythrocephalus). He returned home through the forest on foot while I went home by boat. There I found a mink and three muskrats (Fiber zibethicus), which had been brought to me and were already perfuming our dwelling with their musk scent. In the evening Mr. Say paid me a visit. By dusk the rain had subsided.