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 9, 1833
In the morning, dreary, overcast sky. At seven thirty, 1°R [34.3°F, 1.3°C]. At eight thirty it began to snow heavily and a powerful wind blew from the northeast. The thermometer stood at 0°R [32°F, 0°C]. The wooded lowlands along the Wabash and the Fox, as well as the Black River, which we have been traversing for quite some time, are usually completely flooded toward spring. One sees high-water marks everywhere on the huge trees, (suggesting flooding,) a condition detrimental to the cattle. Before the water reaches the highest level, the owners herd their cattle together in the forests and drive them to higher ground; nevertheless, many an animal that could not be found drowns. Then people searching the forests in boats often find pigs on an old tree trunk that do not want to be brought down. Now and then opossums, which have fled to low trees, are also seen.
Today our landlord rode 12 miles to procure an otter, or at least its skull, for me; he can scarcely return this evening. At twelve noon, 1/3°R [32.8°F, 0.4°C] (the snow had stopped but a strong wind was blowing).
In the afternoon, [a] walk to the Wabash ferry landing, where a flatboat was being overturned. The bottom was ready and propped up at a slant. A pile of brushwood had been heaped up in front, onto which the boat is turned. Occasionally it breaks in two. Then it is put into the water, after the deck has been placed on it. On the Cutoff I found several Mergus merganser in young plumage, or females. The wind was so cold and blew so hard against the high bank of the prairie near Harmony that there was much foam on the surf [and] sand from the sandbar on the other side of the Wabash (more than 100 paces wide) blew into my eyes.
Many country people ride in and out of Harmony in their large wagons pulled by four to six oxen or horses and loaded with corn or pigs, which they sell in town. Then, in the taverns of Harmony, they always fortify themselves with whiskey, which often goes to their heads so that they become noisy. Their crudeness is then revealed in the most glaring light. They know nothing of schools and instruction and grow up like savages. In Harmony itself there is one school.
In the afternoon the wind swept aside the clouds, and the sun shone brightly and clearly, but at the same time it was cold. In the evening Mr. Say paid me a visit, and Mr. Achilles brought numerous varieties of wood, which he had collected for me. A stormlike wind blew from nine o’clock on.