Fog in the morning. At five o’clock we reached the town of Canajoharie; the canal cuts through it. We had passed German Flats during the night and still followed the Mohawk Valley. A sawmill near one place had piled up a very large amount of boards and cordwood. The Mohawk flowed close beside us. It was much stronger than before. In this vicinity [there] is supposed to be a large cave in the hill to the right.

On the left side of the valley, there are mountains of rock with forest, that is, rock faces in the forest. The floor [of the valley] is flat and sown with corn, potatoes, clover, and grain; [there are also] meadows. Settlements are everywhere. A beautiful blue iris grew on the canal, [also] Cyperus, Typha, and Sambucus. Occasionally [there were] Italian poplars near the dwellings.

[We saw] the large, deep pink and white striped Convolvulus. The black crow (Corvus corone americana) was common, [as was] the song sparrow [——].

Cabbage [plants] bloomed yellow. In the meadows in the marsh grass a firecolored lily [grew]. A little farther on, the canal is separated from the river by a narrow dam where the horses walk [to pull the boat]. A railing is attached to it. The river is nice and larger than the Lahn [in Germany]. Asclepias covered the barren banks of the canal.

We [next] reach[ed] Glen, a small place; then Florida by the Schoharie Creek, after half an hour; then we passed several locks. [We had now] made 59 miles from Utica. The Mohawk flows hidden between shaded bushes. Herds of horses grazed on the meadows of the valley floor, which is flat [and] where some very nice fields with barley were located. Rubus odoratus bloomed nicely on the canal; the Mohawk was now much wider. The catbird was frequent in the clumps of bushes. Before the canal was constructed, all communications and commercial traffic went on the river by boat. We do not see any such traffic now [on the river]. Sambucus was being eaten by cattle on the bank of the canal; blackbirds and the beautiful, bright yellow Sylvia aestiva appeared in the clumps of bushes.

In the river lay [some] nice islands with poplar and willows and other trees. We reached a shallow creek with a rocky bed called Amsterdam Creek; then, on the left bank, [was] Amsterdam, a town with a large covered bridge across the Mohawk. From here it is 16 miles to Schenectady. The place is called a village. It has approximately 100 houses and will become a lively place of trade, because its location on the canal, the Mohawk River, as well as the creek is very favorable. The creek [is said to] have pretty cascades. In the river are islands covered with grain fields, around them all a border of trees. At the right side, or to the south of the canal, a rocky summit covered with nice forest. In the stones and rocks, Rubus odoratus grows. In one place the rock had to be hewn away for the canal.

During lunch we passed Rotterdam, and about three o’clock we reached Schenectady, a charming, sizable town. [The boat] stopped before we arrived at the [center of town]. Carriages stood ready here to [take] passengers 16 miles to Albany on the railroad. We sat down in the four stages that [waited] here. The luggage was packed in specially covered and locked baggage cars hitched to the stage. These wagons run on four small, grooved wheels on the railroad [tracks]. They are long and large, very comfortable, and each seats [——] persons. A single horse pulled [each] wagon a few hundred paces [until we reached] a gently rising elevation. [The horses] were then unhitched. Ropes were attached to the wagons. On top of the hill stood some buildings [containing stationary] steam engines that [pulled] the wagons uphill. [After] arriving on top, the row of wagons was connected to a steam [engine]. Everything slowly started to move. But the steam quickly had its full effect, and we rolled along on the railroad as fast as an arrow. In this way, the distance of 16 miles was covered in an hour.

The area is sandy but contains very nice blooming plants. First [one sees] pine forest with pitch pine (Pinus rigida), now and then an understory of scrub oak (Quercus obtusiloba?), then complete stands of white pine (Pinus strobus) with an understory of birch (Betula). Soon after the middle of the distance [to Albany is] a gentle slope, and the area there is overgrown entirely with low firs. Among the plants I noticed were a beautiful orange-red lily that grows frequently on the road in the sand (scapo erecto, foliis verticillatis), an Epilobium, highly similar to the European angustifolium, and several other [plants] that I could not recognize because of the speed of [our] movement. We reached our destination [when it was] still early in the afternoon. The railroad [goes] through a wide street of the city down to the stage office, where the representatives of the various inns wait for passengers and [divide the business] among themselves.

Albany, where we now were, is a charming, impressive city of 26,000 inhabitants. Handsome buildings and wide, regular streets, full of the most beautiful and diverse shops and stores, [all on] the banks of the significant, beautiful Hudson River. I do not want to repeat here what can be read in any traveller’s guide about the sights of the city, as well as its most outstanding establishments and buildings. An excerpt from such books is in the preceding annotation.

Today was a great day when we reached Albany: 4 July, [the] Day of Independence, interesting for us because we reached America on the same day exactly two years ago. We heard shots ring out, and here and there in the streets, cannon and fireworks were discharged. The youth in the streets set off such things, and we saw crowds of people going for a walk, since the evening was cool and pleasant.

I made use of a letter [of introduction] from Dr. Pitcher to Mr. Edwin James, the geologist of Major Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains. James Peak was named after him. I found him [to be] a very courteous man. He is a great friend of botany, but his herbarium is not set up well—[it has] inferior, small specimens. Now he is occupied with the Indian languages, particularly that of the Ojibwes. He resided among this people for a long time. He was kind enough to give me a schoolbook written by him in this language and a long list of [Ojibwe] words, as well as a letter of recommendation to Mr. DuPonceau in Philadelphia. I spent the evening in the company of his family, and then we took a walk through the city.

The public square, where considerable public buildings are located, is very large and nice. Here stands the capitol on a gentle hill. It cost $120,000 [and] is 115′ long, 90′ wide, [and] 50′ high; [it] contains two floors, with a foundation wall 10′ high. The eastern front has a portico of Ionic arrangement with four nice columns, 3′ 8″ in diameter and 33′ high. In this building [there] are said to be good paintings of outstanding men of the state. It contains, in addition to the offices and rooms for the directors of the state, a state library and other rooms for public administration. On this large plaza, which is called [the] Public Square, we also saw the Academy–an elegant building that cost $92,000 [and] has a front of 90′; [there are] five teachers and approximately 140 students. Furthermore, there is the city hall of white marble, with gilded in good style, and so on. The square itself has fenced green lawns laid out with wide paths in a grand style that redounds to the city’s great adornment.

From here we went to visit a private garden that was laid out in a [formal] fashion with fruit trees and roses. There were some interesting foreign plants, but [overall] we found in this respect very little of interest in this country. I accidentally missed the only botanical garden of value [in the United States], which was the one laid out by Bartram in Philadelphia. The evening passed very quickly in interesting conversation with Mr. Edwin James. For the future I hope to have gained an interesting correspondent in America, due to making his acquaintance. Through these means, the true value of my journey will be seen in [times ahead].