A heavy fall of rain was very welcome to us, the water in the river being so low that our boat frequently grounded. At a narrow part of the river we came to the village of Newark, and then to the mouth of the Muskingum River, at the town of Marietta, which was founded in 1788.[64] This 67 place is small, but it has neat brick buildings, some of which looked like churches. We have read much about the ancient Indian remains and ramparts, between the Ohio and the Muskingum. Smith Barton, Attwater, Schultz, and especially Warden,[65] have written on this highly interesting subject, and given ground plans of the Indian ramparts, which are met with at many places in the state of Ohio, at Cincinnati, Wheeling, Chillicothe, as well as in all the States west of the Alleghanys, and respecting which Warden has collected everything that is known; but most of these interesting remains have been entirely annihilated by the love of devastation, or the negligence of the new settlers. Thus Marietta is built just on the fore part of the Indian works, and many of them are no longer to be seen. It is much to be lamented that the government of the United States suffers all this to be done without any attempt to prevent it. It looks on unmoved, while the plough continues from year to year the destruction of these remains of ages long since past, the only historical monuments of this country. Schultz gave, in 1820, a ground plan of the ramparts near Marietta, as Smith Barton and Warden did more recently; and Mr. Thomas Say made a sketch of them in 1815, which he communicated to me. A great part of them has been since ploughed over.

From Marietta we came to the Island of Muskingum, and then to Vienna Island; opposite to which, on the left bank, lies the village of Vienna. Swallows, which had long since left Pennsylvania, were still flying about here. We everywhere heard accounts of the great flood in the Ohio, when the steam-boats were on a level with the second story of the houses in Marietta.

We saw tall forest trees, among the thick branches of which the river had deposited beams and other pieces of wood.[66] Below Parkersburg, a village on the southern side, the little Kenhava River issues from the high bank opposite Belpie, a settlement of a few houses.[67] A steam-boat, which had been entirely crushed by the ice, proved how violent the effects of the breaking up of the ice in the Ohio sometimes are. Our captain lay to for the night, on the right bank, which was necessary, on account of the unfavourable weather; the rain being so heavy, that it drenched the upper row of beds in the large cabin.

On the 11th October the weather was fairer, but very cool. The appearance of the bank was the same as before—an unbroken, thick forest, with here and there some little settlements. We reached, at an early hour, the Little Hocking River, which comes from the state of Ohio. Ducks, particularly teal, flew past us, and we observed, also, many other birds of passage on their flight. Near Shade Creek, the banks of the river consisted of stratified, rocky walls, which appeared to be Grauwacke slate;[68] we observed, in the forest, trees of remarkable forms and colours; the trunks, covered with the scarlet foliage of the five-leaved ivy, were particularly beautiful. We frequently met, in the river, with flat boats, which are built all along the banks 68 of the Ohio, from Pittsburg, and are sent with the produce of the country to New Orleans. These boats are large four-cornered chests, composed of beams and planks, are often heavily laden, draw much water, and, having neither masts nor sails, proceed very slowly. They are propelled with large oars, and can only go down the river; they are many months on the voyage to New Orleans, and the rowers are commonly new European emigrants, hired for low wages, and often merely for a free passage. Many of these boats are wrecked, and they are, therefore, frequently insured; at New Orleans they are sold for lumber.

The woods in the valley of the Ohio are more lofty and luxuriant than on the other side of the Alleghany Mountains; vines twine round the trees, and present a faint image of the woods of warmer countries. The kingfisher was common; the swallows had not yet taken their flight, and in some places the sandpiper was seen upon the bank. In the vicinity of the houses were cattle, horses, swine, large sheep, and numerous flocks of European geese and ducks; here, too, the papaw tree was sometimes planted in rows. The river increased in breadth, but not in depth, of which we had the proof before us, for a flat boat had run aground, and the people stood in the water, trying to get it afloat. In this part of the country there are, in the state of Ohio, many Swiss colonists, who are much commended for their industry. The soil is extremely fruitful, and needs no manure. The dwellings of these people are small log-houses, exactly like the huts in Switzerland. Towards noon, before we reached Point Pleasant, we saw, in many places on the Ohio, considerable coal-pits, the sulphureous smell of which was perceptible in the steamer; many boats lay ready to take in cargoes; negro children were sitting in groups on the bank, near their extensive plantations of maize. These people are free in the state of Ohio. After we had passed Point Pleasant, a village on the left bank, where fine forests cover the low bank of the great Kenhava River, which here falls into the Ohio, we reached, in about twenty minutes, Gallipolis, on the right bank, an old French colony, the inhabitants of which still speak the French language.[69] Immediately below that town, there is a fine forest of beech trees; on the water-side, thickets of plane, and between them the papaw tree took the place which, in Pennsylvania, is occupied by the Rhododendron maximum; willows grew in front of the planes.

The sun disappeared behind the hills on the bank; the evening sky was clear and serene, and the bright mirror of the Ohio extended unruffled near Racoon Creek, where we saw large flocks of ducks. We intended to continue our voyage during the night; but, about nine o'clock, we struck violently on a sand-bank, near the Indian Guyandot River, where there is a small village of the same name, and, as a thick fog arose, we lay to, six miles below Guyandot.[70]

On the 12th of October, in the morning, a dense fog covered the river, and the thermometer was, at half-past six o'clock, at 10° Reaumur, above zero. We passed the mouth of Symes Creek, and then Burlington, a small scattered village in Lawrence County, where our boat struck upon some stones, and was thrown a little on one side. On the left bank was Cadetsburg, 69 with Big Sandy Creek, then Hanging Rock, a small village, where most of the iron utensils for the whole of Ohio are shipped. The situation of the place is picturesque, surrounded with forests and rocks. On the left, or Kentucky bank, we passed Greenupsburg, a row of seventeen or eighteen small houses, on the high bank. The inhabitants, in order to attract the notice of the vessels that pass by to their public-houses, stores, or shops, have set up posts, with boards painted white, on which their trade, &c., is described in very large letters. The beech woods on this part of the river were remarkably fine, their foliage green and yellow. On our right hand was the little Scioto River; we then came to the village of Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto River, on the Ohio bank, where the celebrated Ohio Canal begins, which connects that river with lake Erie. At this place we took on board a number of European emigrants, among whom were many Germans, with their baggage, beds, and other effects, and many children. The negroes brought provisions for sale; one of them had a number of fowls, all of which escaped, and caused no little amusement. From this place, fine forests covered the bank, in which were tall poplars (Populus Angulata, or Canadensis), which I had not before observed. Here, too, I noticed some interesting forms of mountains, which in general are very rare in this country. Most of the summits are round, some broad, but very few pointed. Towards evening we came to the village of Rockville,[71] on the right bank, which was not marked on our map, and lay to, at nightfall, when we learned that our vessel had caught fire, but happily it was already extinguished. On the bank near the steam-boat, a large fire was burning, the reflection of which, on the dark forest, had a fine effect, and so had the steamers that hastened past us, which were brightly lighted up inside, and emitted sparks of fire as they rushed along in the dark night.

On the 13th, at daybreak, the landscape was obscured by rain. We had passed, during the night, Adamsville, Manchester, Aberdeen, Ripley, Vanceburg, Maysville, and Augusta, and were now off the village of Neville, where the Helen Mar steam-boat lay near us, to take in wood. We then came to Moscow, then to Point Pleasant, and on the right bank to New Richmond.[72] Near the little Miami River, six miles from Cincinnati, the Ohio was so shallow, that we saw the shells at the bottom, and our boat struck several times. The Miami River was nearly dry. At Columbia, in the state of Ohio, the valley becomes rather wider, but the hills soon close in again upon the river, and we come to the beginning of the great town of Cincinnati.

Cincinnati, the most important and flourishing town of the West, with more than 36,000 inhabitants, was at this time visited by the cholera, which, as we were assured by a physician who came to our vessel, carried off, on an average, forty persons daily. I therefore resolved not to stop now, but to visit this town on my return; our baggage was transferred to the Portsmouth steamer, which was just about to depart; and at noon we reached the mouth of Big Miami River.[73]

On the 14th of October, we had pleasant sunshiny weather. The river had become considerably broader, when we came to Six-miles Island, a beautiful island six miles from Louisville. 70 We had passed several places during the night, and likewise the celebrated Big-bone Lick,[74] where colossal bones of the mammoth have been dug up at the foot of a hill of black earth. I would gladly have stopped at this spot, but some of our passengers, who were well acquainted with the country, assured me that there was now nothing to be seen there, nor was anything more found. All that had been obtained had been sold to England and the American museums.

Fossil bones[75] of animals are still found in the United States, but the possessors having learnt the value of such things, ask so high a price for them that it is difficult to obtain them; they are, besides, frequently presented, out of patriotism, to the American museums.

We soon reached Louisville, a considerable town, with 12,000 inhabitants, which in 1800 had only 600.[76] It is in the state of Kentucky, and, when seen from the river, does not make nearly so good an appearance as Cincinnati. Negroes conveyed our baggage to the inn, where we found, as usual, a great number of gentlemen, for the most part travelling merchants. The merchants are, in America, the class of people among whom the most idleness is found, and they are extremely numerous. The least numerous classes are the men of learning, and the military; the latter, in particular, so very few, that they are not at all remarked. The young men who, in North America, besiege the doors of the inns, are, doubtless, most of them, traders. Foreigners are often treated with contempt by these persons, who are usually equally conceited and unpolished, and make observations, as soon as they discover a foreigner, either by his incorrect pronunciation of English, or by his dress. This American conceit is to be attributed partly to their excessive patriotism, and partly to their ignorance, and want of acquaintance with other countries.

When the dinner-hour was come, such a crowd of gentlemen had assembled before the house, that, at the ringing of the second (dinner) bell, the dining-room was in a manner carried by storm. All rushed impetuously into the room, every one making good use of his elbows, and in ten minutes all these people had dined and hastened out again. Mr. Wenzel, a German merchant, to whom I had letters, had the kindness to show me the town and neighbourhood. Louisville has the appearance of being likely soon to become an important town, and many new houses were, in fact, building. The streets are long, broad, and straight, crossing each other at right angles, and the situation on the Ohio is very favourable for trade. Handsome, showy shops are common here, as in all the towns of the United States, and elegance of dress characterizes everywhere, even in the smallest places, the inhabitants of this country, the great object of whose efforts is the acquisition of wealth. As it was Sunday, the various sects of the population were flocking to their respective places of worship; afterwards, many of them were driving out in their gigs. There were already above thirty hackney carriages, partly belonging to negroes, of whom only the far 71 smaller portion are free in the state of Kentucky. The state of oppression in which the negro slaves live in North America, makes them corrupt and knavish, which travellers often have occasion to learn by their own experience. At Louisville, the cholera had already appeared. Five persons, most of them negroes, were carried off the day before our arrival, and a general panic had seized the inhabitants.

Mr. Wenzel took us to a spot which was intended for horse-races, an institution quite new in the Western States. A society had purchased a beautiful level spot of ground, surrounded with woods, and about four miles in circumference. This place was surrounded with palisades, with several stands in the centre, and stables in the neighbourhood for the horses. The horses of Kentucky are considered to be the best in the country; the stallions which were to run, and some of which had come from a distance, seemed to be mostly of a very good breed, not large, but well built. The first races were to continue the whole of the next week. This institution will, doubtless, have a good effect in improving the breed of horses, and afford the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood both advantage and amusement.

In the afternoon we left Louisville to embark at Portland, below the town, on account of the Falls of the Ohio, that now cannot be navigated past the town, and therefore a canal has been made, where, by the aid of five sluices, the boats are raised twenty-two feet. Those who land at Louisville embark again at Portland, where there is generally a great number of steam-boats, among which we chose the Water-witch, bound to New Orleans.[77] There were a great many passengers eager to embark, who drove in carriages into the river to reach the steam-boat, to which the baggage was conveyed in the same manner. The loading of the vessel not being completed, we did not set out till the 16th of October. At seven o'clock in the morning of that day, Reaumur's thermometer was at 5° above zero, while a thick fog covered the river. We put off at half-past ten, and had a fine view of the magnificent Ohio, with the large town of Louisville in Kentucky, and New Albany in Indiana,[78] opposite, with numerous steam-boats on both banks. It was soon discovered that our engine was out of order, and we were forced to lie to, on the Indiana side, to repair it. As this required much time, we took the opportunity of exploring the first forest in this State. The bank was fifty feet high, and steep; the upper part of the declivity was covered with Datura, the seeds of which were now ripe, but very few of the light purple flowers were to be seen. The beautiful blue flowering Eupatorium cœlestinum and the Lobelia syphilitica bore their flowers amongst the thorn-apples. On the summit of the bank there was a noble forest of tall, thick beech, maple, oak, walnut trees, &c., in which there were some plantations of maize, with their block-houses. The underwood was everywhere the papaw tree, and on the skirts of the forest the yellow flowering Cassia Marylandica, with ripe seed. Old trunks lay rotting on the ground, which was partly covered with the falling leaves.

At nightfall our engine was repaired, and we proceeded on our voyage, and on the morning 72 of the 17th reached the village of Brandenburg, on the Kentucky bank, which is here rocky, and marked with horizontal white stripes, or strata. The mountains were rounded and covered with wood. In Indiana the forest was cleared in some places for plantations, which afforded a view into the picturesque interior; for on these cleared spots the tall forest trees stood, as in the primeval forests in Brazil, like columns crowded together. This dense forest was interrupted for a short space by the towns of Leavenworth and Rome, in Indiana, and Stevensport in Kentucky; the two last with some indifferent buildings. From this part the country had no great variety, the forests being seldom interrupted. The islands were bordered with willow bushes, with tall trees in the middle. On the bank where the rock was exposed, on account of the low water in the river, we observed singular forms produced by the action of the stream. They consisted of round or elliptical stratified masses, which gradually decreased in breadth, so that the whole looked like a truncated pyramid rising in terraces. Before night we reached Cloverburg, in Kentucky, and lay to till the stars or the moon should appear.[79] Numerous card parties sat down in the great cabin, where the heat was intolerable. Our beds swarmed with cockroaches, which ran over our faces and hands, or fell from the ceiling. These disagreeable animals are as common here as in Brazil; they gnaw everything, and, being quite soft, are crushed by the slightest motion.

On the 18th, at half-past six o'clock in the morning, the thermometer was +16° Reaumur, with rain, and wind, and a clouded sky. We reached at an early hour the little place of Rockport,[80] in Indiana, and at half-past eight, Owenburg, or Yellow Banks, in Kentucky, where we landed many passengers. We saw the Turkey buzzard hovering over the woods—a bird which we had not observed since we left Cincinnati, and which is not found to the west of the Alleghanys. The Ohio, though the water was extremely low, was still very broad and beautiful, its wooded banks rather low. French Island, and some others, covered with bushes and lime trees, lay quite dry, surrounded with a large sand-bank. It was discovered that we had the cholera on board. A man from Kentucky had declared himself ill early in the morning, and was dead before eleven o'clock, though the Captain employed all the remedies in his power. He was quite well in the evening, had played at cards all night, and did not complain till towards morning. A coffin was made of some planks; the vessel lay to on the bank, which was steep, and the bell was rung while the body was conveyed on shore and buried. Many of our passengers landed to see the funeral; others were extremely alarmed, and, meantime, took a walk.

After the funeral was over, and a white board, with the name of the deceased, had been set up on the grave, the bell called the passengers on board; in half an hour we reached Evansville on the Indiana bank; soon afterwards Pigeon Creek; above this, on the other bank, the Green River, and subsequently the village of Henderson.[81] Here we took in fresh provisions, and, among the rest, 1000 fowls were offered for sale, of which we took a good supply at a dollar per dozen. 73 The sun was setting with great splendour as we left this place; the broad, unruffled bosom of the Ohio shone like a silver mirror, in which the beautiful wooded banks were reflected, and the magnificent purple and orange hues of the sky tinged the river with their glow.

Towards midnight we reached Mount Vernon,[82] where we landed, intending to proceed, the next morning, to New Harmony, to visit the naturalists at that place. After passing the night at an indifferent inn, I set out for New Harmony, on the 19th of October, in the morning. I had been indisposed, as well as my huntsman, since I left Louisville, and was not in a mood properly to appreciate the fine, lofty forests of Indiana, the road through which was very bad and rough; the last part of the forest was remarkably grand and wild: vines and other climbing plants hung down from the old trees. The Amorpha fruticosa frequently formed the underwood. At some of the isolated dwellings of the farmers, racoon skins were hung up to dry, and the beautiful large feathers of the wild turkey were scattered on the ground. After having passed, in the most oppressive heat, the Big Creek, which flows between the wooded hills, we soon reached the fertile valley of the Wabash, near to which New Harmony is built.

New Harmony was founded by Mr. Rapp, and his Swabian followers, in a wooded plain on the left or east bank of the Wabash, about fifteen or twenty miles distant from any other place. As Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar has already spoken on this subject, I need not give any further account of the history of this settlement; I will only add that Mr. Owen, a Scotchman, bought the whole of Mr. Rapp, but afterwards disposed of it to Mr. William Maclure, President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.[83] At the time of our visit, Harmony had fallen into decay, and the people whom Mr. Maclure had settled there, were in part dispersed. Two sons of Mr. Owen were, however, still here, and also Mr. Thomas Say, and Mr. Lesueur; the first, well known as having accompanied Major Long in his two journeys into the interior, and the second, by his voyage round the world with Captain Baudin, and the celebrated Piron. Though Mr. Maclure did not appear to take any active part in the management of Harmony, because the climate did not agree with him, and he therefore resided in Mexico, he took care to furnish Mr. Say with a fine library of books on Natural History, which was constantly enriched with the most valuable new works published in Europe. He likewise had here a printing press, a copper-plate press, and an engraver. Mr. Maclure had purchased in France all the plates of Audebert and Vieillot's splendid ornithological works, which are preserved in the library.[84] Mr. Say has undertaken the superintendence of Mr. Maclure's property on the Wabash, but lives in a very retired manner, devoted to the study of natural history, and to literary pursuits.

75 Harmony is now a large village, with about 600 inhabitants; the buildings, which are partly of brick, are detached from each other; the streets are at right angles, broad, and unpaved. The church built by Mr. Rapp has been transformed into an amateur theatre. The situation of Harmony is by no means unpleasant. The Wabash, a fine river, as broad as the Moselle, winds between banks which are now cultivated, but were lately covered with thick forests. A hilly tract, covered with woods, bounds the valley of the Wabash, which is frequently overflowed by the river, and thereby gains in fertility. The place itself lies rather higher than the valley, surrounded by orchards, and is not exposed to inundations. The Wabash divides at Harmony into two arms, the eastern of which is called Cutoff River,[85] and further down into several branches, forming many wooded islands, the largest of which are inhabited.

New Harmony,[86] is surrounded on all sides by fields, which are from 600 to 800 paces in diameter; all around are lofty forests, where settlers have everywhere cultivated detached patches. These people are generally called backwoodsmen, who live like half savages, without any education or religious instruction. The forests which they inhabit are very extensive, and the soil extremely fertile: vegetation is much more luxuriant than to the east of the Alleghanys; and, therefore, a short description of the natural productions of the country will not be out of place here.

Some remarkable peculiarities strike the observer when he looks at the forests on the Wabash; one of these is the want of evergreens, if we except the Viscum flavescens, Pursh, Bignonia cruciata, Equisetum hyemale, and Miegia macrosperma. The leaves of that bignonia, for the most part, remain green in the winter, as well as those of the miegia, and the stalks of the Equisetum hyemale, at least, in mild winters, which often grow to the height of eight or ten feet in the dry forests. The planes often attain an enormous size, and are then generally hollow, and divided into several colossal branches. We measured several of these trees, and found one that was forty one feet five inches in circumference. The hollow inside was twelve feet in diameter, so that in our winter excursions we used to light a fire in it, where we sheltered from the wind. Tall tulip trees shoot up straight as masts, blossom, and bear seeds at their summits, unseen by human eye. Maples of great height and circumference, many species of oak, especially the mossy overcap oak (Q. macrocarpa), with its large acorns, which, at this time, lay on the ground, stand crowded together. A great many species of trees are mixed together; among them the Gymnocladus Canadensis, or Guilandina Bonduc, with its broad pods, the divers kinds of walnut trees, the Gleditschia tricanthos, with its formidable thorns; and many climbing plants twine round the trunks, and among them, the most beautiful of all, the Bignonia radicans.

In the forests of Indiana the ground is covered with a thick undergrowth, fifteen, twenty, or thirty feet high, consisting chiefly of the papaw tree, the spinewood (Laurus Benzoin), and the red bud; the flowers of the two latter precede the leaf. Under these lower trees, shrubs cover 76 the ground. No pine, rhododendron, kalmia, azalea, magnolia, nor even the chestnut tree, are found in these forests; but they seem to be especially the native country of the beautiful catalpa tree, of which it was not known in what part of America it properly grew wild, and which here attains a considerable height and size.

These lofty forests re-echo with the hammering of the numerous woodpeckers; and, during the winter, the scarlet cardinal (Fring. cardinalis) shines in the distance; and the titmouse (Parus. bicolor, and Atricapillus), and the nuthatch (Sitta Carolinensis), everywhere seek for insects and nuts.

The inhabitants of these forests would never be in want of an ample supply of wood for fuel and for timber, if they had been at all careful. The black walnut and cherry tree wood are the best for cabinet work; and for fuel, the hickory, which affords more heat than beech wood. The price of wood, at Harmony, was one dollar for a cord; but the price is already rising, because the forest in the neighbourhood of the village is gradually cleared, and the carriage is more expensive.

There are several kinds of officinal plants in the vicinity of Harmony; ginseng (Panax) grows close by the village, and its roots are still in request, but not so much as formerly. Another plant of the woods of Indiana, which is much esteemed, is the spurious Colombo root; likewise the peppermint, which grows in every part of the United States. The wax tree (Myrica cerifera), of the berries of which the green, fragrant tapers are made, does not grow in Indiana, but is found on the whole east coast, from New Jersey to Florida. A kind of bark, which is now much used, is that of the slippery elm (Ulmus rubra): if chewed, or softened for a moment in water, it dissolves into a viscous slime, and is found very useful in dressing wounds, as it is cooling, and allays the inflammation. It is said to have been applied with success in cholera, and is now sold, in powder, in all the apothecaries' shops. A teaspoonful of this bark, in boiling water, makes a very useful beverage, which is sweetened with sugar, and has the same effect as linseed. Michaux has given a print of this elm, and it would be desirable to cultivate it in our gardens.

The country on the banks of the Wabash is as interesting to the zoologist as to the botanist; formerly there were great numbers of the bison or buffalo of the Anglo-Americans, the elk,[87] bear, and beaver; but they are now entirely extirpated. The Virginian deer is still pretty numerous, but is daily becoming more scarce: when Mr. Rapp first settled here, seventy of these deer were shot, in a day, in one of the Wabash islands. The wolf is still common, and seems to differ but little from the European, but is a different species from the wolf of the prairies of the Missouri; 77 it is said that there is a black wolf in the prairies of Illinois, which may, perhaps, be a distinct species. Of foxes, I saw only the grey, though the red fox is said to be found here. In the works that treat of the natural history of North America, there are many errors. The racoon is common in the forests of Harmony, and is never seen in the daytime; it is hunted in the night with dogs, which drive it into a tree. It does not sleep through the winter, for I often obtained it in that season. The opossum is also common, and lives much in the same manner as the racoon. The polecat, the otter, and the mink are common; the pine marten is said to be sometimes seen; the ermine is not rare in the prairies of Illinois. The marmot, or ground hog, grows to a considerable size, and is found in the islands of the Wabash; the musk-rat abounds in all the rivers. The rabbit, as it is called (Lepus Americanus), is nowhere so common as in Europe, yet is found in all parts of the country. Of squirrels there are many species.

The most interesting of the birds of this part is the wild turkey, which was formerly extremely numerous, and is still pretty common. A large cock was sold at Harmony for a quarter of a dollar. A young man in the neighbourhood, who supplied the place with this delicate game, had often ten or fifteen hanging about his horse at the same time. The pheasant or heathcock is found in these forests, but in no great numbers. The prairie hen is common in the prairies of Illinois, and comes in large flocks to the neighbourhood of Harmony, as soon as the cold weather and snow set in. Partridges abound, and so do parrots (Psitt. Carolinensis) which remain here during the winter. No other kind of parrot seems to bear so great a degree of cold as this. We often saw them flying about in the forests, feeding on the fruit of the plane, when Reaumur's thermometer was at 11° below zero. In the mild climate of the Ohio and Wabash they remain all the year through. They are amusing birds in a cage, and become very tame.

There are but few species of amphibia in the country about Harmony. Soft shell turtles and several kinds of emys are numerous, such as the snapping turtle (E. serpentina), likewise E. geographica, picta, pulchella, &c.

There are several lizards, but no great number of species. The rattle-snake is seldom seen, this country not being sufficiently dry and stony; the copper-head, on the contrary, is said not to be rare, but I cannot speak with certainty. The hognose-snake is very common. There are many kinds of adder in the Wabash that are not venomous.

The proteus (Menobranchus lateralis, Harl.) of the Ohio, and of the great Canadian lakes, is found in the Wabash. The rude inhabitants have many superstitious notions and fables respecting several kinds of animals, especially serpents. Of the glass-snake (Ophisaurus ventralis), which easily breaks to pieces, they say, that when the pieces are placed together, they immediately unite: they affirm that the horn-snake, which has a horn or sting at the end of its tail, takes it in its mouth, and then runs along like a hoop; and that if it passes a tree it wounds it with its sting, which always makes the tree die. Mr. Thomas Say was once informed that a 78 planter had brought one of these snakes, and would prove the truth of this assertion. He sent for the man, and found that he had the tail of one of these snakes carefully wrapped up. Mr. Say asked him whether he must die if he pricked himself with this horn? The man answered "undoubtedly." Mr. Say immediately pricked himself with the horn and drew blood, but was not affected by it; and the impostor, who affirmed that he had witnessed the effects of the sting, excused himself by saying that he had been deceived by a neighbour who gave him the snake. The inhabitants of the country generally believe that venomous serpents sting both with the tongue and with the tail, that they fascinate other animals, an old, long since refuted fable, which, however, is occasionally revived in American journals, with other stories of a similar kind.

There are many kinds of fish in the Wabash, on the whole the same as in the Ohio and the Mississippi: the cat-fish is said sometimes to weigh above 100 lbs. Several species of sturgeon and pikes are found here; the horn-fish, the buffalo (Catastomus carpioles), a large fish resembling the carp, &c. The remarkable paddle-fish is likewise met with, but not frequently, nor in all the rivers. Mr. Lesueur has given it the name of ptalyrostra, and has sent several specimens of it to Paris. This naturalist, during his long residence at Harmony, has very carefully studied this branch of zoology. He possesses a large collection of drawings and descriptions of this class, and specimens, for the most part stuffed. He has presented many of them to the National Museum at Paris; and it was his intention soon to visit Europe, and publish his observations on this subject, which will form an important supplement to the great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes.

The bivalve shells (Unio, Alasmodon, and Anodonta), of which there are a great many different species, some of them very large and beautiful, are an interesting portion of the natural productions of the Ohio, the Wabash, and the tributary streams, especially Fox River. Several American naturalists have written on this subject. Mr. Say, who was the first, states the number of species of these bivalves at forty-four. He would have given descriptions and drawings of all the species existing in this country, as well on land as in the rivers, in his natural history of the North American testacea, had not death called him from this world, too soon for his friends and for science. He died on the 10th of October, 1834, soon after I had left him in good health on my second visit to Harmony. This part of the country has two species of crustacea (Astacus Bartoni, Bosc.), and (Astacus affinis, Say), which are here called craw-fish. These are the only large species of crustacea, but there are many smaller ones. Mr. Say, by many years' study, made himself fully acquainted with the insects. It is remarkable that the bee, which was brought to America by the Europeans, is now common in all the forests; the Indians are said to call this insect the white-man's fly. Many beautiful butterflies and moths adorn the woods of Indiana.

The eminences about Harmony are of secondary formation, with a basis of limestone, and upon that, strata of sandstone, clay-slate and indurated clay. The land in the neighbourhood of 79 Harmony is extremely fertile. The fields are not manured for many successive years, and produce the finest crops; such land, however, in good situations, is no longer cheap. The climate is salubrious, and the inhabitants attain a great age. The winters are generally mild; the changes of temperature are often very great and rapid. The cholera has not yet visited this country. We arrived at the season called the Indian summer, when, with a temperature of +16° to 17° Reaumur, the atmosphere was gloomy and misty. Most persons experience, at this season, irregularities in the digestive organs, and head-ache. Pöppig gives a very accurate account of the North American autumn, and Mrs. Trollope felt the peculiar effect of this warm autumnal weather on strangers; it is, however, very remarkable that this state of the atmosphere in the Ohio Valley quickly put an end to the cholera, on which Dr. Daniel Drake wrote an essay.[88] The weather in the wintertime is generally bright and clear; sometimes there are fogs, and hoar frost, which encrusts the trees with the most beautiful crystals: parhelia and aurora borealis are frequently seen. On the 14th of December we had a tremendous thunder-storm at daybreak; Reaumur's thermometer was at +2°; the rain, thunder, and lightning were equally violent; the latter covered the heavens with a sheet of fire, and was extremely dazzling; the thunder resembled a discharge of artillery. We were told that, in the preceding year, 1831, the weather had been exceedingly unhealthy, and the inhabitants even affirmed that wounds would not heal.

Like the whole of the interior of North America, the country on the Wabash has still numerous traces of a very early extinct original population, of which even the present Indians have no traditions, and whose remains have been spoken of by many writers. Warden, in his account of the United States, and more particularly in the great work, entitled "Antiquités Mexicaines," has mentioned such remains in all the states, and collected much information on this subject. Here, too, in the neighbourhood of Harmony, there are ancient tumuli, which, externally, are exactly similar to those which are everywhere found in our German forests. Lesueur had examined many of these tumuli, and sent part of the articles found in them to France. Some of the most considerable tumuli were found on the spot, near the back of the village, where Rapp made his churchyard, and which is now planted with acacias. The bones of the Swabian peasants are here mingled with those of the aboriginal Indians. Lesueur dug through some of those tumuli, which are now much levelled, and covered with greensward, and found a right-angled oblong parallelogram, level at the bottom, formed of large flat stones, set edgewise, and likewise covered over with similar stones. Some decayed bones were found in it, of which I received a considerable number from Mr. Lesueur, and sent them to Mr. Blumenbach, at Göttingen.[89] This mode of interment is not that of the present Indians, who themselves affirm that these tumuli were made by the whites. Most of the skulls which were found were without the bones of the face, and all were very much decayed. The race of men to which they belonged were not smaller than those now existing, and, consequently, afford no evidence of a dwarfish race, which has been fabulously 80 ascribed to America. Potsherds were found in many of the tumuli; they were made of a grey clay, and in general marked with stripes, or rings; it would appear that they had been moulded in a cloth, or basket, as they were marked with similar impressions, or figures. Mr. Lesueur has seen unbroken vessels of this kind, which were large, very flat, and had figured handles. Broken shells are frequently found intermixed with the dark grey clay of these vessels. In one of the tumuli was found, together with the human bones, the jawbones of an animal of the stag kind; in others, battle-axes, arrow-heads, and tobacco-pipe heads of clay, different in form from those now used in Indiana.

One of these pipes was in the shape of a squatting frog, the mouth serving for the tobacco; some of them are represented in the accompanying woodcuts.[90] Some of the most interesting articles found in and near these graves, are the narrow, oblong, square pieces of flint, which those nations made use of instead of knives. They are from two to two inches and a half long, and scarcely half an inch broad; very thin and very sharp on all the four sides. Several of these knives were discovered near New Harmony, and Mr. Lesueur found one during my stay there. There is a very remarkable coincidence of these knives with the perfectly similar instruments of obsidian or volcanic glass, which are found, even now, in Mexico, some of which Mr. T. Say brought with him, from his journey to that country, and wrote a paper respecting them.[91] In the 81 forty-eighth plate, I have represented the two kinds of stone knives together, as they seem to testify the affinity of the aborigines of the interior of North America with those of Mexico, which is supported by other reasons.

About fifteen miles from Harmony, lower down the Wabash, is a part of the bank known by the name of the Bone Bank, where the river has partly cut through a hill, or laid it bare, in which there are numbers of human bones seen imbedded in the bank. Mr. Lesueur sent a perfect skull from this spot to Blumenbach. An old tree having fallen down on this place, he saw under the roots an entire human skeleton; this, therefore, was undoubtedly a burying-place. While the observer deeply regrets that he is wholly without information respecting these remarkable remains of antiquity, he feels that the present white population of North America may justly be reproached for neglecting or destroying them. Nobody in Harmony was able to give any account of the names of the Indian tribes who inhabited the country at the time when this village was founded. One of the first settlers of the country about Mount Vernon, who had grown up in Kentucky among the Indians, but had removed, in 1806, to the forests on the Lower Wabash—where at that time there were no white settlers—had been well acquainted with the Indians about Harmony, and frequently visited them in their huts. He was the only man who was able to give me any information about them. He called them Muskoghe Indians; this name, however, seems to be incorrect. They lived in this part of the country till 1810; but in the year preceding the battle of Tippekanoe they all removed, and did not return. They were not numerous, and lived chiefly about the mouth of the Wabash, and on the Big Creek.[92] They were a good-looking, robust race; wore a kind of apron, and had bows and arrows, in the use of which they were very expert. They had among them thirty or forty indifferent guns; they smoked Sumach leaves in wooden pipes,[93] the tube of which was made of cane. Their huts, at the mouth of the Wabash, were composed of large bundles of reeds, lined inside with deer-skins. Many of these Indians fastened their pipes to the tomahawk. Their heads were shorn, with the exception of a tuft at the back, like the Indians of the Mississippi and Lower Missouri. They coloured their faces with red paint. To the whites they were friendly, visited the first settlers in their dwellings, and reposed around their hearths, especially in bad weather. At that time there were elks and beavers, yet in no great numbers; but bears and wolves in abundance. My informant had killed many bears, and great numbers of wild turkeys.

82 The early history of Indiana mentions, as the inhabitants of this State, when the French first settled here, the Kickapoos, Musquitons, Potanons, and some other nations, remnants of which are still to be found at the sources of the Wabash, as well as the Piankishaws, Miamis, and Viandots. In the year 1804, a treaty was concluded with them at Vincennes for the purchase of the lands between the Wabash and the Ohio, after which they emigrated.[94] Some well-informed inhabitants of Harmony, who, at the time of the Indiana emigration, when the United States had repeatedly bought land of those people, saw the several dislodged tribes pass through this country, assured me that the character of their physiognomy was often essentially different; and I myself found this confirmed both in North and South America; though the fundamental features of the American race are everywhere the same. All these Indians are now totally extirpated or expelled from Indiana, and the country enjoys the advantage of being peopled by the backwoodsmen.

The fertile and salubrious country of Harmony has attracted a great number of settlers, who have begun to thin the great forests of Indiana. These settlers are usually called backwoodsmen, because they live in the remote forests. They are a robust, rough race of men, of English or Irish origin. They dwell very isolated, scattered in the forests, and but seldom come to the towns, only when business calls them. There is a school at Harmony where the children learn to read and write; two dollars are paid quarterly, and the children receive instruction in the morning and afternoon; but in the country the young people grow up without any education, and are, probably, no better than the Indians themselves. In the Western States, the sixteenth section of the Congress land (i. e., land belonging to the Government) is always assigned for the benefit of the schools, but is not always employed according to the first intention. At this time there was in the state of Indiana only one college; it was at Blooming Town.[95] There was no clergyman at Harmony, and, with the exception of the meetings of some religious sects, the inhabitants were destitute of both religious and school instruction. Business, or festive occasions, bring the backwoodsmen into the town, where they indulge their love of whisky, which generally retards their return homeward. They have a good race of horses, and are bold horsemen; even the women are frequently seen on the saddle, and whole families travel in this way—man, woman, and child ofttimes mounted on the same beast. There is nothing characteristic in their costume, like the original dresses which are met with in the country in Germany; but they wear a medley, and bad imitation of all the fashions of English towns; caps, felt and straw hats, frocks, great-coats, plaids, &c. The women, too, endeavour to imitate the fashions of the towns, wear large hats with loose veils, and gaudy plaid mantles, which, altogether, have often a most ludicrous effect in these remote forests. The winter dress of the men is often not ill chosen, though perfectly novel to a stranger. At that season they wear great-coats made of the common woollen horsecloths, white or green, with gay stripes on the collar, cuffs, and pockets; 83 nay, some are striped all over like zebras: such a coat, of the commonest kind, cannot be had here for less than eight or ten dollars. Noisy parties of these people frequently assemble at the public-houses of Harmony, gather round the fire, and let the whisky circulate briskly, while their horses are frequently left the whole day, standing in the street, amid rain and snow. On Sunday, which is kept by many of the inhabitants, though there is no divine service, they are more decently clad, wash their faces, and make some attempt at putting their hair in order, which hangs dishevelled about their faces. The young men often went to the chase, others played in the streets, generally at ball, but a great number remained at their work, and the peasants and farmers, with their huge wagons, followed their usual occupations. On certain days, especially when a magistrate, a president, or a governor was to be chosen, all were gathered together, for they all take great interest in the government of the country, and would not, on any account, renounce the privilege which, in their estimation, makes them important statesmen. On such election days, whole troops of them ride into the town; the streets are crowded with their horses, which are tied up, and the whisky-shops resound with their tumultuous discussions. Every man gives his vote; disputes arise; and, as in the Polish diets, their excited passions frequently lead to blows. They are all great politicians, and some of them are well acquainted with the newspapers. In the winter, as soon as snow fell, sledge parties commenced at Harmony. Six or eight persons were on separate seats, two and two together, upon one sledge; others amused themselves with skating, for which, however, they had not much opportunity in the winter of 1832-3. There were frequent balls at the inns; on New Year's Eve they literally danced the whole night through.

Agriculture is still in its infancy about New Harmony, and the people depend on the extraordinary fertility of the soil. In the immediate vicinity of the town land is not cheap, having already risen to fifteen dollars per acre; whereas, at the distance of two miles, there was still a considerable quantity of Congress land, which might be had at one dollar per acre. There was a tax of fifty cents, or half a dollar,[96] on every quarter of a square mile of land. What is called Congress land, is frequently taken possession of, for a time, by new comers, who have no right to it. They fell the wood, erect their huts, and nobody hinders them in their proceedings till the lawful owner ejects them, who has purchased the land of the Government. A square mile of 84 Congress land was still to be had for 100 dollars; but these lands are subject to the periodical inundations of the Wabash, when the farmers are obliged to fly with all their effects to more elevated stations. They have then to look for their cattle in the great forests, and drive them away; but they cannot always find all the animals, many of which perish. The fertility of the soil is increased by these inundations. Congress land which was not exposed to inundation, could be bought for one dollar twenty-five cents per acre. This high water is said often to present an interesting scene. Hogs and other animals, even the opossum, have been found on low trees, where they had sought protection.

The chief vegetable production of this part of the country is maize, which grows to the height of twelve or thirteen feet; the ears are very large and heavy; I found some weighing fourteen to fifteen ounces, and nearly three inches in diameter, in which I counted above 1,000 grains. They ripen in September, October, November, and December, and are often left standing through the winter, till wanted for use. There are fifteen varieties of this important plant; one kind, called sweet corn, is particularly good when roasted in an unripe state. It is calculated that the best soil will yield 100 bushels of corn per acre. Very good cakes and bread are prepared of maize flour, and there are many other ways of dressing it. When boiled with milk it is called mush. All living creatures in this country subsist, almost exclusively, on this invaluable production. When the whites arrived in America numerous Indian tribes subsisted on it; quadrupeds, birds, nay, even fish, are fond of it. At the places where the flat boats, laden with maize, land, the fish collect and assemble in great numbers, and fall an easy prey to the fishermen. At this time the corn was sold at six and a half cents per bushel at Harmony; whereas, on the frontiers of Canada, two dollars were paid for it. Living is, consequently, very cheap on the banks of the Wabash. The maize is brought to market in large wagons, drawn by four oxen, and a considerable quantity is thence sent by water carriage. Other kinds of grain—wheat, rye, barley, and oats—which ripen in June, are likewise cultivated. Barley is grown for the brewers; and oats, in considerable quantities, for the horses. Potatoes, too, are extensively cultivated, but they are by no means so good and mealy as in Germany. There is a great variety of culinary vegetables. There are abundance of apples, but not many pears, which do not thrive; peaches are good, and very productive; quantities fall to the ground, where they are consumed by the hogs; plums and cherries are rarely grown; the latter are not so good as in Europe, but very fruitful. The vine was formerly cultivated, but it is now quite neglected. According to Warden, cotton is grown at Vincennes, Princetown, and Harmony, but this does not seem to be the case at present. This plant does not thrive beyond the 31st degree of latitude. The inhabitants grow hemp and flax for their own consumption, and some tobacco; bad cigars are made at Harmony, and, in general, good tobacco is rarely to be met with in the United States. Maple sugar is manufactured in great abundance in Indiana. Warden says that, in 1810, 50,000 lbs. 85 were made in this State, and, at present, it was worth seven or eight cents a pound. Many of the inhabitants obtain, in the spring, about 100 lbs. of this sugar. In this part of the country the corn is not thrashed, but generally trodden out by horses; a very imperfect process, which appears to have originated in the times of the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans.

Next to agriculture the breeding of cattle is an important object among the backwoodsmen; but is likewise ill understood. The breed of swine furnishes the principal supply for food and exportation, great quantities of pork being sent to New Orleans. Mr. Owen had established a whisky distillery, and fattened the swine on the refuse. About 1,500 barrels of whisky, worth ten dollars a barrel, were made every year in Mr. Owen's distillery. Great numbers of swine are in the woods of Indiana, far from all human dwellings, where they grow very fat by the abundance of oak and beech mast. They are of a reddish brown colour, with round black spots; there are some quite wild, which anybody is at liberty to shoot. These animals are never housed, even in the vicinity of Harmony. We observed them, in our excursions, in the depth of winter, when the young ones often perish with cold; and we also saw them eaten by the mothers. Dead swine were lying about in all directions, partly devoured by others. The negligence and want of feeling with which the animals are treated, are very great; and, accordingly, the breed of cattle can never flourish. The cattle, which are very fine, are kept in the open air day and night, amidst ice and snow, with which their backs are covered; the same may be said of the horses; nay, in cold moonlight nights, we saw these animals standing in the street, near their master's dwelling, as if they hoped to be let in. The animals are generally fed in the morning with maize, and a woman usually appears at an early hour, in her plaid, to milk the cows.

The cattle of this country are large and handsome, very hardy, and do not differ in figure or colour from those of Germany; no food is given them in winter but the dry leaves of maize. No clover or other forage is cultivated, so that the cattle and horses are confined to straw, the bark of trees, and the green reed, miegia, which forms a thick underwood in the forests on the Wabash. Everywhere one sees the bark and twigs gnawed, and even the fruit trees are often damaged in this manner. Horses and cattle frequently starve to death in the winter. I was told that the animals gnaw, in preference, the nettle-tree (Celtis occidentalis), the hack-berry (Celtis crassifolia), and the sugar maple. It is remarkable that the swine, which otherwise refuse no species of fruit, will not touch that of the papaw tree (Asimina). All the beef in this country is of a bad quality, because, as I have said, no forage is cultivated. In Pennsylvania it is quite the reverse; there a great deal of clover is grown, and the beef is, consequently, good. In Indiana pork is said to be much better and easier of digestion than to the east of the Alleghanys. We saw but few sheep, and no goats, at Harmony. There were plenty of geese and domestic fowls, but only a few tame ducks.

The mode of tilling the ground for the different kinds of grain, has been described by 86 many travellers; I will therefore merely observe that the plough is different in its construction from that used in Germany, and that the oxen are attached to it by a very peculiar yoke, which consists of a long, thick, crooked piece of wood, which is laid horizontally over the necks of the two oxen, with two bows underneath, through which the heads of the animals are put.[97]