Part 9 (1/2)

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 [pg 76] the ground No pine, rhododendron, kalnolia, 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 Areild, and which here attains a considerable height and size

These lofty forests re-echo with the ha the winter, the scarlet cardinal (_Fring

cardinalis_) shi+nes 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 Hare, 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 Colorows in every part of the United States The wax tree (_Myrica cerifera_), of the berries of which the green, fragrant tapers are row 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 sli 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, ar, and has the saiven a print of this elardens

The country on the banks of the Wabash is as interesting to the zoologist as to the botanist; forreat nulo-Americans, the elk,[87] bear, and beaver; but they are now entirely extirpated The Virginian deer is still pretty nu 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 fro 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 daytis, 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 erround 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 areof the birds of this part is the wild turkey, which was fore cock was sold at Harhbourhood, who supplied the place with this delicate ga 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 coe flocks to the neighbourhood of Hares abound, and so do parrots (_Psitt Carolinensis_) which re the winter No other kind of parrot seeree of cold as this We often saw the on the fruit of the plane, when Reaumur's thermometer was at 11 below zero In the mild clih

They are ae, and become very tame

There are but few species of amphibia in the country about Harmony

Soft shell turtles and several kinds of _e turtle (_E serpentina_), likewise _E geographica_, _picta_, _pulchella_, &c

There are several lizards, but no great number of species The rattle-snake is seldo 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 haveseveral kinds of anilass-snake (_Ophisaurus ventralis_), which easily breaks to pieces, they say, that when the pieces are placed together, they immediately unite: they affir at the end of its tail, takes it in itslike a hoop; and that if it passes a tree it wounds it with its sting, which always makes the tree die Mr Thoht 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 affir, excused hiave hienerally believe that venoue and with the tail, that they fascinate other ani 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 soeon and pikes are found here; the horn-fish, the buffalo (_Catasto 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 speci residence at Hary 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 forreat work of Cuvier and Valenciennes

The bivalve shells (_Unio_, _Alasreat e 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, as 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 hiood 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 reht 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 [pg 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 clie The winters are generally reat and rapid The cholera has not yet visited this country We arrived at the season called the Indian summer, when, with a telooularities in the digestive organs, and head-ache Poppig gives a very accurate account of the North American autumn, and Mrs

Trollope felt the peculiar effect of this warers; 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 wintertis, 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; Reau were equally violent; the latter covered the heavens with a sheet of fire, and was extree 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 nuinal 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 reat work, entitled ”Antiquites Mexicaines,” has mentioned such remains in all the states, and collected hbourhood 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 tue, where Rapp made his churchyard, and which is now planted with acacias The bones of the Swabian peasants are herethrough some of those tureensward, and found a right-angled oblong parallelograewise, 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 theen[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 ithout the bones of the face, and all were very ed were not s, and, consequently, afford no evidence of a dwarfish race, which has been fabulously [pg 80] ascribed to America Potsherds were found in eneral s; it would appear that they had been moulded in a cloth, or basket, as they were ures Mr Lesueur has seen unbroken vessels of this kind, which were large, very flat, and had figured handles Broken shells are frequently found interrey clay of these vessels

In one of the tuether with the hu 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, thefor the tobacco; so woodcuts[90] Soraves, are the narrow, oblong, square pieces of flint, which those nations made use of instead of knives They are fro, and scarcely half an inch broad; very thin and very sharp on all the four sides Several of these knives were discovered near New Har my stay there There is a very remarkable coincidence of these knives with the perfectly silass, which are found, even now, in Mexico, soht with him, fro thehth plate, I have represented the two kinds of stone knives together, as they seeines of the interior of North America with those of Mexico, which is supported by other reasons

[Illustration: Indian pipes]

About fifteen miles from Harmony, lower down the Wabash, is a part of the bank known by the nah 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 fro fallen down on this place, he saw under the roots an entire hu-place While the observer deeply regrets that he is wholly without infor these remarkable remains of antiquity, he feels that the present white population of North A theive any account of the names of the Indian tribes who inhabited the country at the tie was founded One of the first settlers of the country about Mount Vernon, who had grown up in Kentucky a 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 theive he 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 ood-looking, robust race; wore a kind of apron, and had bows and arrows, in the use of which they were very expert They had auns; they smoked Sumach leaves in wooden pipes,[93]