On October 17 the Water Witch approached the settlement of Rome, Indiana, opposite Cloverburg, Kentucky. In the afternoon it anchored at Stevensport below Rome, where Bodmer made two watercolor studies of the river.

Traveling downriver from Portland, Maximilian and his party went ashore briefly when the steamer docked at Albany to repair its engines. Bodmer shot a few birds at this time and Dreidoppel dutifully prepared them as specimens for Maximilian's zoological collection. Bodmer's sketch of the Ohio reproduced here is undated; it might have been done at any time during the course of the voyage downriver.

On October 8, Maximilian's party left Pittsburgh by stage for Wheeling, now in West Virginia. The next day they boarded an Ohio steamer there and four days later arrived at Cincinnati. The presence of cholera in the area discouraged plans for a visit into the city, and Maximilian regretted that he would not have the opportunity of seeing its museum of natural history. Bodmer's shipboard study of the Ohio River near Cincinnati, identified by a brief inscription at lower right, was made on the morning of their arrival.

After breakfast on October 18, the steamer passed the settlements of Owensburg and Yellow Banks, where it stopped to take on wood. Later this same day it rounded French Island a few miles above Mount Vernon, Indiana, and Bodmer made this quick study. Toward eleven o'clock one of the ship's passengers died of cholera. A coffin was quickly constructed and, as the body was taken ashore for burial, Maximilian took advantage of the delay to wander along the shore in search of botanical specimens.

On October 17 the Water Witch approached the settlement of Rome, Indiana, opposite Cloverburg, Kentucky. In the afternoon it anchored at Stevensport below Rome, where Bodmer made two watercolor studies of the river.

During the October voyage on the Ohio between Kentucky and Indiana, Bodmer continued making random studies of the river and the shoreline. Although undated, this drawing is identified as having been made on the Ohio.

On the afternoon of October 15, Maximilian's party prepared to embark once again on the Ohio at Portland, about half an hour from Louisville. Near Portland an island provided docking facilities for river craft. Among these was the Water Witch on which the travelers departed downriver. Bodmer's sketch of an Ohio riverboat at Portland, possibly the Water Witch itself, was made on October 16, the morning of their departure.

Bodmer's pen and ink sketch of the Ohio here represents a scene observed downriver from Wheeling toward Louisville, Kentucky, according to the undated inscription at lower right. It could have been made at any time between October 9 and 14, during the voyage between the two towns.