31 October: At seven thirty, temperature of 10°R [54.5°F, 12.5°C]. At noon the weather was hot. I went out with Messrs. Say and Lesueur, and we saw the Indian mounds near Mr. Lesueur’s house. They are located in what had formerly been Rapp’s cemetery, in which he had planted black gum trees. Several of [the mounds] can still be seen quite clearly. In these very shallow burial mounds, the Indians constructed the grave of stones by placing them on edge; many bones have been found in them. Among the old Indians, several Swabian farmers from Rapp’s society lie buried. Mr. Lesueur showed us a nice, half-wild turkey, i. e., of a half-wild race [breed], which was as colorful as the common turkeys yet of a different color on its neck and upper back.

At twelve o’clock Mr. Bodmer and I went out to Messrs. Owen, where we had been invited for lunch. After our meal we watched the threshing with horses, which is the general practice here. The grain (wheat) was piled up in the field on a small, round threshing floor, which has no outer barriers. Three men rode six horses in pairs behind one another in a circle, and they trampled out the kernels, many of which, however, remained in the husks. With a pitchfork a fourth worker again and again tossed the escaping stalks under the horses’ hooves. Here one must be careful that the horses do not let their droppings fall on the grain. When we came home, we found a magnificent wild turkey of thirteen and three-fourths pounds, which had been shot today on Wabash Island.M13Today I saw an excellent book for travelers on the Ohio and Mississippi that contains a map of the entire course of the river with all its islands, rivers, creeks, and towns: The Western Pilot for 1829, Cincinnati, Ohio, N. and S. Guilford.