13 June: At three o’clock the travelers were awakened in the [hotel], and at four o’clock we drove off on the stage. The coachman had blown [his] metal horn in the streets, and we had said goodbye, perhaps forever, to the honorable old Lesueur. Six persons were in our carriage. They did not make significant conversation. At first we traveled through a mixed landscape of meadow or prairie and bushes. [After] scarcely one or two miles we were deep into the uninterrupted tall forest that lends Indiana its principal character. We noticed many Quercus phellos in these woods, which early on alternated with many settlements. After 13 miles we reached a post office o ffi ce. Breakfast was ready in a lone house on the road surrounded by tall forest, and we got fresh horses. Then we went across a branch of the White River, a nice, clear [stream] that flows between picturesque wooded banks. Till then we had much marsh and bad roads that were often covered with logs—we received terrible jolts from these, especially because we were driving fast with four good horses. The bridges were usually bad and uneven; the road [was] in general very hilly.

The ferrymen on the White River had caught a young otter (Lutra canadensis) that was not at all different from the ones [we had] seen earlier. Mr. Bodmer bought it from the men. About noon eleven o’clock we reached Washington, a small town located 20 miles from Vincennes, where we changed horses; Mount Pleasant lay 16 miles from [this place]. From Washington on, we again frequently found the willow oak (Quercus phellos) in the forest. [There were] many marshy places, and I noticed the white-blooming [— —] that Mr. Lesueur had found only once on Warrior’s Hill. The whistling of the partridge was heard often, [as was] the noise of frogs and cicadas. At some houses, locusts were seen; [their] useful timber is held in high esteem here, too. Posts made from it are supposed to last a lifetime. The farmers were plowing their fields, in which isolated trees often remained standing; [these] did not give off any shade, because fire had killed them long ago. [The trees] are cut down as their wood is needed. As a sign that they are to be cut down come winter, they are marked with a ring chopped around the trunk. They grow all kinds of grain in Indiana, but it is generally held that this state has been among the most difficult to cultivate, because of the extremely strong, deep tree roots of the primeval forests and the dense vegetation. The land in Indiana, except for the areas along the Wabash and the White rivers, is said to be not as fertile as in Illinois. Around Springfield, Illinois, it is hardly necessary to plow; [one just] hoes the ground, and it produces fine crops: 60 to 80 bushels of corn and 50 bushels of wheat per acre.

Frost [damage] was visible everywhere on the trees as we traveled through these forests—there would be no fruit and silage this year. The field crops were about as far along as those on the Rhine at this time [of year]. We saw many horses, sheep, cattle, and hogs roaming freely through the crops and in the fields and forests. The cattle looked strong and healthy. In the forest, few flowers were visible, as stated [earlier, although] here and there the wild rose was blooming.

At twelve thirty we reached Mount Pleasant, which was smaller and poorer than Washington. We ate lunch there in a house where there were some good books, particularly on geography, lying around. From this place we drove directly downhill to the bank of the second branch of the White River, which flowed through sublimely beautiful woodlands. The water was clear and nice, the riverbank steep. A ferry took us across, and beyond the river we traveled through a dark, tall, almost purely beech forest; [we] enjoyed the large [trees] and the refreshing [shade]. From [that point] on, this forest covered the hilly region. The beech trees, however, leave space for other types of trees, as described earlier. The forest continued untilevening until

evening; settlements were visible here and there.

[When] we reached the highest elevation in the area, the forest was mixed, and we saw the wildest, most picturesque woodland scenes: romantic, rugged valleys [so] filled with tall forest trees [that] the blue sky was hardly visible. The height of the majestic trunks was impressive, and their diverse mixture highly picturesque. I had never [before] seen such forests in North America!The road meandered, [looking] like a flat, brown stripe across the fresh, green wilderness in which we could not see [very] far and where the coolness refreshed [us] in the heat of the day. However, in many places [the road] was bad, and we felt the jolts; there was no stone paving anywhere.

That evening we stopped 23 miles from Mount Pleasant, after changing horses in between. Our innkeeper inhabited a single house, called Horsit, surrounded by good farm buildings and encircled by his fields in a lonely, rugged forest area. We did not expect to find such good accommodations, but everything was very well set up in the house—it was extremely clean and the food [was] very good. We rested splendidly after the exhausting stage travel in great heat. Early on