to-morrow, as it is too good for our purses. We intended to have
gone twenty miles in Illinois to Edwardsville, but have changed
our plans, and will go northwest sixteen miles to Florissant,
where we are assured game is plenty, and the living quite cheap.
We do not expect to leave this till the 20th or 22d of April,
and should you feel inclined to write to me, do so by return of
mail, if possible, and I may get your letter before I leave this
for the Yellowstone.
"The markets here abound with all the good things of the land,
and of nature's creation. To give you an idea of this, read the
following items: Grouse, two for a York shilling; three chickens
for the same; Turkeys, wild or tame, 25 cents; flour $2.00 a
barrel; butter, sixpence for the best--fresh, and really good.
Beef, 3 to 4 cents; veal, the same; pork, 2 cents; venison hams,
large and dried, 15 cents each; potatoes, 10 cents a bushel;
Ducks, three for a shilling; Wild Geese, 10 cents each;
Canvas-back Ducks, a shilling a pair; vegetables for the asking,
as it were; and only think, in the midst of this abundance and
cheapness, we are paying at the rate of $9.00 per week at our
hotel, the Glasgow, and at the Planters we were asked $10.00.
"I have been extremely kindly received and treated by Mr.
Chouteau and partners. Mr. Sire, the gentleman who will command
the steamer we go in, is one of the finest-looking men I have
seen for many a day, and the accounts I hear of him correspond
with his noble face and general appearance."
FOOTNOTE:
[239] A fallen tree that rests on the root end at the bottom of a
stream or river, and sways up or down with the current.
THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS
1843
I left home at ten o'clock of the morning, on Saturday the 11th of
March, 1843, accompanied by my son Victor. I left all well, and I
trust in God for the privilege and happiness of rejoining them all
some time next autumn, when I hope to return from the Yellowstone
River, an expedition undertaken solely for the sake of our work on the
Quadrupeds of North America. The day was cold, but the sun was
shining, and after having visited a few friends in the city of New
York, we departed for Philadelphia in the cars, and reached that place
at eleven of the night. As I was about landing, I was touched on the
shoulder by a tall, robust-looking man, whom I knew not to be a
sheriff, but in fact my good friend Jediah Irish,[240] of the Great
Pine Swamp. I also met my friend Edward Harris, who, with old John G.
Bell,[241] Isaac Sprague, and young Lewis Squires, are to be my
companions for this campaign. We all put up at Mr. Sanderson's. Sunday
was spent in visits to Mr. Bowen,[242] Dr. Morton,[243] and others,
and we had many calls made upon us at the hotel. On Monday morning we
took the cars for Baltimore, and Victor returned home to Minniesland.
The weather was rainy, blustery, cold, but we reached Baltimore in
time to eat our dinner there, and we there spent the afternoon and the
night. I saw Gideon B. Smith and a few other friends, and on the next
morning we entered the cars for Cumberland, which we reached the same
evening about six. Here we had all our effects weighed, and were
charged thirty dollars additional weight--a first-rate piece of
robbery. We went on now by coaches, entering the gap, and ascending
the Alleghanies amid a storm of snow, which kept us company for about
forty hours, when we reached Wheeling, which we left on the 16th of
March, and went on board the steamer, that brought us to Cincinnati
all safe.
We saw much game on our way, such as Geese, Ducks, etc., but no
Turkeys as in times of yore. We left for Louisville in the U.S. mail
steamer, and arrived there before daylight on the 19th inst. My
companions went to the Scott House, and I to William G. Bakewell's,
whose home I reached before the family were up. I remained there four
days, and was, of course, most kindly treated; and, indeed, during my
whole stay in this city of my youth I did enjoy myself famously well,
with dancing, dinner-parties, etc. We left for St. Louis on board the
ever-to-be-remembered steamer "Gallant," and after having been struck
by a log which did not send us to the bottom, arrived on the 28th of
March.
On the 4th of April, Harris went off to Edwardsville, with the rest of
my companions, and I went to Nicholas Berthoud, who began housekeeping
here that day, though Eliza was not yet arrived from Pittsburgh. My
time at St. Louis would have been agreeable to any one fond of
company, dinners, and parties; but of these matters I am not, though I
did dine at three different houses, _bon gre_, _mal gre_. In fact, my
time was spent procuring, arranging, and superintending the necessary
objects for the comfort and utility of the party attached to my
undertaking. The Chouteaux supplied us with most things, and, let it
be said to their honor, at little or no profit. Captain Sire took me
in a light wagon to see old Mr. Chouteau one afternoon, and I found
the worthy old gentleman so kind and so full of information about the
countries of the Indians that I returned to him a few days afterwards,
not only for the sake of the pleasure I enjoyed in his conversation,
but also with the view to procure, both dead and alive, a species of
Pouched Rat (_Pseudostoma bursarius_)[244] wonderfully abundant in
this section of country. One day our friend Harris came back, and
brought with him the prepared skins of birds and quadrupeds they had
collected, and informed me that they had removed their quarters to
B----'s. He left the next day, after we had made an arrangement for
the party to return the Friday following, which they did. I drew four
figures of Pouched Rats, and outlined two figures of _Sciurus
capistratus_,[245] which is here called "Fox Squirrel."
[Illustration: AUDUBON.
FROM THE PORTRAIT BY JOHN WOODHOUSE AUDUBON (ABOUT 1841).]
The 25th of April at last made its appearance, the rivers were now
opened, the weather was growing warm, and every object in nature
proved to us that at last the singularly lingering winter of 1842 and
1843 was over. Having conveyed the whole of our effects on board the
steamer, and being supplied with excellent letters, we left St. Louis
at 11.30 A. M., with Mr. Sarpy on board, and a hundred and one
trappers of all descriptions and nearly a dozen different
nationalities, though the greater number were French Canadians, or
Creoles of this State. Some were drunk, and many in that stupid mood
which follows a state of nervousness produced by drinking and
over-excitement. Here is the scene that took place on board the
"Omega" at our departure, and what followed when the roll was called.
First the general embarkation, when the men came in pushing and
squeezing each other, so as to make the boards they walked upon fairly
tremble. The Indians, poor souls, were more quiet, and had already
seated or squatted themselves on the highest parts of the steamer, and
were tranquil lookers-on. After about three quarters of an hour, the
crew and all the trappers (these are called _engages_)[246] were on
board, and we at once pushed off and up the stream, thick and muddy as
it was. The whole of the effects and the baggage of the _engages_ was
arranged in the main cabin, and presently was seen Mr. Sarpy, book in
hand, with the list before him, wherefrom he gave the names of these
_attaches_. The men whose names were called nearly filled the fore
part of the cabin, where stood Mr. Sarpy, our captain, and one of the
clerks. All awaited orders from Mr. Sarpy. As each man was called, and
answered to his name, a blanket containing the apparel for the trip
was handed to him, and he was ordered at once to retire and make room
for the next. The outfit, by the way, was somewhat scanty, and of
indifferent quality. Four men were missing, and some appeared rather
reluctant; however, the roll was ended, and one hundred and one were
found. In many instances their bundles were thrown to them, and they
were ordered off as if slaves. I forgot to say that as the boat pushed
off from the shore, where stood a crowd of loafers, the men on board
had congregated upon the hurricane deck with their rifles and guns of
various sorts, all loaded, and began to fire what I should call a very
disorganized sort of a salute, which lasted for something like an
hour, and which has been renewed at intervals, though in a more
desultory manner, at every village we have passed. However, we now
find them passably good, quiet, and regularly sobered men. We have of
course a motley set, even to Italians. We passed the mouth of the
Missouri, and moved very slowly against the current, for it was not
less than twenty minutes after four the next morning, when we reached
St. Charles,[247] distant forty-two miles. Here we stopped till
half-past five, when Mr. Sarpy, to whom I gave my letters home, left
us in a wagon.
_April 26._ A rainy day, and the heat we had experienced yesterday was
now all gone. We saw a Wild Goose running on the shore, and it was
killed by Bell; but our captain did not stop to pick it up, and I was
sorry to see the poor bird dead, uselessly. We now had found out that
our berths were too thickly inhabited for us to sleep in; so I rolled
myself in my blanket, lay down on deck, and slept very sound.
_27th._ A fine clear day, cool this morning. Cleaned our boilers last
night, landing where the "Emily Christian" is sunk, for a few moments;
saw a few Gray Squirrels, and an abundance of our common Partridges in
flocks of fifteen to twenty, very gentle indeed. About four this
afternoon we passed the mouth of the Gasconade River, a stream coming
from the westward, valuable for its yellow-pine lumber. At a woodyard
above us we saw a White Pelican[248] that had been captured there, and
which, had it been clean, I should have bought. I saw that its legs
and feet were red, and not yellow, as they are during autumn and
winter. Marmots are quite abundant, and here they perforate their
holes in the loose, sandy soil of the river banks, as well as the same
soil wherever it is somewhat elevated. We do not know yet if it is
_Arctomys monax_, or a new species.[249] The weather being fine, and
the night clear, we ran all night and on the morning of the 28th,
thermometer 69 deg. to 78 deg. at sunrise, we were in sight of the seat of
government, Jefferson. The State House stands prominent, with a view
from it up and down the stream of about ten miles; but, with the
exception of the State House and the Penitentiary, Jefferson is a poor
place, the land round being sterile and broken. This is _said_ to be
160 or 170 miles above St. Louis.[250] We saw many Gray Squirrels this
morning. Yesterday we passed under long lines of elevated shore,
surmounted by stupendous rocks of limestone, with many curious holes
in them, where we saw Vultures and Eagles[251] enter towards dusk.
Harris saw a Peregrine Falcon; the whole of these rocky shores are
ornamented with a species of white cedar quite satisfactorily known to
us. We took wood at several places; at one I was told that Wild
Turkeys were abundant and Squirrels also, but as the squatter
observed, "Game is very scarce, especially Bears." Wolves begin to be
troublesome to the settlers who have sheep; they are obliged to drive
the latter home, and herd them each night.
This evening the weather became cloudy and looked like rain; the
weather has been very warm, the thermometer being at 78 deg. at three this
afternoon. We saw a pair of Peregrine Falcons, one of them with a bird
in its talons; also a few White-fronted Geese, some Blue-winged Teal,
and some Cormorants,[252] but none with the head, neck, and breast
pure white, as the one I saw two days ago. The strength of the current
seemed to increase; in some places our boat merely kept her own, and
in one instance fell back nearly half a mile to where we had taken in
wood. At about ten this evening we came into such strong water that
nothing could be done against it; we laid up for the night at the
lower end of a willow island, and then cleaned the boilers and took in
200 fence-rails, which the French Canadians call "perches." Now a
_perche_ in French means a pole; therefore this must be _patois_.
_29th._ We were off at five this rainy morning, and at 9 A. M. reached
Booneville,[253] distant from St. Louis about 204 miles. We bought at
this place an axe, a saw, three files, and some wafers; also some
chickens, at one dollar a dozen. We found here some of the Santa Fe
traders with whom we had crossed the Alleghanies. They were awaiting
the arrival of their goods, and then would immediately start. I saw a
Rabbit sitting under the shelf of a rock, and also a Gray Squirrel. It
appears to me that _Sciurus macrourus_[254] of Say relishes the bottom
lands in preference to the hilly or rocky portions which alternately
present themselves along these shores. On looking along the banks of
the river, one cannot help observing the half-drowned young willows,
and cotton trees of the same age, trembling and shaking sideways
against the current; and methought, as I gazed upon them, of the
danger they were in of being immersed over their very tops and thus
dying, not through the influence of fire, the natural enemy of wood,
but from the force of the mighty stream on the margin of which they
grew, and which appeared as if in its wrath it was determined to
overwhelm, and undo all that the Creator in His bountifulness had
granted us to enjoy. The banks themselves, along with perhaps millions
of trees, are ever tumbling, falling, and washing away from the spots
where they may have stood and grown for centuries past. If this be not
an awful exemplification of the real course of Natures intention, that
all should and must live and die, then, indeed, the philosophy of our
learned men cannot be much relied upon!
This afternoon the steamer "John Auld" came up near us, but stopped to
put off passengers. She had troops on board and a good number of
travellers. We passed the _city_ of Glasgow[255] without stopping
there, and the blackguards on shore were so greatly disappointed that
they actually fired at us with rifles; but whether with balls or not,
they did us no harm, for the current proved so strong that we had to
make over to the opposite side of the river. We did not run far; the
weather was still bad, raining hard, and at ten o'clock, with wood
nearly exhausted, we stopped on the west shore, and there remained all
the night, cleaning boilers, etc.
_Sunday 30th._ This morning was cold, and it blew a gale from the
north. We started, however, for a wooding-place, but the "John Auld"
had the advantage of us, and took what there was; the wind increased
so much that the waves were actually running pretty high down-stream,
and we stopped until one o'clock. You may depend my party was not
sorry for this; and as I had had no exercise since we left St. Louis,
as soon as breakfast was over we started--Bell, Harris, Squires, and
myself, with our guns--and had quite a frolic of it, for we killed a
good deal of game, and lost some. Unfortunately we landed at a place
where the water had overflowed the country between the shores and the
hills, which are distant about one mile and a half. We started a
couple of Deer, which Bell and I shot at, and a female Turkey flying
fast; at my shot it extended its legs downwards as if badly wounded,
but it sailed on, and must have fallen across the muddy waters. Bell,
Harris, and myself shot running exactly twenty-eight Rabbits, _Lepus
sylvaticus_, and two Bachmans, two _Sciurus macrourus_ of Say, two
_Arctomys monax_, and a pair of _Tetrao_ [_Bonasa_] _umbellus_. The
woods were alive with the Rabbits, but they were very wild; the
Ground-hogs, Marmots, or _Arctomys_, were in great numbers, judging
from the innumerable burrows we saw, and had the weather been calm, I
have no doubt we would have seen many more. Bell wounded a Turkey hen
so badly that the poor thing could not fly; but Harris frightened it,
and it was off, and was lost. Harris shot an _Arctomys_ without
pouches, that had been forced out of its burrow by the water entering
it; it stood motionless until he was within ten paces of it; when,
ascertaining what it was, he retired a few yards, and shot it with No.
10 shot, and it fell dead on the spot. We found the woods filled with
birds--all known, however, to us: Golden-crowned Thrush, Cerulean
Warblers, Woodpeckers of various kinds, etc.; but not a Duck in the
bayou, to my surprise. At one the wind lulled somewhat, and as we had
taken all the fence-rails and a quantity of dry stuff of all sorts, we
were ready to attempt our ascent, and did so. It was curious to see
sixty or seventy men carrying logs forty or fifty feet long, some well
dried and some green, on their shoulders, all of which were wanted by
our captain, for some purpose or other. In a great number of instances
the squatters, farmers, or planters, as they may be called, are found
to abandon their dwellings or make towards higher grounds, which
fortunately are here no farther off than from one to three miles.
After we left, we met with the strength of the current, but with our
stakes, fence-rails, and our dry wood, we made good headway. At one
place we passed a couple of houses, with women and children, perfectly
surrounded by the flood; these houses stood apparently on the margin
of a river[256] coming in from the eastward. The whole farm was under
water, and all around was the very perfection of disaster and
misfortune. It appeared to us as if the men had gone to procure
assistance, and I was grieved that we could not offer them any. We saw
several trees falling in, and beautiful, though painful, was the
sight. As they fell, the spray which rose along their whole length was
exquisite; but alas! these magnificent trees had reached the day of
oblivion.
A few miles above New Brunswick we stopped to take in wood, and landed
three of our Indians, who, belonging to the Iowa tribe, had to travel
up La Grande Riviere. The wind lulled away, and we ran all night,
touching, for a few minutes, on a bar in the middle of the river.
_May 1._ This morning was a beautiful one; our run last night was
about thirty miles, but as we have just begun this fine day, I will
copy here the habits of the Pouched Rats, from my notes on the spot at
old Mr. Chouteau's, and again at St. Louis, where I kept several alive
for four or five days:--
Plantation of Pierre Chouteau, Sen., four miles west of St. Louis,
April 13, 1843. I came here last evening in the company of Mr. Sarpy,
for the express purpose of procuring some Pouched Rats, and as I have
been fortunate enough to secure several of these strange creatures,
and also to have seen and heard much connected with their habits and
habitats, I write on the spot, with the wish that no recollection of
facts be passed over. The present species is uncommonly abundant
throughout this neighborhood, and is even found in the gardens of the
city of St. Louis, upon the outskirts. They are extremely pernicious
animals to the planter and to the gardener, as they devour every root,
grass, or vegetable within their reach, and burrow both day and night
in every direction imaginable, wherever they know their insatiable
appetites can be recompensed for their labor. They bring forth from
five to seven young, about the 25th of March, and these are rather
large at birth. The nest, or place of deposit, is usually rounded, and
about eight inches in diameter, being globular, and well lined with
the hair of the female. This nest is not placed at the end of a
burrow, or in any particular one of their long galleries, but
oftentimes in the road that may lead to hundreds of yards distant.
From immediately around the nest, however, many galleries branch off
in divers directions, all tending towards such spots as are well known
to the parents to afford an abundance of food. I cannot ascertain how
long the young remain under the care of the mother. Having observed
several freshly thrown-up mounds in Mr. Chouteau's garden, this
excellent gentleman called to some negroes to bring spades, and to
dig for the animals with the hope I might procure one alive. All hands
went to work with alacrity, in the presence of Dr. Trudeau of St.
Louis, my friends the father and son Chouteau, and myself. We observed
that the "Muloe"[257] (the name given these animals by the creoles of
this country) had worked in two or more opposite directions, and that
the main gallery was about a foot beneath the surface of the ground,
except where it had crossed the walks, when the burrow was sunk a few
inches deeper. The work led the negroes across a large square and two
of the walks, on one side of which we found large bunches of
carnations, from which the roots had been cut off obliquely, close to
the surface of the ground, thereby killing the plants. The roots
measured 7/8 of an inch, and immediately next to them was a rosebush,
where ended the burrow. The other side was now followed, and ended
amidst the roots of a fine large peach-tree; these roots were more or
less gashed and lacerated, but no animal was there, and on returning
on our tracks, we found that several galleries, probably leading
outside the garden, existed, and we gave up the chase.
This species throws up the earth in mounds rarely higher than twelve
to fifteen inches, and these mounds are thrown up at extremely
irregular distances, being at times near to each other, and elsewhere
ten to twenty, or even thirty, paces apart, yet generally leading to
particular spots, well covered with grapes or vegetables of different
kinds. This species remains under ground during the whole winter,
inactive, and probably dormant, as they never raise or work the earth
at this time. The earth thrown up is as if pulverized, and as soon as
the animal has finished his labors, which are for no other purpose
than to convey him securely from one spot to another, he closes the
aperture, which is sometimes on the top, though more usually on the
side towards the sun, leaving a kind of ring nearly one inch in
breadth, and about the diameter of the body of the animal. Possessed
of an exquisite sense of hearing and of feeling the external pressure
of objects travelling on the ground, they stop their labors
instantaneously on the least alarm; but if you retire from fifteen to
twenty paces to the windward of the hole, and wait for a quarter of an
hour or so, you see the "Gopher" (the name given to it by the
Missourians--_Americans_) raising the earth with its back and
shoulders, and forcing it out forward, leaving the aperture open
during the process, and from which it at times issues a few steps,
cuts the grasses around, with which it fills its pouches, and then
retires to its hole to feed upon its spoils; or it sometimes sits up
on its haunches and enjoys the sun, and it may then be shot, provided
you are quick. If missed you see it no more, as it will prefer
altering the course of its burrow and continuing its labors in quite a
different direction. They may be caught in common steel-traps, and two
of them were thus procured to-day; but they then injure the foot, the
hind one. They are also not uncommonly thrown up by the plough, and
one was caught in this manner. They have been known to destroy the
roots of hundreds of young fruit-trees in the course of a few days and
nights, and will cut roots of grown trees of the most valued kinds,
such as apple, pear, peach, plum, etc. They differ greatly in their
size and also in their colors, according to age, but not in the sexes.
The young are usually gray, the old of a dark chestnut, glossy and
shining brown, very difficult to represent in a drawing. The opinion
commonly received and entertained, that these Pouched Rats fill their
pouches with the earth of their burrows, and empty them when at the
entrance, is, I think, quite erroneous; about a dozen which were shot
in the act of raising their mounds, and killed at the very mouth of
their burrows, had no earth in any of these sacs; the fore feet,
teeth, nose, and the anterior portion of the head were found covered
with adhesive earth, and most of them had their pouches filled either
with blades of grass or roots of different sizes; and I think their
being hairy rather corroborates the fact that these pouches are only
used for food. In a word, they appear to me to raise the earth
precisely in the manner employed by the Mole.