15 July [sic, June]: We had rain all day long, but in the afternoon it cleared up slightly, and we could admire the glorious Ohio forests: their lush, diverse, green foliage, [and the impressive] height and force of vegetation, wherein the colossal Platanus are especially outstanding. At the river, some steep elevations arose, all of them green. In some sparser places, the colossal trunks [threw] dark shadows that contrasted with the shiny green of the abundant foliage.

[We] even saw natural history curiosities on our boat. The clerk owned a young live lynx (wildcat, Felis canadensis) that was rather tame. Mr. Astor from New York had brought along some prairie M13Tetrao cupido. from St. Louis that were doing very well.

Toward evening we reached Madisonville, a charming town, [ and] then New London, a small village. At the former place, we took on some passengers. Before dusk, the mouth of the Kentucky River was on our right. Above it lies Port William, a small place or village. According to Flint (see Indian Wars, p. 49), the name “Kan-tuck-kee” should mean, in the Indian language of this area, the dark and bloody ground (in German pronunciation, ‘Kenn-tuck-ki’—der dunkle und blutige Boden).

As night approached, the steam engine that had been repaired broke down for the second time, and we had to stop again. Mr. Bodmer availed himself of this opportunity to return to Louisville on a downriver steamboat. By mistake, we had left several pieces of our luggage there—among them his double-barreled gun.