A Century of Zoology in Indiana, 1816-1916 



By Barton Warren Evermann. 

 Director of the Museum, California Academy of Sciences. 



One hundred year ago Indiana was, zoologically, scarcely more than a 

 terra incognita. At the beginning of the nineteenth century not a single 

 naturalist had set foot within its borders; its wonderful hard wood forests, — 

 the richest the world has ever seen, its broad prairies, its multitude of beau- 

 tiful lakes and gently flowing streams, had never been invaded by the collector. 

 The only information the world had regarding the fauna of Indiana was con- 

 tained in brief mention by travelers of certain of the more conspicuous ani- 

 mals seen by them in their journeys. In the Paris Documents, 1718, as 

 quoted by Mr. Butler, it is stated that "from the summit of the hill at Ouiate- 

 non* nothing is visible to the eye but prairies full of buffaloes." 



Col. George Croghan in his journal for 1765, published in 1831, tells of 

 a trip he made down the Ohio, and mentions buffalo, deer, bear, and other 

 animals which he observed. Doubtless many of these were seen on the In- 

 diana side of the river. 



Thomas Hutchins who in 1778, published in London a "Topographical 

 description of Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, comprehending 

 the rivers Ohio, Kanawha, Cherokee, Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi," etc., 

 mentions the buffalo as being" innumerable" northwest of the Ohio River, 

 from the mouth of the Kanawha, far down the Ohio. This clearly covered 

 Indiana. 



In April, 1808, the great ornithologist, John James Audubon, came with 

 his young wife to Louisville, Kentucky. He had floated down the Ohio in 

 an "Ark," and doubtless noted many birds and mammals on the way. Al- 

 though he probably saw no buffalo, he has this to say of that animal: "In 

 the days of our boyhood and youth, buffaloes roamed over the small and 

 beautiful prairies of Indiana and Illinois, and herds of them stalked through 

 the open woods of Kentucky and Tennessee; but they have dwindled down 

 to a few stragglers, which resorted chiefly to the 'Barrens,' but towards the 

 years 1808 and 1809, and soon after they entirely disappeared." 



During his residence at Louisville from 1808 to 1811, and at Henderson- 

 ville for several years from 1811, Audubon's collecting trips doubtless cook him 

 sometimes to the Indiana side of La Belle Riviere and doubtless he added to 

 his cabinet a number of birds taken on Indiana soil. 



In March, 1810, that other great American ornithologist, Alexander 

 Wilson, floated down the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Louisville. In a letter to 



♦Also spelled Ouantenon. This was in the Wea Prairie near the Wabash in 

 Tippecanoe County. 



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