On the 2nd of August, early in the morning, we left Freiburg, in the most beautiful weather, and our host drove us in his dearborn (such is the name given to a small covered vehicle), and two spirited horses, to Bethlehem, the road to which afforded us much pleasure. The country is very agreeable: meadows, corn-fields, habitations, and copses succeeded each other on the side of low hills; and the fine valley, called, by the inhabitants, Upper Sakena, is remarkably fertile. The road was here and there shaded by large trees, and a small pond was extremely interesting to us; for, besides many curious birds, we saw tortoises everywhere on the banks, and on old stumps in the water, which, however, were very shy, and plunged below the surface as soon as we approached them. In the sultry heat of noon, we reached the Moravian settlement, Bethlehem, where we put up at a German inn.[34]
This settlement is built on the top and the side of a hill, at the foot of which the Monocasa brook joins the Lecha (Lehigh). The Lecha is celebrated for its picturesque valley, which is at first wild and wooded, and lower down, fruitful and well cultivated. At present, Bethlehem is no more than a village, but it is rapidly increasing, and has already some pretty considerable streets, which, however, are still unpaved. The church is a large, neat, light building, quite in the plain style of the German churches of this sect, and gives the place a pretty appearance, being situated nearly at the top of the hill. Another large building is the girls' school, which has a shady garden, planted with timber trees, the lower part of which is on the Monocasa, where flowers of many kinds attract the little humming-birds. The lower part of the village, consisting of but a few houses, one of which is the inn where we lodged, and where there is a long wooden bridge over the Lecha, is situated in Lehigh county; and the large upper part, in the county of Northampton, the boundary line of the two counties passing through the place. Like all the settlements of the industrious brethren, Bethlehem has a number of different trades, mechanics and field-labourers. New settlers are continually arriving, and it will, in time, become a place of importance. The inhabitants are, for the most part, Germans; but there are likewise many English, and divine service is performed in the church in German and English alternately, and most of the inhabitants speak both languages. The country about Bethlehem is agreeable and diversified; the climate very healthy. Large woods alternate in the vicinity with the fields of the inhabitants, and a canal, from the coal district of Mauch Chunk to the Delaware, gives animation and support to the country by the numerous boats that navigate it. All kinds of 25 European field and garden plants are cultivated here, and likewise maize; they have even begun to plant vines; but what is called the Alexander grape, yields a rather acid beverage, which they usually sweeten with sugar. We were told that much better wine is produced in the country about Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, near York. Fruit does not seem to thrive so well in the United States as in Europe: the peach, however, may, perhaps, be excepted.
I became acquainted with the directors of this colony: Mr. V. Schweinitz, well known in the literary world as a distinguished botanist, Mr. Anders the bishop,[35] and the Rev. Mr. Seidel. All these gentlemen received me in a very friendly manner, and Mr. Seidel, in particular, showed me much kindness. Dr. Saynisch lived in the same house with me, and I derived great benefit from his knowledge of the country. Our whole time at Bethlehem was devoted to excursions in the neighbouring country. Opposite the place, on the other side of the Lecha, is a range of mountains, or moderate hills, beautifully wooded, which afforded a great variety of pleasant walks. The mountains are covered with picturesque forests of oak, walnut, and other timber trees, under which there is, generally, a thick covert of tall Rhododendron maximum, which was still adorned with its magnificent large tufts of flowers. In these dark shades we soon learned to distinguish the notes of the different birds, among which was the flame-coloured Baltimore bird, which we recognized, at a distance, by its splendid plumage, when it was flying to its remarkable pendent nest, of which we saw several. The Lecha, the bottom of which was covered with naked blocks and masses of stone, is adorned by picturesque islands, some of them of considerable extent, to which we made many interesting excursions. Numerous kinds of aquatic plants grow in the water; and among these plants we saw numbers of tortoises. Mr. Bodmer made a very characteristic drawing of this wood and water scenery.[36] When we had crossed the river, we landed on the island in a dark, lofty, airy grove, where all the kinds of trees common in this country grow vigorously, and entirely exclude the sun's rays. The ground is clothed with many fine plants: the beautiful Lobelia cardinalis, which is common in all this part of the country, was in blossom on the banks, as well as many other plants.
This beautiful forest was peopled by a great variety of birds; besides those above-mentioned, we saw, in the crowns of the highest trees, the bright red Tanagra, the black and red Baltimore bird, the humming-bird, with reddish-brown eyes; the greenish heron, and the ash-coloured kingfisher, flew up from the stones on the bank. Whenever we were overtaken by a shower of rain on these lovely islands, we took shelter in the hollow trunks of old plane trees, of which there is one capable of holding ten persons. In these cool shades we did not much feel the heat of the summer, but it was very oppressive in the town; at nine o'clock in the evening the temperature of our apartment was 18° Reaumur (72½° Fahrenheit), and there were frequent thunder-storms. At noon the temperature in the cool passages of our house was at 23° or 24° Reaumur (86° Fahrenheit).
26 We made frequent excursions to these charming islands; and Mr. Bodmer, who went thither every day to complete his sketch of the forests, generally came back laden with tortoises (Emys odorata and picta) and other amphibia, or fresh water shells. This Emys picta is one of the most beautiful kinds of this family in Pennsylvania: there is certainly no country in which tortoises are so numerous, and of such a variety of species, as North America.
The banks of the Lehigh, chiefly covered with high woods, differ from the more open banks of the Monocasa, where extensive thickets of reed and reed mace (Typha) are the abode of the beautiful red-shouldered Oriole. The little shrub-like oak (Quercus chincapin) grows in abundance on the hills that border this stream. We made other interesting visits to the wooded Lecha mountains, on the north or north-east bank of that river, below Bethlehem. They are thickly covered with high timber and much underwood, and from their summits there is a fine prospect over the whole of the surrounding hilly country. The chestnut trees have been very much thinned in these forests, as the wood is highly valued, not for fuel, as it is light and porous, but for fences, because it is said to remain uninjured in the ground for sixty years.
The splendid bright red Tanagra was not uncommon in these forests; but we now met with none that were quite red, because the old males put on, towards autumn, the plain olive-coloured plumage of the females. Many of these fine birds had still bright red spots, which showed that they were undergoing a change in their plumage. Only a couple of species of the genus Tanagra, which are so numerous in the Brazilian forests, are found in all North America; but the manner and mode of living of these animals are everywhere the same. They are quiet birds, not remarkable for their song, but make up for this deficiency by the splendour of their plumage. The small hare (Lepus Americanus) and the grey squirrel were almost the only quadrupeds we saw in these woods; but of the class of amphibia there were many kinds. The larger wild animals have almost wholly disappeared. All North America was formerly one interminable forest, only there were what are called prairies in the western parts beyond the Alleghany mountains; but all Pennsylvania, a state comprising 44,500 square miles, was a primeval forest, which was thinned in a short time by the numerous settlers who flocked to this country. The larger species of game disappeared in the same ratio; and in the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem there are now not even any deer. It was mentioned to me as a very rare occurrence, that a bear had been seen here two years before, and was immediately pursued, but in vain, by the hunters. Some small animals still live in these forests, which, however, are not to be found except at night; among these are the opossum (Didelphys Virginiana) and the skunk (Mephitis Americana). The first is not frequently met with in these parts; the latter, on the contrary, is not uncommon.
In order to catch the skunk, our hunters went by night to the Lecha mountains, and searched the forest with hounds, and almost always attained their object. The dogs killed the animal by biting it, and were sometimes a little perfumed. It has been reported that they 27 avoid the smell; but I can testify that we did not meet with any confirmation whatever of this statement. In fact, the stories told of the offensive smell of this animal are rather exaggerated, for an European polecat is often nothing behind the skunk in this disagreeable quality. The hunters brought home a half-grown skunk alive, and we kept it in a box in the garden, where it was very tame and quiet, and never emitted the slightest smell. We opened the box, and let it run about at liberty. It is only when alarmed that the skunk is offensive to the olfactory nerves. The hollow trees in these forests were the abode of the pretty flying squirrel, which, however, is not to be seen in the daytime. The banks of the river are inhabited by the musk-rat, which is often seen swimming, and is sometimes taken in the fishing nets.
One of our usual walks, during our stay at Bethlehem, was up or down the banks of the Mauch Chunk canal. This canal is divided from the Lecha by a dam, on which grow many fine plants, about which numbers of humming-birds were fluttering. In my whole journey through North America, I nowhere found these pretty birds so numerous as here. They hummed about the yellow flowers of the broad-leaved tree primrose (Oenothera), of the violet Asclepias incarnata (swallow wort), of the Impatiens fulva, with its deep orange-coloured flowers, &c., and we shot many of these little creatures, among ten of which we found, at the most, one male, with deep red throat. The dam was bordered with stones at the sides; and among them were numbers of the striped ground squirrel. Tall thistles are the constant resort of the goldfinches, which picked the woolly seeds from the flower heads. At some mills, on an island near the road, there was a grove of tall trees, the dark shades of which were animated by many interesting birds, especially the beautiful Baltimore bird and the flycatcher (Muscicapa ruticilla), which is distinguished by the same colours, and is frequent here. Under the old stems, and from the roots of the trees on the bank, the great bull-frogs leaped into the water, however softly and cautiously we approached. Their deep, hollow note was not heard so much in this season, as in the spring and the beginning of the summer. I nowhere saw these frogs so numerous as here in Pennsylvania.
Opposite to these hills, on the other bank of the Lecha, was a wood of very tall, old trees, the airy, shady crowns of which were inhabited by birds of more different kinds than any other place in this neighbourhood. From that wood we always returned loaded with booty. There, too, we observed interesting butterflies, such as Papileo turnus, the beautiful black and blue philenor, and other species. The thick hedges near the houses were the resort of numerous cat-birds. The fishing-hawk hovered over the river, watching for prey, and we often saw the three-striped viper (Coluber sirtalis) glide among the grass.