Historic Diaries: James Doty, 1820
July 29, 1820: Wolves and Owls
Editor's Note:
Once again, they virtually flew downstream toward the Falls of St. Anthony and the St. Peter's River, where Minneapolis and St. Paul would spring up a generation later. The travel books by Louis Hennepin and Jonathan Carver to whom Schoolcraft refers are online in our American Journeys collection.
Location: vicinity of modern Ramsay, Minn.
View Schoolcraft's complete description in his 1821 Narrative
[Schoolcraft:] ... In the course of the night a pack of wolves were heard on the opposite side of the river. There is something doleful as well as terrific in the howling of this annual, particularly when we start from a sound sleep during the stillness of night. It is, however, little to be dreaded, and I have never heard of an instance of its making an attack upon man, in the wilderness, although such instances have frequently occurred on the frontiers of our settlements. ..
There is another sound which will frequently disturb the nightly rest of the traveller in the region of the Mississippi. It is the half-human cry of the Strix Nyctea, or great white owl, which inhabits the coldest regions of our continent, and is seldom found south of the falls of St. Anthony. This animal utters its most hideous cry, a few moments before the first glimpse of day light, and is thus the unerring herald of day. At this time it betakes itself to those recesses where it spends the day in seclusion.
With this warning cry we were called to embark, and quit our encampment at half past four, the weather fair, and the thermometer standing at 50°...At half past four in the afternoon, we passed the mouth of the river St. Francis, a large stream falling in on the east shore... Here Carver terminated his travels up the Mississippi in the year 1765; and Father Hennepin in 1681. We encamped five miles below Crow river on the east bank of the Mississippi, having been thirteen hours in our canoes, and descended ninety miles...
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