Nuttall’s journal, May 17, 1819: “The day was delightfully clear and warm…We were again in full view of the two picturesque mountains, the Cavaniol and Point Sucre…Our route was continued through prairies…”
“These vast plains, beautiful almost as the fancied Elysium, were now splendid of which were the azure Larkspur, gilded Coreopsides, Rudbeckias, fragrant Phloxes, and the purple Psilotria. Serene and charming as the blissful regions of fancy, nothing appeared to exist but what contributes to harmony.” (pg. 166)
The romantic language is evident, but in evaluating it, remember that Nuttall did not always feel or write this way–about the bottomland forests of the Mississippi he wrote “At present all is irksome silence and gloomy solitude, such as to inspire the mind with horror.” Regarding this latter passage Lottinville comments: Any inclination to associate Nuttall with popular tendencies in this Romantic period must be dispelled by this and many subsequent observations by the author. His natural scientific zeal is often difficult to reconcile with his gloomy view of the landscape (pg. 66).