LA CROSSE COUNTY HISTORICAL SKETCHES

may scarcely expect to enjoy such a one but twice or thrice in the course
of his life."
    Coues in a footnote says that the following names have at various
times been ascribed to La Crosse and its river: La Riviere de la Prairie
a la LaCrosse, la Cross, and Le Crosse (Pike), Crose, Prairie La Crosse
River (Featherstonhaugh), LaCroix River (Long, probably by acci-
dent).
                  STEPHEN H. LONG (1784-1864)
     Stephen H. Long was born in Hopkinson, N. H. on December 30,
1784. He entered the United States Engineer Corps and taught mathe-
matics at West Point from 1814 to 1816. Subsequently he was engaged
by the government for 'surveys of the country west of the Mississippi
as well as that of the Upper Mississippi basin. Long's Peak in the
Rockies has been named after him. He served for several years as chief
of surveys for the Baltimore and Ohio and other railroads. He served
in the Civil War, becoming Colonel. He died in Alton, Illinois in 1864,
one year after his retirement.
Long, Stephen H. Voyage in a Six-oared Skiff to the Falls of the St. An-
    thony in 1817. Philadelphia. 1860.
    P. 14. "Friday, July 11, 1817. Passed Prairie de la Cross on our
right, upon which we observed a small enclosure which was the burial
place of an Indian chief. Upon his grave a pole was erected, to which
an American flag was attached. The flag was almost worn out, having
been suspended for a considerable time. At the upper edge of the
prairie was an encampment of Winnebagos-the most civil of any of
that nation I have yet met with .... This party belongs to a small band
of Winnebagos living about six miles up the Prairie de la Cross Creek
which comes in from the northeast at the head of the prairie .....
     "These Indians were peaceable during the last war, and have al-
ways manifested a friendly disposition toward the Americans."

                GIACOMO BELTRAMI (1779-1855)
     Exiled from his native land, Beltrami, an Italian nobleman, spent
his life in foreign lands. The following account of the site of La Crosse
was taken from a letter he wrote to a friend while travelling up the
Mississippi in 1823. His description of the Mississippi basin, and
his reputed discovery of the river's mouth was warmly received by
President Jefferson, but have since been found to be unreliable, and, in
the case of his discovery of the mouth, false.
Beltrami, J. C. A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, 'Leading to the Dis-
     covery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody Rivers. London.
     1828.
     Vol. II, pp. 174ff. "May 24, 1823. I met there [Prairie du Chien]
                               -16-