NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 167 



At tlie spot of our encampment, as soon as the shades of niglit 

 closed in, we were visited by hordes of ephemera. The candles 

 lighted in our tents became the points of attraction for these 

 evanescent creations. They soon, however, began to feel the in- 

 fluence of the sinking of the thermometer, and the air was im- 

 perceptibly cleared of them in an hour or two. By the hour of 

 three o'clock the next morning (5th) the expedition was again in 

 motion descending the river. It halted for breakfast at Painted 

 Rock, on the west shore. While this matter was being accom- 

 plished, I found an abundant locality of unios in a curve of 

 the shore which produced an eddy. Fine specimens of U. pur- 

 pureus, elongatus, and orbiculatus were obtained. AVith the 

 increased spirit and animation which the whole party felt on the 

 prospect of our arrival at Prairie du Chien, we proceeded unre- 

 mittingly on our descent, and reached that place at six o'clock in 

 the evening. 



Prairie du Chien does not derive its name from the dog, but 

 from a noted family of Fox Indians bearing this name, who an- 

 ciently dwelt here. The old town is said to have been about a 

 mile below the present settlement, which was commenced by Mr. 

 Dubuque and his associates, in 1783. The prairie is most eligibly 

 situated along the margin of the stream, above whose floods it is 

 elevated. It consists of a heavy stratum of diluvial pebbles and 

 boulders, which is picturesquely bounded by lofty cliffs of the 

 Silurian* limestones, and their accompanying column of stratifica- 

 tion. The village has the old and shabby look of all the antique 

 French towns on the Mississippi, and in the great lake basins ; the 



civilization than may be assigned to the ancestors of the present races of Indians, 

 prior to the epoch of the introduction of European arts into America. Certainly 

 there is nothing in our earthworks and mounds, to compare with the Toltec and 

 Aztec type of arts at the opening of the IGth century ; while the possession by our 

 tribes of the zea maize, a tropical plant, and other facts indicative of a southern 

 migration, appear to denote a residence in warmer latitudes. The distribution of 

 the Mexican teocalli and pyramid is also plainly traceable from the south. Neither 

 the platform nor the solid conical mound has been traced higher north than Prairie 

 du Chien ; nor have the earthworks (adopting Carver's notices) reached higher 

 than Lake Pepin. There are no mounds or earthworks at the sources of tiie Mis- 

 sissippi nor in all British America to the shores of the Arctic Seas. We cannot bring 

 arts or civilization from that quarter. 



* This term, unknown to geology at the period, has been subsequently intro- 

 duced by Sir Roderic Murchisou. 



