LA CROSSE, a Canadian outdoor game played with a ball and a stick of light hickory, bent at the top like a bishop's crozier, from which the game derives its name. It was very popular among the Indians of North America, being sometimes taken part in, according to Catlin, by 800 to 1,000 players, in which tribe was set against tribe, the game lasting for days, broken arms and legs being common among the players, and some even killed. The games were preceded by rigorous training on the part of the contestants. A game of ball, played at Michillimackinac on the king's birthday, 4 June 1763, was by Pontiac made the occasion of an ingenious stratagem by which the garrison was surprised and massacred.
The stick employed in the game is 5 or 6 feet in length. Strings of deerskin are stretched diagonally across the hooked portion of the crosse, forming a network. Only one ball is employed, made of india-rubber, and eight or nine inches in circumference. Posts or poles about six feet high, with a small flag at the top of each, complete the equipment. The play
ers are usually 12 on each side, but their num ber, as well as the distance of the goals apart, is nearly optional. The object of the game is for one side to drive the ball through their opponents' goal. The ball must not be touched with the hand or foot, but is scooped up from the ground with the bent end of the crosse, on which it is carried horizontally, while the player runs toward one of the goals, dodging his antagonists. The game is played in two halves, of a half-hour's duration. A club was formed at Montreal in 1846; in 1860 it began to attain popularity in Canada, and it was in troduced into the United States in the early 70's. The National La Crosse Association of Canada was organized in 1867. Consult Beers,