CONSUMMATE SKILL OF DE CHARLOIT. 165 



September 5th. — Maufelly was as good as 

 his word; for by 4 a.m. he arrived, accompanied 

 by another of my Fort Enterprise acquaintances, 

 who, actuated by curiosity, or the prospect of a 

 smoke, was thus early in his attention. I had 

 this day another opportunity of admiring the 

 consummate skill of De Charloit, who ran our 

 ricketty and shattered canoe down four suc- 

 cessive rapids, which, under less able manage- 

 ment, would have whirled it, and every body in 

 it, to certain destruction. Nothing could exceed 

 the self-possession and nicety of judgment with 

 which he guided the frail thing along the narrow 

 line between the high waves of the torrent, and 

 the returning eddy : a foot in either direction 

 would have been fatal ; but, with the most 

 perfect ease, and, I may add, elegant and 

 graceful action, his keen eyes fixed upon the 

 run*, he kept her true to her course through 

 all its rapid windings. The rapids brought us 

 to the same lake which had been found with so 

 much trouble, and crossed on the 25th of August. 

 Our Indian preferred the western shore, which 

 differed in nothing from its opposite, except that 

 the rocks were higher, though, like the others, 

 quite barren. A group of islands appeared in a 

 S. S. W. direction ; and, as we proceeded, the hills 



* Lead of the water. 

 M 3 



