118 Thirty Years 
after our arrival, and we were soon surrounded by a 
fleet of seventeen Indian canoes. In company with 
them we paddled up the river, which is one hundred 
and fifty yards wide, and, in an hour, came to a cas- 
cade of five feet, where we were compelled to make a 
portage of one hundred and fifty-eight yards. We 
next crossed a dilatation of the river, about six miles 
in length, upon which the name of Lake Prosperous 
was bestowed. Its shores, though scantily supplied 
with wood, are very picturesque. 
Akaitcho caused himself to be paddled by his slave, 
a young man, of the Dog-rib nation, whom he had 
taken by force from his friends ; when he thought him- 
self, however, out of reach of our observation, he laid 
aside a good deal of his state, and assisted in the la- 
bor; and after a few days’ further acquaintance with 
us, he did not hesitate to paddle in our presence, or 
even carry his canoe on the portages. Several of the 
canoes were managed by women, who proved to be 
noisy companions, for they quarrelled frequently, and 
the weakest was generally profuse in her lamentations, 
which were not at all diminished, when the husband 
attemped to settle the difference by a few blows with 
his paddle. 
Leaving the lake, we ascended a very strong rapid, 
and arrived at a range of three steep cascades, situa- 
ted in the bend of the river. Here we made a nortave 
