to proceed further that night, we accepted his pressing
invitation to pass the night at the fort. There was only one spare bed
in the house, but this was a matter of little moment to us after the
variety of beds we had had since starting; so, spreading a buffalo robe
on the floor for a mattress, I rolled myself in my blanket and tried to
sleep. At first I could not manage it, owing to the unearthly stillness
of a room, after being so long accustomed to the open air and the noise
of rivers and cataracts, but at last succeeded, and slept soundly till
morning.

Dame Fortune does not always persecute her friends; and although she had
retarded us hitherto a good deal with contrary winds and rains, she
kindly assisted us when we commenced crossing Lac la Pluie next morning,
by raising a stiff, fair breeze. Now, be it known that a canoe, from
having no keel, and a round bottom, cannot venture to hoist a sail
unless the wind is directly astern--the least bit to one side would be
sure to capsize it; so that our getting the wind precisely in the proper
direction at the commencement was a great piece of good fortune,
inasmuch as it enabled us to cross the lake in six hours, instead of (as
is generally the case) taking one, two, or three days.

In the evening we arrived, in high spirits, at a portage, on which we
encamped.

Our progress now became a little more interrupted by portages and small
lakes, or rather ponds, through which we sometimes passed with
difficulty, owing to the shallowness of the water in many places. Soon
after this we came to the Mecan River, which we prepared to ascend. In
making a portage, we suddenly discovered a little Indian boy, dressed in
the extreme of the Indian summer fashion--in other words, he was in a
state of perfect nakedness, with the exception of a breech-cloth; and
upon casting our eyes across the river we beheld his worthy father, in a
similar costume, busily employed in catching fish with a hand-net. He
was really a wild, picturesque-looking fellow, notwithstanding the
scantiness of his dress; and I was much interested in his proceedings.
When I first saw him, he was standing upon a rock close to the edge of a
foaming rapid, into the eddies of which he gazed intently, with the net
raised in the air, and his muscular frame motionless, as if petrified
while in the act of striking. Suddenly the net swung through the air,
and his body quivered as he strained every sinew to force it qui