DCHP-1 Online
dead water(s) [trans. of Cdn F eaux mortes] 
a region characterized by sluggish, muddy streams, marsh, muskeg, etc.; also, the sluggish streams and ponds found there.
- 1793 (1933) Above the portage des Chiens we entered the Lac des Chaudiers[,] a piece of dead water. . . .
- 1804 (1933) After breakfast we walked up to the dead water -- met a canoe with 4 men a little above the paresseux from Lac des Chiens.
- 1872 In summer time they hang about the neighbourhood of muddy lakes and sluggish brooks -- called "dead waters" to which they repair. . . .
- 1953 Their strategy was to let the herd work north . . . toward a swamp country known as the Eaux Mortes or Dead Waters. In that maze of muskeg and boggy streams, a hundred warriors summoned from the camps could slaughter the herd to the last hoof.
- 1793 (1933) Above the portage des Chiens we entered the Lac des Chaudiers[,] a piece of dead water. . . .