THE SHUSHWAPS OF THE CACHE. 267 



them for winter use. From these Indians also Milton, 

 who had lost his buffalo robe by the recent misfortune, 

 obtained a couple of marmot robes wherewith to cover 

 himself at night, some large cubes of iron pyrites 

 used instead of flints, and two curious stone pipes, 

 which they willingly parted with, being as destitute of 

 tobacco as ourselves. From them we learnt that there 

 were but two families of them at this place, and the two 

 old men of the society had three days before started in 

 their canoes down the Eraser, to convey the miners, 

 mentioned as having crossed the mountains just before 

 us, to Fort Greorge. These men had arrived in very 

 destitute condition nine days before, without any 

 clothing but their shirts, and ha^dng lived for a long 

 time on partridges and squirrels. The Shushwaps could 

 give us no information about the party of emigrants 

 who had sought the Thompson valley the summer 

 before. "Whether they intended to strike direct for 

 Cariboo or follow the river down to Kamloops, we 

 could not ascertain. They told us that it was but six 

 days' journey on foot to the gold country — ^probably 

 meaning Cariboo — or not more than eighty or a hundred 

 miles, but that the country was very difficult. An 

 old squaw, a native of Kamloops, who had left there 

 as a girl to become the wife ^of a Hocky Mountain 

 Shushv/ap, assured us that we could reach that fort in 

 eight days, and traced a rude map of the route for us. 

 The correctness and value of her information will be 

 appreciated from the sequel. 



On the 19th we prepared to start, but heavy rain 

 coming on, we remained until the following day. 

 With the exception of two thunder-storms, the weather 



