22 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



supplies at Victoria prices or return the money if desired. The 

 seventy miles of trail was satisfactorily built on these terms, 

 the only difficulty arising having to do with supplies, the com- 

 pany contending that the supplies were to be delivered at Vic- 

 toria prices at the lower end of the trail, while the miners insisted 

 that the agreement was that they should receive them at the 

 upper end. The matter was compromised by delivering them 

 half-way, but the importance of the contention will be seen, and 

 some idea of what freight-rates were at that time may be gained 

 from the statement that beans were worth a cent and a half a 

 pound in Victoria, five cents at Port Douglas, the lower end of 

 the trail, and $1.00 a pound at the upper end. 



Nearly all the provisions used on the Fraser beyond the 

 canyon above Yale were brought in from the Columbia by traders 

 from Fort Colville. Companies of 400 or 500 men accompanied by 

 pack-trains started up the Columbia and by way of the Okanagan 

 and Kamloops reached the scene of operations. One party of 

 thirty-five started that year from Portland, Oregon, with nine 

 teams of three or four yoke of oxen to the team, each wagon 

 carrying about 3,000 pounds of provisions as freight. 



The majority of the miners reached the Fraser at the season 

 when the bars were covered with water, and a great many of them 

 returned without making any farther attempt to attain the object 

 of their long journey. Those who persevered and waited until the 

 autumn and low water were richly rewarded for their patience. In 

 October it was estimated that more than 10,000 miners were at 

 work along the river. 



In the meantime prospectors were working their way up the 

 Fraser, and gold was found in many places, but it was not until 

 1860 that the richness of the Cariboo placer mines became known. 

 The rush to that region made better roads necessary, and the next 

 two years saw the completion of the Cariboo road extending from 

 Yale to the mines. This was a tremendous undertaking, but a 

 permanent wagon road was built which is in use to-day where it 

 has not been superseded by the railway. 



It would not be possible in one evening, nor would it prove 

 interesting, to describe the whole country through which "The 

 Southern Trail " runs, but scenery, soil and climate are so varied 

 that no description of one part of the region traversed would 

 serve for any other. My work in southern British Columbia has 



