--{ TO CARIBOO AND BACK }+--

“Tf only I had my scissors handy,” said
Mary, “it’s short work I’d make of trimming
this lamp!’

Meanwhile from the barroom adjoining
came shouts of laughter and singing of songs.
A great company of men were there; some Old
Countrymen, some Americans, some Canadians.
The majority of them were united in one under-
taking. They had met in St. Paul to set out
from there for the gold diggings of the Fraser
Valley and the Cariboo, by the Overland route.

Of late this route had been advertised in the
papers as the most advantageous way to get
to the West. Why go all the way round by the
Isthmus of Panama, said the advertisements,
thereby wasting good time and money, when a
stage coach would take you to your destination
overland? Passages by this stage route were
sold in advance to unfortunate and ignorant
people in the big cities of the East and even in
Europe. And only when they reached St. Paul
did they discover that there was no such route
as advertised, and never had been; for no one
but Indians and trappers had been overland
as far as the coast.

In desperation Mary Mulligan had hunted

SURI ese SE IE

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