Fourteen miles out of Clinton we embrace the multi-
coloured walls of '‘The Chasm,” one of Nature’s awe-
inspiring accomplishments. It is somewhat similar in
appearance to the world-famous Colorado Canyon.
It appears as if a great trough was scooped out by
some gigantic force when the world was young. It
is seven hundred feet deep and a little stream mean-
ders thinly at its base covering many miles in area.
Old roadhouses survive from the days of the Concord
coach and the covered wagon... old towns drowse
in the sunshine—150 Mile House, Williams Lake and
Soda Creek—whose names were on every lip in the
hectic days of ‘58, when gold lured its thousands to
the sand-bars of the Fraser.

Along this road Quesnel comes to view with its
semi-cosmopolitan nature inasmuch as it is the "end
of the steel’’ of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway—
a province-owned line operating from Vancouver.

At a point just north of Quesnel a road strikes off
to Barkerville. Here indeed one finds oneself within
the portals of another age. . . finds it easy to visualize
the “roaring camps” of gold-rush days. Ancient
buildings droop over crumbling board-walks, perched
at just the height of the Conestoga wagons of the
old town's heyday, when huge fortunes were panned
from the nearby creeks ... the Bell Union Dance

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