a

>i

£ ba Pi Ht es

a ea SRE GOS Sn Te EE Sarg

a ser ae miagen nae RAE ON na er

=e eh so ale ahaa ta A eh eer ere

Tha

} } 3 * rea ayiF . i

-<¢ TO CARIBOO AND BACK }®-

must get through the barrier of snow-capped pinnacles. But the difficulties ahead were for the moment forgotten. It was a great and wonderful achievement to have come thus far over a way that had been untravelled in its continuity by any other human beings but themselves.

Here they encountered the Athabaska River, and here they camped for a week and built a great raft, something strong and sure, to carry them and all their belongings across the width of water to the other side. But they felt that they had entered upon the last lap of their ' journey, for from here they would go through the Yellow Head Pass, and past that portal, beyond the surrounding mountains, lay the land for which they were bound—the golden country of the Cariboo.

There was a chill in the air here, even when the sun burned their skin, for the white-capped mountain tops and green glaciers that towered above them sent down chilly breezes. Yet even here when they happened to dip into a valley they found masses of late summer flowers blooming, bright cornflowers and bluebells, and also clouds of mosquitoes and oppressive heat.

[124]