story of the Dominion government and the changes in the western
Canadian provinces have taken place almost as if they had prophesied
them literally. They speak of the Yellowhead Pass as being the best
one for railroad purposes--and now here is our railroad building
directly over that pass, and yet others heading for it. They said also
that without doubt there was a good route down the North Thompson--and
to-day there is a railroad line following their trail with its survey,
with Kamloops as its objective point. It was at Kamloops that they
eventually came out, far below the Cariboo district, for which they
were heading.

"These men were lost in a wilderness at that time wholly unknown, and
how they ever got through is one of the wonderful things in
exploration. They took their horses all the way across, except three,
one of which was drowned in the Fraser and two of which they killed to
eat--for in the closing part of their trip they nearly starved to
death.

"They were following as best they could the path of another party of
emigrants who had gone out the year before. But these men grew
discouraged, and built rafts and tried to go down the Thompson, where
many of them were drowned on the rapids. Perhaps to the wisdom of
their half-breed guide is to be attributed the fact that Milton and
Cheadle took their horses on through. Had they wearied of the great
delay in getting through these tremendous forests with a pack-train,
they must either have perished of starvation or have perished on the
rapids. But in some way they got through.

"It was in that way, little by little, that all this country was
explored and mapped--just as John is mapping out this region now."

"It's a funny thing to me," said John, looking at one of the large
folding maps which they had brought along, "how many of these rivers
up here run north for quite a way and then bend south again."

"Yes, that's a peculiarity of this upper Pacific slope," said Uncle
Dick. "That's the way the Columbia does. Not all Americans know the
Columbia River rises near our boundary line and then runs for hundreds
of miles north into Canada before it turns and swings southwest over
our country to the Pacific--after reaching this very point where we
are sitting now.

"Take the Fraser River, too. From the Tete Jaune Cache it swings far
northwest, up to the Giscombe Portage. Then it bends just like the
Columbia. You may remember the upper bend of the Fraser, for that i