tory has been told by Mrs MacNaughton, whose husband
was of the party. They arrived at Fort George mostly barefoot,
coatless, and trousers and shirts in tatters. Their hair and beards
were long and unkempt. It is supposed that they must have lost the
salmon in some of the rapids, or else the supply was insufficient; for
they were so weak from hunger that they had to be carried into the
fort. They arrived at Quesnel a month after the first Overlanders,
when the snow was too deep in the mountains for prospecting or mining.
The majority of this party also took work on the government road.

{85}

Meanwhile, how had fared that band of the Overlanders who had gone over
the hills south from the pass in search of the upper branches of the
Thompson? A Shuswap accompanied them as guide, and for a few days
there was a well-defined game-trail. Then the trail meandered off into
a dense forest of hemlock and windfall, which had to be cut almost
every mile of the way. They did not average six miles a day; but they
finally came to the steep bank of a wild river flowing south which they
judged must be a branch of the Thompson. The mountains were so steep
that it was impossible to proceed farther with horses and oxen; so they
abandoned these in the woods, and cut trees for rafts. For seven days
they ran rapid after rapid. One of the rafts stranded on a rock and
remained for two days before companions came to the rescue. At another
point a canoe was smashed in midstream. The crew struggled to a
slippery rock and hung to the ledge. A man named Strachan attempted to
swim ashore to signal distress to those above. They saw him ride the
waves. Then a roll of angry waters swept over him and he passed out of
sight. His companions clung to the rock till another canoe came
shooting down-stream, when lines {86} were hoisted to the castaways,
and they were hauled ashore.

Where the Clearwater comes into the Thompson they found the
fur-trader's horse-trail and tramped the remaining hundred miles
overland south to Kamloops. On the last lap of their terrible march
all were so exhausted they could scarcely drag themselves forward.
Some would lie down and sleep, then creep on a few miles. About twenty
miles from the mouth of the Thompson they came to a field of potatoes
planted by some rancher of Kamloops. The starving Overlanders could
scarcely credit their eyes. No one occupied the windowless log cabin;
but there was the potato p