mes
Anderson used to sing his rhymes to the stentorious shouting and loud
stamping of the shirt-sleeved audience.

He thinks his pile is made,
An' he's goin' hame this fall,
To join his dear auld mither,
His faither, freends, and all.
His heart e'en jumps wi' joy
At the thocht o' bein' there,
An' mony a happy minute
He's biggin' castles in the air!

{98}

But hopes that promised high
In the springtime o' the year,
Like leaves o' autumn fa'
When the frost o' winter's near.
Sae his biggin' tumbles doon,
Wi' ilka blast o' care,
Till there's no stane astandin'
O' his castles in the air.

{99}

CHAPTER VIII

THE CARIBOO ROAD

When the railway first went through the Fraser Canyon, passengers
looking out of the windows anywhere from Yale to Ashcroft were amazed
to see something like a Jacob's ladder up and down the mountains,
appearing in places to hang almost in mid-air. Between Yale and Lytton
it hugged the mountain-side on what looked like a shelf of rock
directly above the wildest water of the canyon. Crib-work of huge
trees, resembling in the distance the woven pattern of a willow basket,
projected out over the ledges like a bird's nest hung from some
mountain eyrie. The traveller almost expected to see the thing sway
and swing to the wind. Then the train would sweep through a tunnel, or
swing round a sharp bend, and far up among the summits might be seen a
mule-team, or a string of pack-horses winding round the shoulders of
the rock. It seemed impossible that any man-made {100} highway could
climb such perpendicular walls and drop down precipitous cliffs and
follow a trail apparently secure only for a mountain goat. The first
impression was that the thing must be an old Indian war-path, along
which no enemy could pursue. But when the train paused at a water
tank, and the traveller made inquiry, he was told that this was nothing
less than the famous Cariboo Road, one of the wonders of the world.

[Illustration: The Cariboo Road. From a photograph.]

As long as the discovery of gold was confined to the Fraser river-bars,
the important matter of transportation gave the government no
difficulty. Hudson's Bay steamers crossed from Victoria to Langley on
the Fraser, which was a large fort and well equipped as a base of
supplies for the workers in the wilderness. Stern-wheelers, canoes,
and miscellaneous craft could, with care, creep up from Langley to Hope
an