Moberly, "History of Cariboo Wagon Road", continued
(Part 5 of 13)

When we arrived at Yale a large number of men seeking employment on our work could not get beyond that point, as they were without money, food, clothing and boots, and as they had to walk from Yale to Lytton along the pack trail we were obliged to make them advances of all those articles. I had already paid the fares of a large number of men from New Westminster to Yale, which cost me between $2,000 and $3,000.

Mr. Oppenheimer had arranged before he left Victoria to have large quantities of supplies forwarded to Yale, and I also sent a quantity of the same things that I had on hand to the same place.

We now began to experience our first difficulties, as the pack trail between Yale and Lytton was only partially completed, which necessitated all freight between those places being conveyed partly by water through the dangerous canons [sic] and partly by pack trains, which caused very heavy transportation charges and losses of supplies. Some idea may be formed of the cost of transportation in those days when in many instances it cost us as much as fifty-five cents a pound to convey our supplies from Yale to Lytton. There were not enough boats on the river to meet the demands for transportation, and the number of pack animals was altogether inadequate as the greater number of those engaged in packing were employed in the very lucrative business of conveying freight through to Cariboo, and therefore did not find it so profitable to convey it for us a comparatively short distance to our works. We had to employ large numbers of Indians to pack supplies on their backs and the high prices they charged enriched them. When Mr. Lewis and myself traveled from Yale to Lytton we were compelled to walk, as we were unable to get saddle animals. This journey we accomplished in two days, but owing to the extremely rough trail our feet were blistered and very sore.

At Lytton I made my headquarters in the Court House, which Captain H M. Ball, who was the gold commissioner, sheriff, etc., of the district, very kindly placed at my disposal.

I now established my first road camp a short distance out of Lytton, and as the men arrived I set them at work. A few days afterwards I established another camp at Nicomin, a small stream about twelve miles from Lytton, and shortly afterwards a road camp a few miles above Cook's ferry, which was a short distance below where Spence's bridge was afterwards built.

By this time the work was going on at a great rate, but as I could not get a sufficient number of white men I was obliged to let a contract for the construction of the road from a "slide" a short distance above Nicomin to Cook's ferry to a body of Chinese, with the exception of that portion around a rock bluff below Cook's ferry.