Moberly, "History of Cariboo Wagon Road", continued
(Part 2 of 13)

During the years 1860-61 I was engaged in constructing a trail for pack animals and a portion of the wagon road between Fort Hope and Princeton, on the Similkameen River. I also made extensive explorations during those years of the country between Hope and Osoyoos Lake, and made a second and very careful examination of the canyons of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers to Kamloops Lake, to satisfy myself on all points regarding the construction of a wagon road along those rugged valleys.

It was the years 1860-61 that the existence of a very extensive and extremely rich auriferous portion of the new Crown Colony was discovered to be situated in that part of it now generally known as the Cariboo section of the country, and owing to the circumstances I mentioned in my former address to the Canadian Club, I decided, for the time being, to defer my further explorations for a transcontinental railway and devote myself to the undertaking of constructing a great arterial highway through the central portion of the colony that would open up and develop its resources in the most effective and substantial manner.

My various explorations heretofore made, through the different sections of the colony I had visited now convinced me that the best route to adopt for the great wagon road I projected was by the valleys of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, although the formidable canyons along the valleys of those rivers presented natural obstructions that, for a country having a very small revenue, were most uninviting and appeared to be almost insurmountable. From careful observations I also felt confident the great mineral region of the country would be in the belt immediately west of the Rocky Mountains. I was also satisfied it was by the valleys of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers that the mountain section of Canada's first and greatest transcontinental railway should reach the coast and have its west terminus on the mainland at the spacious and magnificent harbor that Burrard Inlet would afford to the largest class of sea-going vessels, and where the sites for future cities on both sides of the Inlet, and also on the shores of English Bay, could hardly be excelled, as they presented in their topographical and other features al the requisites to ensure everything needed for a great commercial city, for its drainage would be perfect, which would make it very healthy to reside in; its supply of the best quality of water, by gravitation, plentiful; and the scenery in its immediate neighborhood both grand and beautiful, which together with its fine sea bathing beaches would be inestimable to its inhabitants and prove a very attractive feature to bring people from all quarters of the globe to visit a city so well endowed by nature; and that has within easy reach of it, both by land and water, many charming resorts, where residences can be constructed where its citizens or others can have picturesque dwellings outside the turmoil of a large city.