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iu;^y42

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THE KNICKERBOCKER.

Vol. LII.

OCTOBER, 1858.

No. 4.

F B A S E R

RIVER.

Califoknia and Australia owe their existence as populous States
to the gold in their rivers and rocks. British Columbia owes to
the same cause the sudden growth of its population from a few
hundreds to many thousands. Events Hke these, wliich have oc-
curred within a boy's remembrance, are nothing new in the history
of the world. Cupidity, the lust for gold, the desire for great
wealth with little laboi', have both peopled and discovered States
Not to ])as3 beyond the history of our own continent, the bravery
and daring of the old Spanish adventurers were inspired by the
same desire. With the visions of abundance which Ponce de
Leon saw, as the grt vcs of Florida rose before him in the west,
on that Easter Sunday, Tradition and Poetry have mingled some
visions of resurrection, and pictured the aged Spaniard searcliing
after a secret fountain of youth, m which to bathe and draw the
forces of a fresh life. But it Avas ' the wealth of Ind,' conquest,
and treasure which drew the long line of adventurers who suc-
ceeded him — Vasquez de Ayllon, Gomez, Pamphilo de Narvaez,
De Soto, descending upon the Atlantic coast, and De Cabrillo and
his pilot, Ferrelo, coasting the Pacific shore. Even with the purer
purposes of the Plymouth, Maryland, and Virginian colonists were
mingled some baser instincts. But in the grand result, all these
moving impulses, of however base an origin, whether in the Span-
iard, the Frenchman, or the Englishman, have been overrtiled in
a more beneficent disposition of events ; and out of the perplexing
and difficult problem of mingled good and evil arose, in due time,
the clear solution — a new world.

A course of events, in some sort like these, though on a smaller
scale, has been the history of Australia and California. It requires
nothing of prophetic ken, and Uttle of sagacity, to foretell the
same result in British Columbia ; and if the discoveries of gold in
the Fraser River region are judged to be the beginning of a series

VOL. iji. 22

works by mail,
i the neighbor*

na2

Fmfter Rircr.

[October,

of events ot' even f^reatcr slg'.lHcancc aiul importiuico tlian any
series wliich iticludf the history of our own lirst Paeilie State, or
tluit of (Jreat JJritain's island continent, such a judjjjnient is cU-arly
eoniiK'Hcd, by a <'uo consideration of the gcof'raphical character
and i>()sition, and the ^)olitical rehitions of the colony in which
those discoveries have been made, and is in no respect inflamed by
the fever which possessed the Californians for a brief season, nor
even by tlie belief that the t;old-bearing regions of IJritish Ame-
rica will so nuicli aa approacli those of tho United States, iu rich-
ness or extent.

liritish Columbia, which inclndes tho Frasor River region, may
be roughly described as that portion of BritioU America west of
the llocky IVEountaina, and between latitudes 49° and 55° north,
and including Queen Cha.'otte's and all other adjacent islands,
excepting Vancouver's. Little was ever knoMn of Eraser Itiver,
whi(!h, with its tributaries, is tho largest river of the colony, till
1793, when it was discovered and reported to tho British Govern-
ment by Alexander McKenzie, Captain Simon Fraser, an em-
ploye of tho Hudson's Bay Com])any, traced its course for six hun-
dred miles, in the year 1812 : and from him the river has taken its
name. He committed suicide twenty years ago in San-Francisco ;
and when excavations wore making for new streets a few years
since, in a j)Iaeo atlerward called Commercial-street, tho old man's
coffin was by chance exhumed.

In 1855, discoveries of gold wore made near Fort Colville, which
is a few miles south of tho international line, on a branch of tho
Columbia River and in Washington Territory. Tho Indian diffi-
culties in that quarter, then and since, have prevented an extensive
working of them, or a careful estimate of their value. When
these difficulties had partially ceased, however, some persons who
knew the richness of the mines, tried to reach them by tho way
of Frasor River and the Hudson's Bay Company's trail from Fort
Langley to Fort Colville. The current nnnors are, that it was
during this ascent of Fraser River, on the way to tho mines in
Washington Territory, that the discoveries of gold in its vicinity
were made. Douglas, the Governor of Vancouver's Island, cora-
mimicated the fact to the Government in 1856, and speaks of the
discoveries as having been made on the upper waters of the Colum-
bia, in British Territory.*

♦ TuR Hudson's Buy Company offured protection against the Indians to persons going np by way
of Fraser filver, and tne United States gave none on any of the routes through Washington Ter-
ritory. Therefore, these miners preferred the northern route, nnd when gold was discovered there
In apparent abundance, a rush of emigration of course ensued. Col. Stkptob was on his way to
protect tho miners at Fort Colville. Ills defeat Is not to be wondered at. Good faith with the
Indians would have sieved it all; saved, too, the long, bloody, and expensive Indian war which
that defeat Is Initiating. Contrary to established usage and to natural right, tho United States
have assumed to grant absolutely the lan<l3 of the Indians In those two territories, without previous
liurchuse from them. They are driven hither and thither by white s-'ttlers until they have lltilo
means of support, and at length the treaties negotiated by authorized agents of the government, In
which some small patches of their own territory are secured to them, are either rejected, or passed
over in silence and forgotten. Five treaties with those Indians alone remained unacted upon
when the last Congress adjourned. Who can blame them for distrusting the good faith of our
government or their agents in making treaties at all ? Extensive preparations bad been made on
the Columbia Hirer for a road to the Colville mines, from Portland, the Dalles, and Fort Walla-

Fmser liivcr.

333

A Scotchiuivn named Adiuns, iin old California minor, and a
party of lliroo ..ailors, arc sau? to have been tlio only vvliite per-
sons at the mines during the last winter. Early in the spring, the
San-Francisco papers began to publish rumors of remarkable suc-
cesses in surface-diggings on this remote and almost unknown river.
The rumors grew ; a few old miners hanging about San-Francisco,
and a hundred or two from Oregon and Washington Territories,
who had exiterience but no ca /ital, made their way tliither, and
found very rich surface-diggings. Their success reached the cars
of others, who, like them, had experieiuso, but no capital to build
the machines without whicli mining is unprotitable, now that the
surface-diggings are removed, in California. I'resently the (srowd
of emigrants began to swell to larger numbers ; a line of steamers
to Victoria, the capital of Vancouver's Island, was started, other
lines were speedily added, and then every available ship or boat,
new, or cast aside as too poor for other lines, was chartered for
the same purpose. Emigrants from all the towns and counties in
California came pouring down to San-Fran els'"* by himdreds and
thousands; p'-'^j'.orty fell, and labor rose in valuf ; San-Francisco
alone profited, and all other places in California s\iftered seriously ;
and still the emigration went on, each week <iouoling the number
of the week before. From April first to June twenty-first,
over fifteen thousand people left Calitornia; up to July fifth,
t\v ( .' ty-five thousand had left, each at an average expense of two hun-
dred dollars a head. During this brief period, ten steanun-s, making
the round trip betweea San-Francisco and Victoria in ten days, had
been plying back and forth at their best speed, taking live hun-
dred passengers and full freights np, with only thirty passengers
and no freight down. Clipper-ships, and ships that were not clip-
per-built, in scores, were crowded alike — the Custora-IIouse
sometimes clearing seven in a day. Many of the steamers and
vessels went up with men huddled together like sheep — so full
that all could not sit or lie down together, and had to take turns
at the feeding-tables and at the soft six-feet-by-two bed of pine-plank
on deck. All this went on for months, the California papers, es-
pecially those of the interior, meanwhile decrying the value of the
new diggings, and describing the country as cold, barren, and in-
hospitable, and the persons who went as poor deluded fools.
But the mania possessed all classes. Nothing else was discussed
in the prints, nothing else talked of on the street ; all the merchants
labelled their goods 'for Fraser River:' there were Eraser River
clothes and Eraser River hats, Fraser River shovels and crowbars,
Fraser River tents and provisions, Fraser River clocks, watches,
and fish-lines, and Fraser River bedsteads, literature, and soda-
water. Nothing was salable except it was labelled 'Eraser River.'
Late in July, the reaction came, and the tide turned ; but not

■Sl

Walla. Who can wonder that, seeing an engineering varty mnklai; a road thron$;h the heart of
their territory, these IndianB concluded they were to De cheated out of their lauds, and driven
away as their fathers had been before them 1

334

Fraser River.

[October,

until California had been drained of half a hundred thousand of
its population.

Victoria, Port Townsend, Whatcome, Sehome, and all the other
ports in the vicinity of Fraser River, felt the extraordinary im-
pulse of this emigration. Lots in Victoria and Esquimault went up
to fabulous prices faster than those of Sacramento had gone down.
Excepting the gold dust, Mexican dollars, and the gambling, San-
Francisco in 1849 was reproduced on Vancouver's Island.

Up to the time of Avriting, the emigration from the Atlantic
States has not been very large, though it is rapidly increasing.
The last few California steamers have gone out crowded to over-
flowing, and the tickets, suffered to get into the hands of specu-
lators, have doubled and trebled upon the usual price. Com-
])anies for Fraser River are forming in all the large seaport and
inland cities, and in many of the smaller towns. Every commer-
cial paper has its advertisements of Fraser River ventures.

St. Louis has sent out several companies over-land to the new
mines ; Philadelphia and Chicago, likewise ; and St. Paul, in Mm-
nesota, while doing the same thing, is urging the importance of a
Xorthern Pacific Railroad, and threatening to help the British
build one through the valley of the Saskatchewan, unless the needs
of the North-west are fairly considered, as they notoriously have
not been hitherto, in the determination of its eastern terminus.

The approach to the gold regions from the Pacific is through
the Straits of Juan de Fuca, to the north of which lies Vancou-
ver's Island, and to the south Washington Territory. The southern
shore of the Straits, which are named after an ancient mariner who
visited these seas in advance of Captain Cook, is in latitude 48",
one degree south of the international boundary. The entrance of
the Straits is twelve miles across. At the south-eastern part of
Vancouver's Island they are near twenty miles wide. These dis-
tances, however, seem smaller from the high, bold character of the
hills or mountains on either side. About one hundred miles from
the Pacific, on the inside of Vancouver's Island, and the north
side of the Straits, is Victoria, the seat of government. Nearly
the same distance from the Pacific, on the opposite side, in Wash-
ington Territory, is Port ToAvnsend, the port of entry for the
Puget Sound district, and the recent unsuccessful rival of Victoria
for the honors of the metropoUs of the region.

Both places are equally near to Fraser River and Bellingham
Bay, the latter distant about fifty-five miles. The Gulf of Georgia
separates Vancouver's Island from the mainland on the west.
Iiito this Gulf Fraser River empties, a few miles north of latitude
49'^, the international boundary, and fifty miles from Bellingham
Bay. For a few miles from its mouth, its course is nearly east and
west, and for the remaming part, it deflects very considerably to
the north, taking its rise in the western slope of the Rocky Moun-
tain range. One of its principal tributaries, flov.ing in from the
south, is Thompson's River, where also gold is said to exist.

1858.]

Fra^er liiver.

335

From Garry Point, the north headland of the mouth of Frascr
River, to Fort Langley, it is thirty miles. Here the river averages
half-a-raile in width, and is navigable for a ship of the line even
for fifty miles. The main difficulty in passing the channel, is from
some sand-heads, which lie about its mouth, to the mainland, a dis-
tance of about seveji miles. The Hudson's Bay Company's steamer
' Beaver ' has made an annual voyage from Victoria to Fort Lang-
ley for the last twenty years, and recently the ' Otter ' has visited
that station quarterly. Fort Langley will always be the head of
navigation for vessels of any size. From Fort Langley to Fort
Hope the distance is sixty miles. This part of the river is navi-
gated by steam-boats of light draught. Rapids are frequent, but
the water is deep. One rapid about twenty miles below Fort
Hope, is especially difficult of passage. On either side are moun-
tains and hills, some so high that the tops are covored with snow,
and many of them as rugged as the Adirondack. Timber abounds
in the greatest profusion. The spurs of the mountains touch the
river, and green intervales are between. The boats cut for fire-
♦vood the large trees of pitoh-pine which skirt the shore. Fort
Hope, ninety mUes from the mouth of Fraser River, is as high up
as steam-boats go, though it may be navigable a few miles farther.
About ten miles above Fort Hope is a place called Boulder Point,
<)pi)Osite which is one of the worst ra[)ids in the river. Canoes
make their way up Avith difficulty. Fort Yale is fourteen miles
above Fort Hope, and between the two, it is hardly possible to
propel a canoe up-stream without- the assistance of a line from shore.
Two miles above Fort Yale is the Devil's Gap, the beginning of a
long canon. The walls are more than two hundred feet in height,
and the Avater rushes through its narrow and broken passage
with terrific force. The pass around it, called Douglass Portage,
is ten miles long. The water is said to rise in the Canon at times
from forty to fitly feet. At very low stages, the Hudson's Bay
Company get their goods through to Fort Thompson, though not
without the greatest difficulty, by frequent portages, and by hauling
the boat from the shore. From Fort Yale to the mouth of Thomp-
son's River the distance is one hundred and ten miles ; to Big Fall
is seventy-five miles farther. Beyond Big Fall, small canoes only
can be used. The principal mining-ground is between Fort Yale
and Big Fall, though it is continually extendmg with the explora-
tion of the tributary rivers.*

Not to weary the reader w'th details, wo may add, that the dif-
ficulties of the river-route are in a great degree shared by all the

• Frm.m San-Frnnclsco to Portlnnil, O. T., tho fijro hy steamer hiw been fifteen to twenty-flvo
dollars' tvom Portland to tho Dalles by steamboat, twelve dolUrs. A.t the Da'.les horses can be
ohtalnc 1 for from thirty to sixty dullars, iViitn which point to the mines the cost of travel Is about
the Shniv) as land-travel any where else in tho western territorl' <i. From San-Francisco to Vic-
toria, the fare by steamer is from thirty to forty dollars ; froii; Victoria to Fort Hope, by the ' Sur-
prise' Of ' i-oa-Bird' steam-boat, tho fare is from twenty to twenty-five dollars. Many miners have
built thoir own canoes at Victoria. Beyond this point llie e.xpeiiso of i ravel can not easily be cal-
culatotl. By any route it is clear, however, thiit not less than from two hundred to tvru hundred
a;id fllXj dollars cash will pay the way for one person from 8aa-Franc!aoo to tho mlaea.

836

Fraser JRiver.

[October,

routes starting from Bellingham Bay or Victoria. The land-routo
through Oregon Territory has many advantages. The distance from
Portland to the Dalles, by steam-boat, is about one hundred miles ;
fare, eleven dollars. Here horses can be purchased, and the neces-
sary equipments. From the Dalles, the road strikes out into the open
country, skirting the eastern base of the cascades to Fort O'Kana-
gan, crossing Columbia River at Priest's Rapids, thence up the
O'Kanagan River to the Sammilkimo River, then along Lake
O'Kanagan to its head, and thence north-east to Shuswap Lake,
Avhich supplies one of the tributaries of Thompson's River. The dis-
tance from the Dalles by this route is three hundred and thirty miles.
Another route, by the way of Walla-Wall", lengthens the distance
forty miles. Or, again, the water-route by the Columbia may be
taken as far as Fort Colville. If the statement be a true one, it is
a great argument for this route, that the Hudson's Bay Comjjany,
though having forts all along Fraser River, have for years shipped
their goods by way of Fort Vancouver, the Dalles, and Columbia
River, to Fort Colville, and through the mining country.

At the very threshold of the inquiry as to the richness of the
gold-fields and their extent, we are staggered by the most
conflicting accounts. The California papers teem with letters
from special and transient correspondents, from miners and
the friends of miners, and after sifting the grain of fact out of
bushels of imaginative chafl', there still remain singular contradic-
tions in the testimony of apparently equally well-informed sources.

One writer pronounces the whole Fraser River excitement a
grand humbug, first started l)y real-estate owners in Victoria ;
another swears that he has handled twenty-seven pounds of gold,
the product of a few weeks' labor. To-day we are told of a man
who otiiers eighteen dollars an ounce for Fraser River gold, and
cannot get a grain ; to-morrow of another who sits with boots, like
those of Brian O'Lum,

' With the woolly side out and the skinny side in/

and saturated with quicksilver, swinging in the stream a day,
and at night wrings them out, and finds one hundred and fifty
dollars stuck to the hair. After a very extensive perusal of all the
testimony which has appeared in the letters of Fraser River cor-
respondents to the newspapers of California and of the Atlantic
cities, and a somewhat careful consideration of its weight and of
the intiluence of a mania in helping gold-finders to see double,
we are impelled to the conclusion that gold exists hi Fraser River
and its tributaries, in suflScient quantities to make it an object
of profitable search for a portion of the year. That it exists in
quantities such as were found in the surface diggings of early Cali-
fornia days, we do not believe ; but that it pays better for ex-
perienced miners who have not the capital to buy the expensive
quartz-crushing machines with which gold is obtained in Californiii,
we are compelled to think.

<6fii

1858.]

Fraser Miver.

337

Reputed discoveries, and the geologic structure of the strip of ter-
ritory west of the Rocky Mountain range, seem to indicate beyond a
doubt that the northern boundary of British Cohimbiaandthe south-
ern boundary of California are the two brackets which inclose a vast
gold-producing area of similar if not of equal productiveness in all
its parts. Tl. • correspondence of Governor Douglass with the
British Colonial Office and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, submitted to the House of Commons, .hows that Governor
Douglass, although he had been informed of the discovery of gold
in April, 1856, has not up to this date, an interval of more than
tAVO years, ascertained how much gold there 'S in the mines, and
refrains from expressing an opiuion even more cautiously than wc
have thought proper to do. To the British Consul at San-Fran-
cisco, however, he has stated that the mines were far richer than
he had had any idea of. What Governor Douglass's ' idea of '
may have been, we are not informed.*

In February last the Derby ministry came into power. Sir E.
Bulwer Lytton having the office of Secretary for the Colonies.
Under date of July first, he communicated to Governor Douglass
a general approval of his course in asserting the dominion of the
Crown over this region, and the right of the Crown over the pi-e-
cious metals. He instructs him, however, that it is no part of the
policy of the Government to exclude Americans or other foreigners
from the gold-fields, emphasized the necessity of caution in dealing
with the international questions which are likely to arise, and
wherein so much must be left to his discretion.

On the eighth of July Sir E. Bulwer Lytton introduced a b'li
for the formation and government of a colony in this district^ to
be called New-Caledonia, afterward changed to British Columbia,
both alike misnomers. The bill, which passed without opposition,
empowers the Crown for a period limited to five years, to make

♦ Difficulties of a serions nature have been anticipated with the native Indians of British Co-
lumbia. One year ago Governor Douolabs wrote to Mr. Labol-uiiehis, the then Secretary of tlif
Colonic", that they had 'taken the high-handed though probably not unwise cnurse, of expelling
all the parties of gold-diggers, composed olilelly of persons from the American territories, who
had forced an entrance Into their country.' The lludson's Bay Company did not oppose the
Indians In this matter, but allowed their servants and the early diggers to be hustled out, and tn
lose the reward of their labors many times. During the year some few difflculltcs have occurred,
and there has been blood shed ; but whether because of the discreet conduct of the inlr ^rs or the
niitlvo perception of their own permanent Inferiority, in view of such an influx of a m jr ■ power-
ful race, the collisions have not been so frequent or disastrous as were anticipated. It is clear that
In a flgtit between the minors and the Indians, however successful the latter mhht bo at first. In
the long ri'n the former would win, and eventually the procoea of extermination of a once pow-
erful race, begin and go on to a rapid end.

It appears from the commonly received authorities, that the indlans of British Columbia, like
those of Washington and Oregon Territories, aro fierce and Intractable; civilized to the extent of
clearly comprehending the distinction between ■meum and tuum ; willing to steal, yet an.xlous to
prevent theft of their gold; active, brave, well-formed, «nd skilful in tlio use of weapons, of
whle.Ii thev have a good supply. Their principal article of food is salmon. In summer they live
In shanties of slabs, and In winter. In holes In the ground, covered with slabs and dirt. Their min-
ing Is rude and Intermittent The Indians in Puget's Sound (Chenooks) are said to bo an inferior
race. Those up tlie river are the inost elev8te<l. The latter demand chastity of their women,
build forts large enough to hold six or seven hundred families, and canoes that will hold a hu'idrad
persons. They use little paint and no tattoo. There are two principal tribes, and these hate each
other as badly as Coopkh's Dclawares and Hurons. The number of Indians In British Columbia
it is impossll)le to compute. Excepting the few factors of the lludson's Bay Company, they have
been tlie only Inliabltants. The liihabiuintfi of Washington and Oregon Territories number about
89,T12. There aro nearly as many to the square mile In the more northern territory.

338

Fraser River.

[October,

laws for the district by order in council and to establish a legisla-
ture ; such legislature to be in the first instance the governor alone,
but with power to the Crown by itself, or through the Governor,
to establish a nominated council and a representative assembly.
We do not exaggerate in the least when we say that the recent
debate in the House of Commons on this bill shows the present crisis
to be regarded as one of great interest.

The gold of Australia was the magnet that drew surplus thou-
sands from England and peopled her largest colony. The gold
iu California drew an emigration thither which has created our
Pacific States. The gold of Fraser River, be it much or little, has
drawn the attention of the world to the unexampled richness of
the north-western areas of this continent, and given already a
stupendous impulse to their settlement.

Vancouver's Island, from a hitherto insignificant existence upon
maps, looms up in a not distant future to the proportions of a Bri-
tish naval station, whose arms may stretch across the seas yet, and
grasp a portion of the swelling trade with China and Japan, the
Indian Archipelago and Austro,lia. British Columbia, hitherto
considered an inaccessible and remote region of wild territory,
given over to the Hudson's Bay Company's trade, selfish and
exclusive, and to Canadian jurisdiction, which was no jurisdiction
at all, feels the same impulse, and groAVS into the last link of a
chain of British States, or perhaps of another united confederation
like our own, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific seas.

These will not be the results of a year, perhaps not of a decade,
perhaps not of scores of years. But if we consider that the popu-
latio'x of the United States has grown in fifty years, from five
and a half to thirty millions, and the jjopulation of the Canadas
from raich less than two hundred thousand to over two millions,
it requires less than the foresight of these British statesmen to see
that on events which now seem local and confined, imperial issues
wait, though the/ are now but dimly foreshadowed.

Here is the great fact of the north-western areas of this conti-
nent. An area not inferior in size to the whole United States east
of the Mississippi, which is jjcrfectly adai)ted to the fullest occu-
pation by cultivated nations, yet is almost wholly unoccupied, lies
west of the ninety-eighth meridian and above the forty-tliird par-
allel, that is, north of the latitude of Milwaukie, and west of the
longitude of Red Rivei*, Fort Kearney, and Corpus Christi. Or,
to state the fact in another way, east of the Rocky Mountains and
west of the ninety-eighth meridian, and between the fortieth and
sixtieth parallels, there is a productive, cultivable area of five
hundred thousand square miles. West of the Rocky Mountains,
and between the same parallels, th<ire is an area of three hundred
thousand square miles.

It is a great mistake to suppose that the temperature of the
Atlantic coast is carried straight ai"0ss the continent to the
Pacific. The isothermals deflect greatly to the north, and the

' f

1858.]

Fraser Elver.

339

temperatures of the Northern Pacific areas are paralleled in the
high temperatures in high latitudes of Western and Central
Europe. The latitudes which inclose the plateaus of the Missouri
and the Saskatchewan, in Euro))e inclose the rich central plains of
the continent. The great grain-growing dist icts of Russia lie
between the forty-firth and sixti(!th parallel, that is, north of the
latitude of St. Paul, Minnesota, or Eastport, Maine. Indeed, the
tempei-ature in some instances is higher for the same latitudes
here than in Central Europe. The isothermal of 70' for the sum-
mer wliich on our plateaux ranges from along latitude 50° to 52°,
m Europe skirts through Vienna and Odessa in about parallel 46°.
The isothermal of 50° for the year runs along the coast of British
Columbia, and does not go far from New- York, London, and Se-
bastopol. Furthormoro, dry areas are not found above 47°, and
there are no barren tracts of consequence north of the Bad Lands
and the cot ix of the Missouri : the land grows grain finely and
is well wooded. All the grains of the temperate districts are here
produced abundantly, and Indian corn may be grown as high as
the Saskatchewan.

The buffalo winter as safely c a the Upper Athabasca as in the
latitude of St. Paul's, and the spi ing opens at nearly the same time
along the immense line of plains from St. Paul's to 3Iackonzie's
River. To these facts, for which there is the authority of Blodg-
ett's Treatise on the Climatology of the United States, may be
added this, that to the region bordering the Northern Pacific the
finest maritime positions belong thi'oughout its entire extent, and
no part of the west of Europe rxceeds it in the advantages of
equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial accessibility of coast.
We have the same excellent authority for the statement t^'i*, in
every condition forming the basis of national wealth, the conti-
nental mass lying westward and north-westward from Lake Supe-
rior is tar more valuable than the interior in lower latitudes, of
which Salt Lake and upper New-Mexico are the prominent known
districts. In short, its commercial and industrial capacity is
gigantic* Its occuj)ation was coeval with the Spanish occupation
of New-Mexico and California. The Hudson's Bay Company
has preserved it an utter wilderness for many long years. The
Fraser River discoveries and emigration are facts which the Com-
pany cannot crush. Itself must go the wall, and now the popula-
tion of the great north-western areas begins.

Another effect of the Eraser River discoveries is their deter-
mination of the route for the great Pacific-Railroad. In view of
tl J ..tcts which we have just stated, it becomes clear that if the
population of the United States wore evenly distributed from the
Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes, the existence of these north-

♦ Tub London Timet has floroftly controverted those facts rcj^ardlng the vahio of tho nortb-
we-starn areas, but as there Is evldenlly no Intention to set at tho truth of tho case, and as Its con-
duct Is prompted by Intfrofltod inotlveg, no notice need be taken here of Its arguments. In books
written by the very offlcers of tho Company, upon wlioao statoments alone the Times can found
its arguments, will be found their fullest conlraJictlun.

mamam

340

Fraser River.

[October,

western areas would draw the lines of travel to the Pacific sensi-
bly to the north. But the northern States are by far the most
densely populated. The centre of popiilation is west of Pittsburj.-;!!,
of productive power to the east and north of that city. The
movement of these centres is slowly to the west and to the north
of west. At our present rate of increase, in less than fifty years
they will be near Chicago. Their line of direction indicates the
track of westward empire and the general route along which vil-
lages, towns, and cities will arise, and therefore the first rail-road
be built to the Pacific coast.

Beyond and above all possible interferences and obstructions of
political or sectional zeal, beyond human control these great move-
ments of nations and peoples go on, without their foresight, and
without the knowledge of the earlier generations, i ^t working out
in beautiful order, and as if with universal consent and the con-
sjnracy of all the secret forces of nature, their grand and best
results.

If we now rcn.U in this connection the precise position of the
Mauvaises Terres, and the rainless, sandy, and uninhabitable areas
of the continent ; the nature and location of the mountain chains,
exclusive of the Rocky Mountain range, extending from latitude
47° to 33", headed at the south by the Gila River, on whose south-
ern side are the arid, uncultivable tracts of Sonora, and headed at
the north by the Missouri River, on whose northern side lie these
vast cultivable and inhabitable areas ; if we recall the remarka-
ble deflection to the westward of the Rocky Mountain range m
this latitude ; if we recall also the course of that gigantic stream,
which is far greater than the river to which by a mistaken nomen-
clature it is made tributary, a stream extending to the very base
of the Rocky Mountains, in the region where they are lowest and
transit is easiest, navigable for steamers two thousand four hun-
dred and fifty miles from its mouth, and for smaller vessels almost
within sound of the Great Falls ; if we recall also the remarkable
deflection to the north of the isothermal lines from the west of
Lake Superior, already mentioned, and the position of Columbia
River, and remember withal that the first and the great routes of
travel are always where nature has scooped out valleys for the
passage of great rivers ; if we combine all these conceptions with
the one first advanced, of the direction of the movement of the
centres of population and industrial activity, there remains no
room to doubt, even without naming the north-western areas,
that along the valley of the Missouri, over the Rocky Mountains,
in the low passes of latitude 4*7", and thence by the Columbia and
its tributaries to the Pacific, or through the passes of the Cascade
range to the splendid harbors of Puget Sound, lies the great
route to the Pacific, the belt on which towns and villages will first
arise, the strongest link in the union of the Atlantic and Pacific
States. The Fraser River discoveries have hastened the result,
they have not diverted it.