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Les diagrammes suivants itiustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 / ^ s ^ > X '— %\ J lihtHf^SC^' *'?i2^.^ '^-^-V'-lfK f EB ^ y 2 f 00 u X H O X b I O H O ^ t V U ^ -^ p British Columbia, ITS V! CD D 00 bi u s I Present Resources Future Possibilities, o U A BRIEF ATTEMPT TO DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF THE PROVINCE Published by Direction of (he Provincial Government. Victoria, B. C. "Thk Colonist" Printing a.nu Plulishinu Co S7Lr THE matter contained in the following- pag-es has been de- rived from authoritative sources. For \he a^-ricultural data, the writer is indebted to a voluminous and carefully prepared report recently issued under the Department of Acrri- culture, by Mr. J. R. Anderson. Minin- statistics have been obtamed from the Report of the Dominion Geological Survey "The Mineral Wealth of British Columbia," by Dr. G. w' Dawson, and local reports from the chief mining centres. The Statistical Year Book (Dominion Government), and annual reports of the Victoria Board of Trade provided useful infor- mation as to commerce and shipping^ while several g-entlemen well qualified by their intimate acquaintance with the respec- tive industries have supplied the ground work of the chapters on iMshing: and Lumbering-. The author desires to express his indebtedness to these authorities ; he also g^ratefully records the assistance afforded him by the courteous officials of the Department of Lands and Works, and by many friends whose local knowledge has been o{ the greatest service to him. r=R¥S^Cj INTRODUCTION. BRITISH COLUMBIA, notwithstanding, the prominence to which It has attained since the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway placed it upon the chief high- way of the world, is still to a very great number of intelligent people, a mere name upon a map. That it should ever exercise an active influence over the destinies of the British Empire or provide a sphere for the industry of millions, is something of which they have neither heard nor dreamt. The object of^the present pamphlet is not only to give a succinct account of the actual condition of the Province to-day, but to suggest the probability of so great a future at no remote time. The area of British Columbia is estimated at 383,000 square miles; its population at 54,061 whites, 35,202 Indians, 8,910 Chinese, or 98,173. It is a self-evident fact that a country which has an area more than three times as extensive as that of the British Isles, with a population no larger than that of a moderate sized manufacturing town, must be either very much under-populated or grossly lacking in the means for supporting life. Were the latter the case, it would be manifestly undesirable to invite attention to so unfortunate a circumstance But even should the former alternative be maintained, the ques- t.on might reasonably be asked, why the authorities who represent the ownership of such a country should seek to demon- strate this fact, or so long as its inhabitants were prosperous and contented, should tempt others to share their wealth With the example of certain foreign states before their eves, those whose attention was directed would be justified in doubting the good faith in which these statements were volunteered, and in regarding with distrust their publication. The answer, however IS a simple one, for the Government in acting thus does not' profess to be guided by motives of philanthropic benevolence It expects as a return tor the information provided, not indeed to receive a ^rnnt per capita for emigrants, regardless of their quality, or means of livelihood, but to induce only those persons 8 BRITISH COLUMBIA. to enter the Province whose presence will aid in the development of its potential resources ; or in homely phrase it invites those only whose company will be worth more than the room they occupy. A great deal of harm has been effected in recent years by the promiscuous advertisement of new countries. Their pro- ductive powers may be great, land may be cheap, trade prospects most satisfactory, wages high, the towns may be increasing at a rate quite without parallel among older communities. But none of these things, nor all collectivelv, can form sufficient justification for strangers without any means of livelihood except their hands, and without any knowledge of how to shift for themselves except what they have acquired in the narrow grooves of their native place, to flock to some distant land in the belief that steady work and fortune await them. Even skilled labour of the most valued kind has many difficulties to contend with before it can establish itself in a totally new sphere. There are the recognized labour organizations, which jealously guard the interests of their members from outside competition, there are the natural prejudices which always exist against new comers and intried men, and there is above all the fact so often ignored, that small communities such as prevail in new countries can only employ a limited number of ivorkers in any particular trade. Five bricklayers, even were they prepared to work at one dollar a day, could not possibly find employment where only one can, though his wages are five dollars. This reflection alone, should be suflicient to deter men from eagerly rushing West when they hear of high wages, regardless of the speculative element which must be inseparable from their venture, and without calculating whether they are prepared to risk their small capital while wait- ing for the opportunity to establish themselves in their new home. I H I H r > c I. r. y. tc c c Let no one therefore, who may read the following pages, imagine that because Hritish Columbia is represented, in what the writer believes to be its true light, as a place of rapidly rising importance, he is therefore certain to find ample and immediate scope for his own abilities. He must rather consider what sacrifices he is prepared to make for the privilege cf introducing in what rising lied i ate what lucing I H > r r. en c c lO URITISH COLUMBIA. 5 B M himself and his family into a country so favorably circumstanced. He must deliberate whether the prospect of future success is worth the hazard of his present condition of life, whatever that may be, and should he finally determine upon a step which may prove to him irrevocable, let him blame no one but himself if the struggle turn out a hard one, and the good times which he anti- cipated be long in coming. The value of any country to its inhabitants depends mainly upon four conditions: Its supporting capacity; its exporting capacity ; its position as regards foreign commerce ; and its climate. To these may very properly be added a fifth, namely, the character of its government. By enquiring into the above conditions, a just estimate can be arrived at both of the present standing and future prospects of any political division on the face of the globe. No one, for instance, would dispute the fact that the pros- perity of Great Britain is largely due, in the first place, to the relatively extensive area of her cultivatable land whereby a pros- perous yeoman population was encouraged, and enabled to fur- nish a back bone to the commonalty ; secondly, to her numerous deposits of the economic minerals, the presence of which induced the most intelligent and thrifty among her inhabitants to engage in mining and manufactures ; thirdly, to her extended sea-board, and the facility afforded by it for maritime pursuits ; and fourthly, to her climate, which, notwithstanding many apparent draw- backs, was by its temperate character, well adapted to the nurture of a healthy and vigorous race. The genius of her people for governing and being governed is ii fact to which atten- tion need hardly be directed. It would appear then that there can be no better way of exhibiting the capacities of British Columbia than by treating of them under these heads, for if it can be shown that the Province shares in no ordinary degree all these advantages, it will follow that its ultimate fortune depends only upon a sufficient popula- tion, and reasonable time in which to conquer such natural obstacles as are to be met with in a virgin country. But in order to comprehend the frequent references which must of necessity be made to the various local features of so vast a territory, their I 4 # BRITISH COLUMBIA. II istanced. Liccess is ever that hich may self if the 1 he anti- Is mainly xporting ; and its namely, he above e present n on the the pros- :e, to the y a pros- d to fur- umerous induced ) engage a-board, "ourthly, draw- to the of her 1 atten- way of ating of 'rovince follow copula- natural n order jcessitv y, their widely differing qualities and productive powers, the physical character of the country, and its political divisions must first be briefly described. PHYSICAL CHARACTER. The I'rovincc of British Columbia may l)c described as a great c|uadrangle of territory, seven luindred miles long by lour hundred miles wide, lying north of latitude 49° and west of the central core of tiie l\oci o § alley. The r-esliniated. imparatively mibia effect- id moisture- lain a threat been found indications jquently in- he Selkirks. er upheaval, imjilex as to h composed le case. A te mountain Lies has been A'e upturned leitjhbouring tant valleys, uitains. To to tlie term in the cross om whence j)le de|)osits |o course of liny of the le Roi'Uies, lie contours Iter, though lilies, (k)\vn 1 tiiousand tiinl)er. |iiles, ilini- Lling from liins as far dividing n 8 H n a; < > r r 5 r o X n o » tfl « M > M O > 8 14 BRITISH COLUMBIA. lr\terlor Plateau. To the west of these great ranijes Hrilish Columl)ia extends in a wide plateau of taljle land, which has lieen ori^jinally elevated some 3,500 feet above sea-level. This plateau has been, however, so deeply intersected and eroded by lake and river systems that, in many places, it presents an aspect hardly differing from that of mountain regions. At others, however, it opens out into wide plains and rolling ground, with comparatively low eminences, affording fine areas of agricultural and grazing land. The entire district has been subject to vast overflows of lava, of the disintegrated remains of which the present soil is mainly composed. There is a general but very gradual slope of the land from the mountainous country on the southern boundary of the Province to the north, where as has been previously stated, it is hedged in by cross ranges attaining an elevatifin of from 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet. Notwithstanding this general slope, the princip.1l flow of water finds its way southwards through deep fissures penetrating the mountain boundaries on the southern and western sides. This plateau forms the chief agricultural area of the Province. " The whole of Uritish Columbia, south of 52° and east of the Co.ist Range, is a grazing country up to 3,500 feet, and a farming country up to ? jOO feet, where irrigation is possible." — (Alacoiin, tleol. Rep. 1877.) Coast aild Islaqd Rar^ges. The interior plateau is terminated on the west by the Coast Range, a series of massive crystalline rocks of some 6,000 feet in aver- age height. This range has a mean width of about loo miles, descending to the shores of the Pacific, and is in turn flanked by the submerged Island Range, the tops of which form Vancouver and her adjacent islands, the Queen Charlotte Islands and those of the Alaskan Peninsula. The crystalline rocks of the Coast Range are the source of the rich gold deposits of the Fraser River, which may be said to have first brought the Province into prominent notice, and which are by no means yet exhausted. The basins of cretaceous rock surviving the upheaval of the Island Range, and preserved by it from submergence beneath the Pacific, inchule the valuable coal measures of Nanaimo and Coniox, which at present sujiply the most important mineral export of IJritish Columbia. The moisture caused by the deflection of the warm sea breezes by these ranges is productive of an enormous forest growth, for which the coast is famous. " The most remarkable feature of the coast are the fjords and passages, which while quite analagous to those of Scotland, Norway and (ireenland, probably sur- pass those of any part of the world (unless it be the last named country) in dimensions and complexity. The great height of the rugged mountain walls which border them also give them a grandeur quite their own." — Daivson, CJeol. Sur., 1884.) RIVERS. The unique position of British Columbia as a water-shed, on the Pacific Coast of America, will at once be recognized when it is seen that all the rivers of great importance on that coast, with the exception of one (the Colorado), arise from within its boundaries. The drainage from its extensive area of mountains and highlands is received into the numerous lakes, which have been noticed as forming so striking a feature of the interior. Thence the surplus is discharged ibia extends some 3,500 :rsecte(l and spcct hardly ens (}Ut into ffording fine ihject to vast ail is mainly (1 from the (lorth, where an elevation he principal et rating the m forms the nibia, south > feet, and a JcOlOl, Cicol. the west by feet in aver- nding to the 1 Range, the tn Charlotte )f the Coast icli may be :h are by no .'aval of the lie, incliule siijiply the used by the enormous iges, which obably sur- :ountry) in ntain walls vson, (leol. he Pacific e rivers of ado), arise mountains noticed as lischarged URiriSH COLUMBIA. I 5 into the few large rivers or their many tril)Utaries, wliicli finally 'each tlie sea. These rivers are the Cohimliia on the siuitb ; the i'raser, the Skcenn, and the Stickeeii on the west ; the Liard on the north, and the I'eace River on the cast. These rivers are 'ifgn^at size and volume, and the first four are sufficiently navigable to hle.imers to form water-ways of no suiall value in the development of the country. Tfje Fraser. This may be considered llie most important river of the I'rovince, from the fact 'hat it lies entirely witliin the British territory, and that its navigable waters travers(. some of the best agricultural lands, and that it has been the chief source of two considerable indusliies — gold-washing and salmon-canning. Rising from several sources on the west slo))e of the Rockies, in the neighbourhood of the \'ellowhead i'ltss, it (lows north-west for about 190 miles along tiie deep valley which divides those mountains from the range of the Selkirks. There it rounds the northern limit of the latter, and, turning south. Hows for 470 miles in that direction, turning to the west in the last 80 miles of its course before reaching the sea. Its total length is thus somewhere about 740 miles. Hefore penetrating the Coast Range through the ])ictures(pie canyon which bears its name, it is joined by its largest tributary, the Thompson, a considerable stream Mowing west from the centre of the interior plateau. l''or the last 80 miles of its course it Hows through a wide alluvial plain, which has been mainly deposited from its own silt, and in the last ten miles it divides, forming a deltii, of the richest alluvial soil in the Province. It is navigable to steamers and vessels of ordinary size over this dis- tance of So milcM, and again for smaller craft for about Co nules of its course through the interior, from (^)uesnellemouth to .Soda Creek. lis current is rapid, and in the early summer it overflows its banks in the lower part of its course, renilering ner- ;sary the use of dykes. The Columbia. This large and important water-course, which but for tiie blunders of Hrilisii Ministers would have undoubtedly formed the main souliiern boundary of the Province, takes its rise in the Columbia Lakes, latitude 50', and pursues its eccentric course round the Kootenay Districts, which, together with its confluent the Kootenay, it completely encircles. There is no parallel to the ex- traordinary windings of these two rivers and their associated lakes. Starling from points so close that they have actually been in one place connected by a canal one mile long, they flow in diametrically ojjposite directions, north-west and south- east, along the ileep western valley of the Rockies, until they reach a maxim um distance of 250 miles apart. They then turn, and after passing respectively through two series of lakes — the upper and lower .Arrow Lakes and the Kootenay Lake — they unite at a point not more than 70 miles distant from their origins. This point is only about 20 miles north of tlie boundary, which the Kootenay had already crossed twice, traversing American territory for some 150 miles of its course, the united streams then flow in a soutlierly direction, being joined by another large river, the Pend d'Oreille, just before crossing the boundary, whence their course is through the state of Washington, about 750 miles to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia drains a total area of 195,000 square miles — one-seventh more than the Colorado. In Uritish Columbia it is naviga])le from the Columbia Lake i6 BKITISH COLUMBIA. to the first crossing of the ('anadian Pacific Uailwity at (ioiden Chy, and again from the sccoml crossing at Kevelstoke thmugh llie Arrow Laixes to its union with the Kootenay. There are small steamboats plying on both these routes, as also on the Kootenay between American points and Kootenay Lake. The valuable deposits of precious and base metals which luive of recent years deen discovered in the neighbourhood of Kootenay Lake render it |)robable that these water-ways will be of the first importance as means for the transhipment of ore, for which purpose they have already begun to be extensively used. It is much to be regretted that the Hritish (lovernment had not sufficient sagacity to retain |)(>ssession of the district lying between the forly-ninth parallel and the mouth of the Columbia River. The district had been occupied without opposition by the Hudson's Hay Company, who had a trading station, Fort Van- couver, on the banks of the river, opposite what is now the City of Portland. From thence they were driven to Fort Victoria, on X'ancouver Island, by the terms of the treaty of 1846, by which the forty-ninth parallel was established as the boundary line between Canada and the United States. The American people can hardly be blamed for securing; so valuable a possession as the I'uget Sound, and one of which they have made so good use ; but it is evident that, alth(jugh an imaginary boundary line, such as a parallel of latitude, may be valuable across a great level tract like the interior of the Dominion, it is very inferior to a natural line of demarcation, such as is jiiovideil by a wide riser, when separating countries of a mountainous and not easily accessible character. The Skeena. There could be no clearer proof of the general lack of know- letlge which prevails o( the gecgraphy of North-West America than the fact that current educatiimal works ascribe to the Province no rivers except the Fraser and Columbia. The Skeena is unknown even by name \o those whose memory is crowded with the niiiu)r streams of Europe, and of the eastern side of America ; and yet of a length approximating to 300 miles it is greatly superior to any river in F^ngland, and would rank on the continent with such as the Rhone, being wider, 130 miles from the sea than the Seine at Paris. It rises from several widely separated sources, the most northern of which are on the Pacific-Arctic watershed N. of lat. 56", and the most southern to the south of Habine Lake, about lat. 54° 10'. The greatest volume of water is however supplied by a confluent, the Babine River, which flows from thi. large lake of that name, entering the north fork of 'he Skeena about 30 miles above Ilazelton (lat. 55^ 10'). At this place the sov. 1 fork, known on the maps as the Huckley River, but to the Indians as the lit 'ilget* River, joins the main stream, which from thence flows in a south- west CO ;e, striking the coast about lat. 54" 10'. The river has a wide mouth without .y delta, but is dotted with alluvial islands for a distance of nearly a hundred iles from the sea, having an average width of about a mile. Above the Kitsilas anyon, a gorge traversing the Coast Range, it narrows from 800 to 200 yards at Hazelton. The shores up to the canyon do not exhibit much good land except on the bends and islands, which are covered with poplars and small maples. About 20 miles above the canyon the valley widens to some five or six miles, there * The man in fine clothes. HRmsil COLIMHIA. 17 , and attain vmiun wilh ites, as also recent years rcdmhle that sliiinnent of 1. ot sufficient inlli imrallel )ie(l without 1, Kort \'an- of Portland. by the terms ished as the in people can I Sound, and lat, although duable across ir to a natural ting countries ,ck of know- the fact that |ie Fraser and ise memory is )f America ; to any river [■Ihone, being :veral widely ic watershed :, about lat. fluent, the ig the north ,\t this place le Indians as [s in a south- wide mouth of nearly a Above the [i 800 to 200 [h good land [nail maples, miles, there Iteing g'xxl bench l.ind on both sidi-s. Tliis (•(intiinics considernljly nbrvi- Mn/i-I- ton, and on the -.ouili fork, tliirly rnilo from liKiue, there is a fine dis. rid of nrairii' i-x'fnding S. V.. ihrougli to the Necliaco River, an important triinJiiry (if the Kraicr. The ciirriMil of the Skeenii is rap' 1, abnut 4IJ mil-.'s an hinir, but it may Ik* aM't-mled i)y slern-wliecl lioats as far as lia/elton. H[B StioKeBn. This river, although it^nored even by recent works on the geography of North America, is of -.ullicii.iU magnituiie and im|iortance to justify its ranking among the first of ihe l)oiiiiiiion. Upwards of 250 miles in length, ami navigable to stern-wheel steamers for 1 50 miles of its course from the sea, it forms the m.dii artery of communication for a di^trirt of many thousand square miles ill fact it may be saiil for the entire I'mvince north of latitude 57'. That portion of the Province has been omitted from the accompanying map as unsuitetl to general immigration, but its capacities must not be under-estimated. It has been compared liy Dr. Dawson with the Russian Province of Vologda, which at n-'csent supports a i>o|)ulaiion of over one million. It can grow the same |)ro- ducl? . and in miiu.'ial wealth is probably vastly superior. .\t jiresent it is hardly touched except by fur traders and gold miners, and yet contributes 110 small quota (about $150,00) annually) to the revenues of the country. The Si-. keen rises from several sources north of latitude 57 , one of these springing from the neighbourhooil of Dease Lake, on the Pacific-Arctic water- sheil, upon which the chief centre of distribution for the district (Laketon) is situated, lis navig.ible course is interfered with by rajjids until the (ireat Canyon is passed, but from iheiice, though the stream average-, some five miles an hour, it is (|uite navigable. It flows mainly south-west, and enters the Pacific by the large inlet, or fjord, which passes liirough Alaskan Territory in latitude 56' 40'. l-'or the last twenty miles it flows more sluggishly through a wide alluvial district, but has no true delta like the Fraser. It is here between two and three; miles wide. Above this point it occu|)ies a valley wilh receding shorts several miles in width, until it becomes restricted at the Little (."anyon to a gorge three-fifths of a mile long and a few luindred yards wide, after which it widens again as far a.s (ilenora, 125 miles from its mouth. Twelve miles above (ilenora it is again restricted within the gorge of the Oreat Canyon, aiiove which il i>ofno navigable value. The main stream flows from an origin some 120 miles to the south, but the branch running from Dea'-e Lake is the only one of any im[)ortaiice, since il provides a i)ass in the surrounding mountains f )r a r(jad U) that jioiiit. Liard ar\d Peace fivers. These rivers, which with their numerous tributaries drain the no theastern quarter of the Province, are both of sufficient size to make them of noteworthy importance in any country, but are of only inferior value, as not communicating with a freight-carrying ocean. They are themselves confluents of the great Mackenzie River, which emjnies into the Arctic Sea. The country through which the Liard River flows is little known, and its cap- acities have not hitherto been gauged. The Peace River, on the other hand, drains a district which has long been considered of agricultural value. Such con- fidence, indeed, had the Dominion authorities in this country, that 3,500,000 acres were accepted by them in lieu of such lands within the Canadian Pacific Railway i8 BRITISH COLUMBIA. ])elt, as tlie Province was unalile to ^rant towarils railway construction, from the fact liiat ihcy were already occupied by settlers. Mach of these rivers has a course of iietween 300 and 400 miles through Uritish Columbia. Over the greater part of this distance they are navigal)le to canoes and small craft. In adilition to the above rivers, it will be seen that the sources of the Yukon lie within the British Colund)ia boundary line, though that great watncourse is of little practical value mitil it passes into the Territory of Alaska ; and that the *Naas River, the only stream of secondary iuiporiance which reaches the coast (latitude 54' 55'). is by no means useless, as it affords communication with a dis- trict otherwise difticult of ap[)roach, and is the seat, at its moeth, of an important fishing industry. LAKES. The lakes of British Columbia are, for thu- most part, enlargements of her numerous water-courses, caused by obstructions, tlie result of their debris and silt. The ra])idity of current aiid continual fresliets from the mountain snows render such natural dams matters of more or less fre(iuent occurrence nowadays, but in a postgla .1 age, when most of the lakes appear to h.-ve been formed, the enormous torrents which flowed through the country created them on a scale of much greater dimensions. Local circ:umstances have tended to group these lakes and chain them together along the same ri\er beds, as will be seen by referring to the nnip. For instance, the Arrow Lakes occu]>y 120 miles of the course of the < !olumbia, and the .Shuswa]i Lake and Lake Kamloops have a length far greater than all the unenlarged portion of the South Thompson River. In fact, every part of the interior appears netley a line from the apex to the base along the main water-shed of the I'urcell branch of the Selkirks, into two portions approximately ecjual, Kast and West Kootenay, the former being the larger by about one-eighth. Access to East Kootenay is obtained from the interior by several jjasses over the Rocky .Mountains, of which the p.rin- cipal are the Kicking Horse and the Crow's Nest. The former is that used by '.he Canailian I'acitic Railway ; the latter, in the neighbouriiood of which extensive coal deposits have been discovered, has been chosen for a i)rojected line, which is to secure a more ilirect route to the southern ]iortion of the districts and the miiio situate on Kootenay Lake. At present good waggon roads supplement river communication between the Canadian I'acitic Railway and the boundary, and a short railway line has been constructed from Nelson, on the Kootenay Lake, to Robson at the junction of the two rivers, along a portion of the Kootenay River which is impassable by boat. These districts include three important valleys formed by the three-fold divi- sion of the Selkirk Range. The fii.t is a pcjrtion of the great western valley of the Rockies, and is watered by the upjier reaches of the Columbia and Kootenay. The sec(jnd valley is that lying between the Turcill and .Selkirk Ranges, and is occupied by the Upjier and Lower Kootenay Lakes. This is the chief seat of the present quartz mining activity, to which the Kootenay Lake i)rovides the main water-way. Access to this lake from the Un'ted .States is easy Tta the Kootenay River, and a railway is also in course of construction — the Nelson and Fort .Shep- ])ard — which will sec. ire direct conununication with the (Ireat Northern Railway throughout the ye.'ir. Nelson, Kaslo, Ainsv.orth and Balfour are towns which have come into exist- ences as centres of supply for the mines. (Sec illiist. thwt page. ) The third valley, lying between the .Selkirk and (lold Ranges, is occii'iied by the secc'id beiul of the Columbia River and the .\rr.ow Lakes, and is at ; /esent the chief means of communication, by steamboat, with the Canadian I'acitic Rail- way. To the north of the railway lies the region known as the I'«ig Mend. Kevelstokc, at the second crossing of the Columbia, is a town of growing import- ance, as ar- also 'lolden and Donald, on the eastern side of the Selkirk Range. Yale. N'alc District is a rectilineal section of country, west of Kooteiuu', the north and west boundaries of which a])pear to have been designed to conform ap|)roximately with the great right angle maile by the Shu>wap and Kandoops Lakes, th" Thompson River, and the Canyon of the I'raser. It com|iri^es an area of 13, ^00, coo acres, of winch, ])robal)ly, a larger pro|iortion is of agricutural value than in anv other district. This includes the countries of the l)kanagan. the Nitola, the Sinulkameen, the Kettle River, and the Kamloojis bunch grass tlistrict. Access is now obtained into ;he tirst of these by the Shuswap and ()l been the .scene of energetic mining operations. I'yriteous gold-bearing ores have been dis- covered and worked at .Stump Lake, and (iranite Oeek to the south is the site of a recent placer excitement. Iron and coal ab;]und, also, in the Nicola country. The Similkameen district is entered by a trail from Hope on the Lower I'raser, but as this involves crossing the Hope Mountains at a high elevation, it has become of less im|)ortance since the counlrv has been o|)eiied to the north and good conmuinication afforded from that direction. It is chielly a grazing district, occupied by large cattle urns. Further east, the Rock Creek mines are situated on a branch of the Kettle Ri\er. Theri; are gold hydraulic works and argentiferous galena mines at this point, both of which it is understood, are doing well. The Kettle River flows through tiie (irand Prairie — a goud farming country north of the boundary. To the north again the ("herry t'reek mines are being develoifcd, and in the immediate r.eighboiuhood of Hope silver ores have been found in what i>romise to be Jiaying fiuanlities. Kandoojis, the princi]xd town in ^'ale District, is>ituateda; the contluence of the North and South Thonijison Rivers, about seven miles above the head of the lake of the same name. It is in the centre of a grazing country of extensive area. The western border of the district includes that part of the Coast Range through whic'h the l-'raser passes on its way to the sea. The river rushes through a deep delile, the sides of which have in many places been lut into gravel benches at an earlier period of its history. These benches were the scene of the gold washing excitement of 185S and the following years. .\t other points the rocky clills of the enclosing mountains rise .abruptly frnm the water's edge without any shore. Round these precipice^ the engiiK'ers of the C. I'. R. escax.Ued it-, road- beil, a work of great difliculty and danger, in which several lixes were lost. The Cariboo waggon roaii, which preceded the railway by nca.ly thirty years, aUo scales the face of these cliffs, and still testifies to the energy of its builders, tlii^ugh no longer in regular use. The l''raser passes out of the canyon at N'aK', the head of navigatinu and starling point of the Cariboo stage, but since lailway construction lias fdlen into dec. ly. Thence to Mope the valley is continually widening and assuming that character of an open farming land whicii lower down it more markedly presents. A few miles below Hope tile boundary of the district is crossed. Lillooet. This district, comprising an area of 12,500,000 acres, lies to the north of the last, as far as lal. 52' and extends west to long. 124 . It contains, therefore, a large proportion of the interior plateau, but as on the whole the 22 BRITISH COLUMBIA. region is diier than that to the south of the railway from the lofty Coast Range more effectually intercepting the moist winds, irrigation has more to he depended upon. The soil is almost everywliere very rich, and there are a comparatively large number of excellent farming an