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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un ssul clichA, 11 sst filmA A partir de I'engle supArlsur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrsnt la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 S 6 1858.] BRITISH COLUMBIA AND VANCOUVEll'S ISLAND. pOMPARATIVELY few years ^ Lave elapsed since Canada was a mere tract of unreclaimed forest land. It was looked upon as a country which the length and se- verity of its winter rendered almost unfit for the purposes of settlement. It lay beyond the pale of civilization, and its cheerless solitudes deterred all except the most adventurous or the most reckless spirits from en- deavourinfj to form a home there. Now the forest has receded before the backwoodsman's axe, the Indian village has given place to the po- pulous town. Well-built railroads and steam-ships convey over its plains and rivers a flourishing trade, which may compare advantageouslj- with that of older countries. But that is not all : this country, so newly peopled, has lately become the starting-point of a fresh exodus. Ten years ago — not yet ten years ago the first report came to Europe of the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia. Every one remembers the rush which, in the first violence of the gold fever, was made towards the West. In the United States the merchant deserted his store and the mechanic his craft, wages rose to a point which made even successful gold-hunting hardly a more speedy road to wealth than plodding labour, but the labourer was not to be de- tained, andthe manwhoayear before had appeai'ed not to have a thought in the world beyond the plough ho followed, was now to be seen work- ing as if for his life, with pick and rocker, in his six-feet ' claim * at some diggings in California, or washing up to his waist in water the auriferous soil of its streams. In course of time, however, the floating population which thus rushed in from all jjarts of the globe upon California, settled down into comparative tranquillity ; the search for gold lost its first character of wild adventure, and sunk into a recognised field for industry, in whicli labour and capital ensured a handsome, though not an excessive remuneration. It would be curious to trace how the successive disco- veries of the precious metals have proved instruments iu the hands of Providence for enlarging the bounds of civilization. It seemed at first as if the lawless crowds which hastened to the scene of each fresh discovery must introduce only turbulent mis- rule, and that the tierce passions by which they were swayed must result in anarchy and confusion. But out of the seeming chaos rose a fair supei'structure of order. Steady industry gradually replaced the w ild excitement of the gold fever. No sooner had this miracle been worked in the wilds of California, than tlie same scene was re-enacted, almost with the same characters. The hills and valleys of Australia were full of gold, and the adventurers of the world met in a new field. Now, for the third time, the gold fever has risen fiercely. It was, if we remember rightly, t the end of June, 1858, that a rumoiu" went abroad in this country that the main land which lies to the north and east of Vancouver's Island was highly auriferous. The public were not long left in suspense. A ship ar- rived at Asphiwall laden with some four thousand pounds' worth of gold. The San Francisco papers headed their columns with the cry of * Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! — News from the British gold-fields. Gold received from Frazer River.' And a leading article in the same paper announced ' IMMENSE EMIGRATION ' in the largest type. The last an- nouncement.made cotemporaneously with the first, shows indisputably the extreme rapidity with which the fever spread, and the i^rompt mea- sures which were taken by the border-ruffian gold-washing popula- tion of California, who belong to the class which always leads the way on these occasions. Before alluding further to the progress and development of the mines, it may be well to say a few words as to the situation and soil of the new colony. British Columbia extends from the Rocky Mountains to the sea, between the forty- ninth and fifty-fifth parallels of latitude. The continent of America is intersected in a direction parallel with the coast by two mountain ranges, which rise abruptly from iOi British Columlia and Vancouver's Island. [October, the cast, and slope gradually to- wards the Pacific. Tl»e chain nearest to the sea is called throughout its length the Cascade liange. The other, which is about equidistant from the Cascade and the Eocky Mountains, is rather a spur of the latter than a distant chain, and the country between it and the liocky Mountains is almost entirely filled up with hills in its northern part, and terminates to the south in the great tobacco plains. At the foot of the western slope of the moun- tain which we have just described runs the Columbia Eiver. This magnificent stream winds among the mountain gorges towards the south, watering a picturesque country, and occasionally expand- ing, even in the earlier parts of its course, into lakes of considerable extent. At the 49° of latitude it enters United States territory, and about 46° north latitude suddenly changes its direction to the west, forms the boundary between Oregon and the newly -constituted Washing- ton territory, and falls into the Pacific at Astoria. Frazer River, which, with its tributary, Thompson Elver, is the scene of the new gold discoveries, takes its rise in a little lake on the eastern side of the Cascades, and running parallel with them, receives the Thompson Eiver from the west, passes through a gap in the moun- tain, and falls into the Gulf of Georgia. The climate of this region is less variable than that of England. The mean temperature on the Pacific coast is stated by Sir John Eichard- Bon to be about 20° higher than on the Atlantic between the same parallel of latitude. The prevalence of westerly winds may perhaps partly explain this difference of tempera- ture, and the fact that vegetation is much earlier there than in England. Figs, lemons, melons, vines.and many other fruits proper to the Tropics, are the indigenous growth of this favoured shore. The splendid work of Mr. Lorin Blodget,* on the Climatology of the United States, explains fully the startling difference which exists between the east and west coasts of America as regards the direction and distribution of their isothermal lines. Alluding to the district which wo arc now discussing, Mr. Blodget points out that now that the result of his observations is fully collated and determined, and the climato- losjical capacity of British Columbia estabhshed, it is much more easy to understand the descriptions of those who have travelled there, and to con- nect the somewhat meagre accounts yet written. It is surprising, he writes, that so little is known of the great islands and the long line of coast from Paget Sound to Sitka, ample as its resources must be even for recruiting the transient com- merce of the Pacific, independently of its immense intrinsic value. To the region bordering on theNorthern Pacific the finest maritime positions belong throughout its entire extent, and no part of the west of Europe exceeds it in the advantages of equable climate, fertile soil, and commercial accessibility of coast. Mr. Blodget justly remarks, that the reason for most of the neglect of this region lies in mistaken views of its climate, and that the peculiarities of much of the Lake Superior dis- trict are such as to perpetuate the inislake. With the unusual severity of the last two or three winters there, it appears incredible that the country at the west rising towards the Eocky Mountains should be less severe. But the increase of tempera- ture westward is quite as rapid as it is southward to New Mexico, and the Pacific borders on the fiftieth garailel are wilder in winter than anta Fc The Indians.t who till now have held undisputed possession of it, are, or were till immigration taught them disti-ust, if not hostility, friendly and well-disposed towards the whites. They have an instinc- * Climafolofjy of the United States, and the Temjtcrate Latitudes of the North A merican Continent. By Lorin Blodget. Philadelpiiia : J. B. Lippincott and Co. 1857. f Tlie writer is indebted for the following information respecting the Indian tribes to a gentleman who has long lived among them. r I ipP i 1858.] Ahout the Native Indians. 405 • \ tive knowledge of a Supreme Being, or Great Spirit ; this is forcibly illustrated by tlv. customs they observe in disposing of their dead. Great lamentations prevail iu the whole tribe on the death of a chief ; the •wromcn howl and cry, the men beat a hollow box, producing a sound Hke a kettle-drum, accom- panying the noise with a monoto- nous chorus or chant not altogether deficient of musical charm. This drumming continues for weeks after the death of a chief, and the whole tribe, men, women, and chil- dren, participate in the ceremony. The dead are placed in their canoes, and suspended to the brandies of trees m some solitary island or quiet bay. Hundreds ot boxes, rudely carved in cedar-wood, may be seen stored away in these sequestered cemeteries, painted with hiero- glyphic characters in red and black colours. Carved images, dressed in tawdry style with such fragments of European clothes as they may possess, are mounted on pedestals, and appear to perform the part of sentinels over the dead. They have feasts and holidays, which they calculate by the number of moons ; their doctors are selected from the most aspiring of their tribe; they have some knowledge of herbal medicines, and treat nil cases with a certain degree of skill ; they are affectionate and kind to their offspring, and a good and friendly feeling exists toward mem- bers of their own tribe ; they marry amid the local tribes, but quarrels the most fierce and deadly oiten arise. An Indian thinks little of murder if he imagines he has cause for it. No kin is strong enough to quell the ire of a revengeful savage. They are without exception treache- rous when they have anything to ob- tain by treachery ; they lie by in- stinct; thieving is their natural pro- pensity. The staple article of food is fish — salmon — dried in the sun in sum- mer sufficient for winter stores. They cultivate the potato profitably to themselves : no better can be produced in any part of the world. A bulbous root of which they are particularly fond is found in the plains ; in size and shape it is some- thing like an onion, but known iu the native language by the name of Cu'mas. They are dirty in their habits: their hnir, which is not curly like that of the negro, is usually matted together iu an inextricable tangle. As a rule, the men and women are in stature small, but improve in this respect as vou advance to a higher latitude. The natives of Queen Charlotte's Island arc perhaps the most bold, fearless, treacherous, and thievish class ol' savages of any on that coast. At the same time they are extremely ingenious and clever. They have been known to make very good imitations of pictures from the Illustrated News on boxes of their own manufacture, and carvings in solid ivory from photographs. They have a natural genius for imitative art. There is a similarity of countenance between these Islanders and the Japanese. The above remarks apply only to the Indians of Vancouver's and Queen Charlotte's Islands and the N. W. Coast. The inland Indian is a different character, more noble in his manner, lives more by hunting than fishing, and is more to be depended upon than the coast Indians. The country is easily accessible by the means which are in ordinary use in the couulry, horses and canoes, roads, &c. The lower part of the Frazer Kiver is not adapted to vc. els of any considerable size. Boats and canoes are alone of real use, but we have heard of vessels measuring three hundred tons get- ting as far as Fort Langley, some fifty miles up ; and an American steamer, the Surprise, which for a long time was used to run between Sacramento and San Francisco, was fitted up for ocean service on the announcement of the gold discoveries, and was advertized to run between Victoria and Fort Hope, about a himdred miles from the mouth. The geological formations ob- served in the Sierra Nevada of California are similar in character to those observed in the auriferous regions of Frazer Hirer ; indeed the auriferous regions all ovot the world correspond so closely with mmm 496 British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. [October, each other, that a careful examina- tion of the rocks and strata of one would suffice to an expert geologist for a certain intimation that gold would be found in the others. Count Strezlecki brought home spe- cimens and plans from the moun- tains of Australia which evidenced so close a resemblance between them and the auriferous districts of the Ural Mountains, that Sir Itoderick Murchison, who had closely exa- mined the latter, was enabled to predicate with certainty that Aus- tralia too was rich with gold. It was not long, Mhen once attention was called to the subject, before gold was successfully sought in the ravines running from the great eastern chain of Australia and the alluvial diift which had been de- rived from it by the action of the streams and the weather. Gold (says Mr, Domer) existH in a pure state, is of a bright reddish yellow colour ; it will not oxidise or rust like the ignoble metals, and being generally the produce of disintegrated rocks, is can-ied away by the floods into the valleys, and to distances varying ac- cording to the size of the metallic frag- ments and the force of the cuirent, till finally it is deposited in dark glens and deep water holes. Again, when the current has been intercepted by pro- truding banks or checked by sand bars, the river's heavy soil has to be even wrung from it, to be hidden in holes oi crevices in the bank, and sown as golden seed throughout the sands of the river- bed, to afford after long ages the harvest of the digger. Otherwise, when the stresim has been diverted into another channel, the metal remains in the parched water-course, often absolutely on the surface, and often to be reached by merely scratching through the layer of alluvial drift which time has spread over it. It is stated by Mr. Cooper, who has himself been a resident of several years in Vancouver's Island, that the Hudson's Bay Company had been aware of the existence of gold for some years before the secret, by getting abroad, put it out of the power of the Hudson's Bay Company to stop the immigration which was sure to ensue. Their monopoly was only maintainable while the energetic population of the Californiau and Australian mines remained in ignorance of the existence of their idol. There is among the miners a kind of instinct, for we can call it by no other name, by which the gold is scented from afar. These ad- venturous spirits think nothing of a journey from California to Aus- tralia and back upon a • prospecting' tour ; and those who have lived among them, and know the keen eye for the geological formation of a country which they possess, can easily believe that the well-kept secret of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany ceased to be a secret the moment a practised gold miner darted his inquiring eye on the granite and metamorphic rocks, and the great quartz boulders in the valley of the Frazer. The gold is usually Ibund in connexion with tho Pala;ozoic rocks, or in recent ter- tiary drifts ; it is, however, except on the coast, rarely found in the rock itself, but in the drift sand or gravel, sometimes (as in the Ballarat diggings, the richest in Australia) in a kind of rich purple clay, under successive layers of turf, black alluvial soil, grey clay, red gravel, then slightly auriferous clay, and streaked clay. The stra- tum immediately beneath the * blue clay,* as it is called, is hard white pipeclay, beneath which gold is not lound at all. In examining a river for gold, says Professor Bate Jukes, it is the inside curve of its bends, where sand-banks and spits are accumu- lating, or wherever the force of the current is slackened, and the mate- rials carried by it are consequently dropped, that should first be searched. Gold is harder than either tin or lead, softer than silver, copper, or iron ; consequently, writes Mr. Domer,* ' if a small scale or nugget scratches tin and lead, and is scratched by silver, copper, or iron, and if it sinks rapidly in water, it may fairly be assumed to be gold.' When the news of the discovery of new gold fields reached theCali- fornian mines, great was the excite- v i i * John Domer, British Gold-fields, p. 38. T 185S.] EJPect of the Discovery on California. 407 ment among the dijjgcrfl, and great the tumult in San EVancisco. The Sacramento stages were ovevioaded with passengers from Nevada, all bound for the coast. Sonora lost half her population; Stockton be- came lifeless, and her streets almost deserted, except when the stages went out for the coast. Many of the old-established quartz mills stopped working, ana Chinamen were set to work on the Sacramento railroad, because white labour was not to be had. ' Blankets for Frazer lliver,' ' beans for Frazer lliver, • shovels for Frazer Kivcr,' were ticketed up in all the streets of San Francisco. Wages rose to such a point that grooms made a favour of working for £190 per annum, and carpenters were not to bo had at twenty-eight shillings a day — moro than £500 a year. Masons and bricklayers, thirty-five shillings a day. Shepherds went off to the mines unless paid at the rate of £340 per annum and their keep. Money, that sensitive barometer of public confidence, rose to a ruinous price. Trade to the interior of course suffered a temporary depres- sion ; and farmers, gardeners, board- ing-house keepers, and others, who lived not on the mines but on the miners, were in despair. Many joined the general exodus ; and we learn from the California papers that a common form of placard in the shop-wiudows was, ' Selling off at cost, and going to Frazer Rivei*, as sure as you are born.' Traders, contractoi's, and cattle merchants hastened up the country with * ven- tures' of their various wares. All sorts of stock were in great demand ; and as one of the routes to the mines lies overland, the demand for beasts of burden was very consider- able among the population which rapidly congregated at Paget Sound on their way to the mines. However the trade of San Fran- cisco and of the interior of California may be temporarily depressed (and no doubt the sudden emigration of such large numbers of people will exercise a depressing effect), the whole of the Pacific coast within the range of the attraction will doubtless be intimately benefited. The most convenient route from all parts of the world to Frazer Kiver must, for some time at least, and until new modes of transport overland are organized, be through San Francisco. Many, no doubt, will go no further, but will take up their permanent abode in California. The first blu^h of novelty will soon wear ofi", though it is doubtful whether even j'et the excitement is at its height; and though every fresh discovery will have the effect of communicating the ' gold fever' to some who had before resisted its influence, things must ultimately sink down into a state of quietude, or perhaps even give place to somo new and startling discovery among the mountain ranges to the north. Tlie accounts which have reached us from the seat of excitement — we had almost written the seat of war — if carefully examined, show that the persons who first quitted CuHfornia were the 'loafers' — vagabonds who had been hanging about the bar-rooms of the Pacific cities, out of luck, and idle ; they were succeeded by a respectable and steady G-erman and Scotch emigration, which will not fail ulti- mately to infuse order and regu- larity amongst the miners. Too much capital and skill is already pre-engaged in Californi;\ to permit of any fears for the steady prosperity of that country. Responsible firms, composed of men who would have nothing to say to Stampedes, as the rapid emigration is nicknamed, even if they were not unavoidably detained by more solid reasons than disinclination, have large invest- ments in machinery for tunneling, sluicing, quartz crushing, and the various otiier kinds of mining. Tiieir earnings are steady, thougli not so brilliant as the * big strikes,' to use a mining term, which some- times bless a lucky gold - hunter, and drive a whole population wild ; and they obtain a fair remunera- tion for the skill and capital em- ployed. The worst that they can dread is a slight increase of wages, and a considerable temporary scar- city of labour. Bad enough, cer- tainly, but not such absolute ruin aa the panic-stricken press of California wouldhaveus believe. Theeagerness to be off and to arrive on the scene 49S British Columhia and Vancouver's Inland. [October, T of the now discoveries, is of course partly owing to the exagj^erated accounts of the extreme riclineas of the deposit, but in part to tho mer- curial temper of the miners. Tho lirat effervescence of gold is of course worked out in Cahfornia and Australia. The idle go because they like change of scene, and do not care about any hardship except the hardship of steady labour, which is of course necessary in the old diggings, and which they hope to escape by a visit to the new. Cer- tain it is, that from Yreka to San Diego the whole population is in motion. Accounts state that police- men are employed at the shipping offices to keep off the crowd, and to prevent them from squeezing each other to death in their mad anxiety for tickets. The new gold- lields were inaugurated by a tragedy. • Charles Adams,' we quote from a San Fi'anciseo correspondent, ' said to have been the first white man ■who mined on Frazer Kiver, was sliot dead by his partner, a Mr. Macdonald.who.according to report, stopped him M'ith a bullet while run- ning off with tho gold-dust which they had dug in common. When we hinted above tl: ' as possible that the Frazer lvi» 'ncs would not improbably be disj^.^t-ed by some newer gold field, we were not alto- gether speaking at random. As yet no perfectly reliable information has been received as to the extent of the gold fields. It is, however, an important point, and one which will materially affect the position of tho colony as a permanent field for the investment of capital or for attract- ing emigration. It is stated that gold has been discovered at a dis- tance inland from the Frazer Biver, and judging from Californian and Australian precedent, it would seem natural to suppose that as the rivers bear gold, the hills from which they rise are gold-bearing too. A con- firmation of this surmise is found in the fact that the gold found low down on the Frazer is very fine — 80 fine indeed that blankets are put by the miners into their rockers, in order to prevent the gold-dust from falling through. It has been always observed that the nearer you ap- proach to the gold fields and moun- tain diggings, the larger become the nuggets that are discoverc-d. This, of course, is tho result of the difl'er- enco in weight. The larger par- ticles of gold carried down by the streams from tho mountains are naturally first deposited. The In- dians, who have found their gold not in the rivers but in tho moun- tains, have picked up largo nuggets. Old miners declare, too, that they believe the ' placers' and ravines in the mountains will be found incom- parably richer than any in Califor- nia, beea\ise, as they suppose, the Frazer's lliver gold-fields are only a continuation of the auriferous tract of California; and in California itself the diggings increase in rich- ness in proportion as they lie farther north. Tlie British Columbian mines, on account of the fresliets which descend early and with great violence, and of the ice which is borne down by the impetuous cur- rent, can never be worked more than half tho year, po that it is most important that the prosperity of the colony should not depend only upon the gold-fields of the Frazer and the Thompson. The price of the necessaries of life at the dicgings exceeds all be- lief. Tlie Times correspondent, writing on the 14th of June, gives among other items, — fiour $100 per barrel (worth in San Francisco eleven or twelve), pork $1 ])er lb., tea from one to four dollars per lb., and so on in proportion. There were no fresh provisions. Salt salmon and black flour were the staple articles of food. But the mining tools were the moat exorbi- tant of all ; rocker irons costing from $15 to $30 each, which would not be worth a couple of shillings in England. At Hill's Bar they would fetch £6. One of the Californian papers makes the quaint announce- ment that there had just before been a 'revival in religion,' but adds that the gold discoveries had knocked it cold. The inmiigration as yet has been mostly from California, but as cheap passages are offered by way of ^'ew York and Panama, Europeans will no doubt be attracted in great num- bers. The Australian mines will also send a large proportion, not "r t i f 1858.] Fichirc of a Mining Town, 499 only on account of tbo excitable and roving dispoaition wu have alluded to above, which leada a miner always to prefer, in mining phrase, work on his own hook, to associating himself with others, but because of the a(!arcity of water, which renders gold-hunting a matter of the greatest dillioulty. This want can never be felt in British Colum- bia; indeed the great draw back to the complete success of the mines will be the too great quantity of wator, as soon as the river begins to swell. The system on which the Crown lands are sold in Australia renders it a matter of considerable difliculty for an emigrant of the poorer class to acquire land. This is a subject into which we do not propose to enter here, but it is one which nevertheless will have some weight in determining emigrants thence to try their luck in the Frazer di8tri(!t instead. The system in Vancouver is nearly as bad as that in Australia. But such strong representations have been made to Government, that no doubt it will be amended in Columbia. From the first moment the ex- citementwas great astowhichis to be the great cityof the West. San Fran- cisco has till the present time had no possible rival. It seems even now presumptuous to think that little Es- quimnll* can compete witli the city of the golden gate. But if the gold yield holds out, and the rusli of people continues, especially when the island of Vancouver is no longer in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, the geographical and physical advantages of Esquimalt will have fair play, and she may well be looked upon as in every respect equal, if not superior, in natural advantages to San Francisco. It is, however, unlikely that she will, at any rate for many years, attain to the same position as her rival. As we have already pointed out, any prosperity which may accrue to one will inevitably react favourably on the other. The chances are, there- fore, that though Esquimalt may rapidly increase, the relative posi- tions of the two will not bo reversed, or oven very materially altered. If indeed the anticipation in which we indulged in a former numberf should be realized, and a railroad through British territory should be comjileted, Esfjuimalt must necessarily receive an impetus that she could not get in any other way. At the present time Victoria looks, say all accounts, like a regular mining town. This, to one accus- tomed to such scenes, suggests an unwonted bustle and stir. Groups of men with rough beards and hair swagger and stagger about. The prevailing costume consists of a red or blue llannel shirt, and a pair of trousers stuck inside Wellington boots. No one goes unarmed. An axe, a bowie-knife, a rille, and a pair of ' Colt's' stuck ostentatiously into a rough leather belt, are the necessa- ries ot life, tobacco and strong drinks its luxuries. Kough songs from rougher throats fill the air, at least 80 much of it as is not filled with oaihs ; quarrelling goes on in every language under heaven. The shops display spades, picks, shovels, pans, blankets, and rockers, all ticketed * for the mines.' There aie more drinking saloons and bowling alleys than dwelling houses : the former are built of rough lumber, most of the latter are simple tents. There is a great disproportion in the number of men to women. Placards and newspaper bulletins are outside nearly every house with the latest news from the mines. Everything about speaks of gold- hunting ; the talk is of ' bits' and chunks, big strikes, and rich claims : everything indicates that the yellow fever is at its height. In this description we are simply recalling the general aspect of a mining town, Yictoria, before the influx, was a little place of, we be- lieve, some one hundred inhabitants. It has now increased to a population of some seven or eight thousand. These of course are constantly fluctuating, and live chiefly under canvas. Our readers alrer^dy know our * Victoria is now the settlement ; but, for reasons given hereafter, Esquimalt must bo the town site. The word is pronounced witli an accent on the penultimate syllable. + See Fraser'a Mu(jazinc for July, 1857. 600 British Columhia and Vancouver'' s Island. [October, opinion of the Hudison's Bay Com- pany and of their novernmt'nt. Wo do not intend here to enter upon tlie subject. It is, however, due to Governor Douglas to nay, that by all accounts, and we have seen a great number, his firm, vet mild and conciliatory policy has been eminently successful in keepinf; in some sort of order a population which in all probability could have been restrained by no other means. Police have been appointed both in Victoria and at the mines. This was the more necessary, ns there was every danger of disputes be- tween the Americans and the Indians. The former, who in 1849 were accustomed to shoot any Indian who dared to show his faco in a mine, were here, owing to the smallncsa of their numbers, obliged to submit without retaliation to in- sults which made their mustachios curl with rage. This, to men accus- tomed to regard ' Injuns* as vermin to bo exterminated, must have been very galling. Although no one now doubts tho existence of immense quantities of gold in the Frazer and Thompson districts, yet all were not equallj' fortunate in their search i'or it. Towards the end of July the m ater became too high for successful mining. The miners remained in idleness on the banks, waiting for the freshet to go down sufficiently to allow them to resume their labour. ]\Ieanwhile provisions began to run short. Hemmed in by per- pendicular walls of rock, unable to spread themselves over the country for fear of the Indians, with provi- sions at starvation prices, and money rapidly diminishing, what wonder if many returned to California disap- pointed, and what wonder, too, if many never returned. Starvation and disease came down and took their toll of the gold hunters. The evil, bad as it was, would have been aggravated, if it had not been for the promptness and energy of Governor Douglas, who sent up stores of food, and sold it at prices necessarily enhanced by the diffi- culty of conveyance, but yet not entirely unattainable by the crowd, who must otherwise have perished by starvation. That horrible fate actually bcfel a considerable num- ber of persons who ventured in- cautiously to penetrate into tho interior in search of tho hill dig- gings, which tho miners all expei-t eventually to find. There are as yet no means of transport, and though the country is rich in gold, gold will not feed a starving man. To force a way over ravines and through forests, to carry provisions, arms, blankets, and tools, is no easy matter ; and even when the adventurer has arrived at tho far oH' El Dorado, he must hasten back ere liis stock of food bo exhausted, or die unhelped and unseen. Game is not plentiful. Bears and elks are found, out tho supply can- not be depended upon ; and a party who shoidd trust to their rilles for provision would be likely to fare badly. The bears are de- scribed by those who have tried them as cpiite uneatable, or rather palatable onlj' to men whom star- vation has compelled to put dainti- ness aside. The writer of this article, however, gratefully remembers an occasion when bear's meat ap- peared to him delicious. The party to which ho belonged were not in the Frazer Eiver countiy, but far to the east of the llocky Mountains. Their tlour had been injui'ed by the upsetting of their canoe, and they had been on short allowance of rusty pork for some time, so that the judgment of the iiarty may very probably have been i)ias8ed when they decided nem. con. that bear meat was very like lamb, only a great deal better. It is pos- sible too that the animal tliey devoured with such appreciatory appetites was of a different species from the unsavoury bear of New Columbia. It is only fair to give to Mr. Douglas all the praise which his energy and talent have so well deserved. The points in which ho has failed are just those for which the system which he administers, and not himself, is responsible. The impracticable and illegal claim to the exclusive right of trade w as gracefully withdrawn as soon as it was clearly shown to be impossible to enforce it. This and Mr. Douglas's ^^ '-■WT! Jf^lt. 185S.] The JJotindari/ between liritUU and American Territory. 501 subsequent conduct with regard to the detiuatch of provisions, sbowa him to 1)0 n man of discretion and ability. Turning from Mio ^old digyinj(s, M'hoHO attrnetion at the present mo- ment hurt made ms dovoto to them BO considerable a quantity of our limited space, we must give a rapid sketch of tho coa.st and of tho adjacent island of Vancouver. The gold-bearing district, ho much of it at least as has yet been discovered, lies between the two inland mountain rani;es ; but to the west, where tho Cascades slopo down to the shores of tho Gulf of Georjjia, the country is full of a commodity sciirccly less valuablt! — namely, coal. Tho coal formation extends, with some inter- vals, all up the western (^oust, as far as Fort Smipson, in lat. 54° or r^-^. Extensive coal Holds are also found on tho island of Vancouver, oppo- site to the mainland, from which it is Rej)arated only by the Gulf of Georgia. Victoria is situated at the south end of the island, a little to the south of lat. 49°, and is pre- vented by its insular position alone from belonging, according to tho boundary of 1846, to tho Washing- ton territory. The shores of the mainland present to the waters of the gulf a long and precipitous sea wall of broken cliffs, and the chan- nel between it and the island is reported to be dilllcult navigation, and indeed to be entirely unsafe for any vessel unprovided with a pilot. Entering the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca from the ocean, there is plain sailing as far as Esquimalt harbour ; indeed by hugging tho southern shore of Vancouver, 'keeping the land on board,' as sailors call it, the most clumsy navigator would blun- der straight into that harbour. Be- yond that point the tide, which runs with the rapidity of a sluice down Queen Charlotte's Sound, en- counters so many islands, first among the Broughton Ai'chipelago, and afterwards toward the south of the Gulf of Georgia, and is so often and suddenly forced through nar- row and rocky passages, that it renders upward navigation a matter of serious ditficulty. The western shore of the island is hi dented with many apparently fine harbours, but they will all ultimately bo foiuid useless, some on account of the great depth of water, which would render it impossible to anchor with- out actually running on shore, and some on account of tl\e diflicultv of entering them. The island itself *s densely wooded, but so far as it has been explored, presents to view no- thing but a succession of abrupt hills and very narrow valleys. A friend of ours being asked what he saw in the interior, said • a range of rocks.' What Mas tiieu beyond that? 'Another range of rocks.' And beyond that ? ' Another range of rocks.' ]\Iany gentlemen in-ac- tically acquainted with the suujoct expect that these rocks will ulti- mately be found largely auriferous. riio boundary line between British possessions and American territory was iixed by +'10 treaty of 1846. It was to run w<" t along the 49th parallel of latitude, until it touched the Gulf of Georgia, and thence southward alon;^' the centre of tho ship channel, and westward along the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca to the sea. We invite the earnest attention of our readers to this point. There are two readings ot this treaty. Tho letter of the treaty declares that tho boundary shall run south down tho centre of the ship channel, after touching the Gulf of Georgia ; but the shore, as a glance at the map will show, at the point where the 49th parallel runs into the gulf, forms a bay. The Americans contend that this is a separate bay, and not the Gulf of Georgia, and that the southing of the boundary must therefore com- mence at Point lloberts, some miles further to the west than the spot whence, as tho British contend, it ought to start. A little to the south- east of Cape Roberts there is an island. Jf the line runs south from Cape Roberts, the ship channel allu- ded to in the treaty is to the west- ward of that island, to the westward consequently of the Islands of St. Juan and Lopez, and the line passes between a precipitous rock and Esquimalt harbour, within half a mile of the main island of Vancou- ver. If, on the other baud, the line 502 British Columbia and Yancoiiver's Island . [October, runs south from the point wliere the 49th parallel really touches the gulf, it passes to the eastward of the islands, and near the American shore. This may appear a small matter, but when it is remembered that the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca will at no distant time be the Gib- raltar of the Pacific, and that who- ever holds the rock oppf.>;ite Esqui- malt harbour holds the key to the straits, and can dictate terms to all passers up the channel, it will easily be seen that it is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of this apparently trifling difficulty. The only possible object for which the Americans can wish to possess the island in question is for the purpose of erecting a fortification there, and overawing our trade. If the Com- missioners, who are now on the spot and engaged in surveying the line, do not decide this point in our favour, we had better make a pre- sent of Vancouver's Island to the Americans, and usk them to give us ■what they please for British Colum- bia, which will be just nothing, for they can take it for nothing, or rather it will naturally fall into their hands, and it will be worth nothing to us. But if Vancouver's Island goes, adieu to our trade supremacy, our easy access to China, India, Austra- lia, our railroads connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, the gigantic future which otherwise awaits Brit- ish North America. Suez will bo lost some day. It is a broken reed to lean upon. And then, if the Straits of St. Juan de Fuca are ours, we shall substitute easily an invulnerable approach to the East for the one that has been lost. If that too has gone, we shall have nothing to do but to sit down and wait for Macaiday's New Zealander to come and look at our ruius, and meanwhile to curse the folly and incapacity of the treaty -maker. Aoout nine years ago the govern- ment of the island was handed over to the Hudson's Bay Company, on the condition that they should form a settlement there. It was, how- ever, no part of the policy of the Company to form such a settlement as that contemplated by the charter. Indeed their acts have sufficiently shown that it was quite the reverse. They monopolized all the best land, and so far from inviting coloniza- tion, they religiously kept a secret which would have saved them all trouble of inviting emigrants, for the emigrants would come of them- selves. They knew of the existence of gold for years, but they never alluded to its existence. Mr. La- boucherc, in the most unaccountable manner, assisted to keep the secret. It appears by the Eeport of the Hudson's Bay Committee of last year, that Mr, James Cooper in his examination stated that gold had been discovered near Fort Colville.* The British public heard this intel- ligence for the first time, and we have endeavoured to describe the excitement which it has caused. But Mr. Labouchere was at that time in possession of a dispatch dated i6tu April, 1856, and received 30th June, 1856, announcing the discovery of gold, which he did not submit to the Committee, although it had been a year in his possession. In January, 1857, he had received dispatches confirming the news from the same official. How, therefore, these two dispatches, which would have thrown so much light on a discovery deeply interesting to the pubhc, and so rigidly concealed by the Hudson's Bay Company, es- caped Mr. Labouchere's recollec- tion, it is impossible to say. A still more startling aimouncement is, that the Hudson's Bay officials have known for ' several years' of the existence of gold over hundreds of miles of country. This announce- ment w^as made in the Times of August 27th, in the following words. The writer is the Times correspon- dent, and dates from San Francisco, July i.i-jth:— I may add tl1.1t I have tlie distinct authority of Governor DouglaH, and of one of the chief factors who has long resided in the interior, for stating pub- licly that for several years back they r 1 * There are two Forts Colville ; the old fort is within the American territories, but the new one, near which the gold was first found, is to the north of the line. It is not marked in moat maps, but it ia on the south shore of Flat Bow Lake. J 1858.] Proper Position of Victoria. 503 r t ^ have had evidences of the existence of gold being found in many places ex- tending over hundreds of miles of the country to which the notice of the world is now attracted, and that both these gentlemen believe this auriferous country to be rich and extensive. A letter had appeared in the Times, signed J. C, not improbably the James Cooper who gave evi- dence to the same effect before the Committee, dated sist May, in which tlie writer, a colonist at Van- couver (the only one, we believe, witlx one exception, whom the Hud- son's Bay Company had attracted there), stated that the company had been aware of the existence of gold for twenty years. This letter must have had just time to go out to Vic- toria when the Times cori'espondent was ' authorized' to write as above. It is difficult to resist the inference that the Hudson's Bay officials, in their anti-colonizing spirit, kept the discovery quiet till it was blown abroad in England, and then made a merit of necessity and told the whole truth. Victoria, as the site for a con- siderable town, would not answer at all. It has no water and no harbour, both indispensable requi- sites. The site on which the town must be built is the point of land which lies between Esquimalt har- bour and Fort Victoria. This promontory is from a mile and a quarter to seventy or eighty yards in width, and possesses good drink- ing water all the year round. This is not the case in Victoria. Indeed, the latter appears to have been se- lected by the Company only with reference to the small trade which they keep up there, and without anticipating the great influx of po- pulation and tonnage which will eventually belong to it. The har- bour of Esquimalt is surrounded on three sides by high rocks, and its shape is so irregular that only a small portion of its full extent can be seen at a, time. It is the more important that, at starting, the proper position for a town and harbour should be at once fixed upon, because from thence to Acapulco, some three thousand miles distant down the Mexican coast, and north as far as Sitka, in Hussian America, no harbour exists with the exception of San Fran- cisco. Many parts of the island are favourable for agriculture, but until a regular survey has been made it is impossible to speak on that point with any precision. The Company, on their arrival, appropriated to themselves tea square miles round Victoria, and sold the coal mines at Nanaimo, some seventy miles to the north, to a Company which is sometimes dis- tinct from the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, and sometimes identical with it, according to the exigencies of the case. It is difficult to arrive at the truth with respect to this partnership. The evidence appears to prove that a select few of the Hudson's Bay Company form the Puget Sound Company. The charter provided that if the colonizing experiment failed they were to be reimbursed ; but they never attempted to settle anybody but themselves ; and then, because the settlement which they prevented did not take place, they demand the repayment of a large sum (it was £87,000 and odd in 1856, and must be much larger now), which they have expended t(pon themselves. Moreover, as the charter provides that the Crown, if it resumes its rights, shall do so • without prejudice to such dispo- sitions as may have been made in the meantime by the said governor and Company," the Puset Sound Company, or the Hudson's Bay Company under an alias, will remain in possession of the valuable mine- rals, and have its expenses paid into the bargain, unless some Par- liamentary Don Quixote will break a lance with this mysterious wind- mill. The coal mines at Js'anaimo have been worked more or less ever since 1853. Mr. Fitzwilliam saw them there, and described them as being close to the sea-shore, which was so precipitous and deepened so rapidly that a vessel of five hundred tons could lay alongside. !Nobody, he says, could credit the extent and value of the fisheries unless they judged from actual observation. Immense quantities of salted salmon are annually sent down to the Com- 504 Bntish Cohimhia and Vanco'nver''s Inland. [October, 185S. pany's stores in the Pacific. Salmon IS quite a staple article of food among the native population, who resisted the ingress of gold miners with pertinacity at first, lest they should deter the fish on which they depended for subsistence from as- cending the rivers to spawn. We have already explained at some length* the necessity w-hich exists for railroad communication through British territory between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Since we wrote, projects have been set on foot, and some are already commenced, for establishinga line of railway from Halifax to Quebec. Another com- pany carries mails, by steamboat and canoe, from Toronto to the Ked liivcr, and they have obtained a charter for prolonging the opei-ations beyond the Kocky Mountains. This will of course be a Avork of time; but it ia not difficult to see that at no distant period the propl' .'cy Avhich we then made will oe fulfilled. Great schemes can only be gradually brought to conclusion. The various companies who have these works in hand are starting from small begin- nings, but slow and steady wins the race. We may mention for the in- formation of any who may intend to go out to the gold-fields, that of the various routes to Vancouver, that by Panama is the quickest. The West India mail packets start for the Isthmus on the 2d and 17th of each month. The length of the voyage is twenty -two days. Trains run across to Panama every day, thence to San Francisco steamers take about fourteen days. Small steamers take the miner up to the Frazer, calling at Victoria for per- mits, &c., and land him at Fort Yule, one hundred and fifty miles up the river, in the midst of the diggings. The second route is that over- land, through Canada and the United States. Railways and steamers run as far as St. Paul's in Minnesota, and thence a distance of 1200 miles across the Kocky Mountains takes you to the diggings. Expeditions are being fitted out in Canada and the States for this route. Waggons pass the llocky Mountains at the Kootanio Pass. The writer re- members a miner in the California fever days, going across alone on foot, and trundling his worldly goods in a wheelbarrow. The third route is, without change of conveyance, round Cape Horn. Beta Mikkon. yee Franers Maguzine, July, 1857, 1 ' (i -i ..>♦. ...