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Las cartas, planchas. tablaaux, ate. pauvant Atre filmAs A das taux da reduction diffArants. Lorsqua la documant ast trop grand pour Atre raproduit an un saui ciichA. ii ast film* A partir da i'angia supAriaur gaucha, da gaucha i droite. at da haut en bas. an pranant la nombra d'imagas nAcessaire. Las diagrammas suivants iilustrant la methods. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 CANADA'S EL DORADO. 171 CANADA'S EL DORADO. BY JULIAN RALPH. n HERE is on this continent a terri- tory of imperial extent whicli is one of the Cana- dian sisterhood of states, and yet of wliich small ac- count has been taken by those who discuss ei- ther the most ad- vantageous rela- tions of trade or that closer inti- macy so often re- ferred to as a pos- sibility in the fu- ture of our coun- try and its north- ern neighbor. Al- though British Columbia is ad- vancing in rank among the prov- inces of the Do- minion by reason of its abundant natural resources, it is not renuirka- ble that we read and hear little concern- ing it. The people in it are few, and the knowledge of it is even less in proportion. It is but partially explored, and for what can be learned of it one must catch up information piecemeal from blue-books, the pamphlets of scientists, from tales of adventure, and from the less trustworthy literature composed to attract travellers and settlers. It would severely strain the slender facts to make a sizable pamphlet of the history of British Columbia. A wander- ing and imaginative Greek called Juan de Fuca told his people that he had dis- covered a passage from ocean to ocean between this continent and a great island in the Pacific. Sent there to seize and fortify it, he disappeared— at least from history. This was about 1592. In 1778 Captain Cook roughly surveyed the coast, and in 1792 Captain Vancouver, who as a boy had b an with Cook on two voyages, examined the sound between the island and the mainland with great care, hoi)ing to find that it led to the main watei- sys- tem of the interior. He gave to the strait at the entrance the nickname of the Greek, and in the following year received the transfer of authority over the country from the Spanish commissioner Bodega of Quadra, then established there. The two put aside false modesty, and named the great island "the Island of Vancouver and Quadra." At the time the English sailor was there it chanced that he met that liardy old homespun baronet Sir Alexander Mackenzie, whr) was the first man to cross the continent, making the astonishing .iourney in a canoe manned \)\ Iroquois Indians. The mainland be- came known as New Caledonia. It took its present name from the Columbia River, and that, in turn, got its name from the ship Columbia, of Boston. Captain Gray, which entered its mouth in 1792, long after the Spaniards had known the stream and called it the Oregon. The rest is quickly told. The region passed into the hands of the fur -traders. Vancouver Island became a crown colony in 1849, and British Cohmibia followed in 1858.. 172 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. They were united in 1866, and joined tlie Canadian confederation in 1871. Tliree years later the province exceeded both Manitoba and Prince Edward Island in the value of its exports, and also showed an excess of ex^wrts over imports. It has a Lieutenant-Governor and Legislative Assembly, and is represented at Ottawa in accordance with the Canadian system. Its people have been more closely related to ours in business than those of any other province, and they entertain a warm- ly friendly feeling toward "the States." In the larger cities the Fourth of July is informally but generally observed as a holiday. British Columbia is of immdnse size. It is as extensive as the combination of New England, the Middle States and Ma- ryland, the Virginias, the Carolinas, and Georgia, leaving Delaware out. It is larger than Texas, Colorado, Massachu- setts, and New Hampshire joined to- gether. Yet it has been all but over- looked by man, and may be said to be an empire with only one wagon road, and that is but a blind artery halting in the middle of the country'. But whoever follows this necessarily incomplete sur- vey of what man has found that region to be, and of what his yet puny hands have drawn from it, will dismiss the popular ana natural suspicion that it is a wilderness worthy of its present fate. Until the whole globe is banded with steel rails and yields to the plough, wo will continue to regard whatever region lies beyond our doors as waste-land, and to fancy that every line of latitude 1ms its own unvarying climatic characteristics. There is an opulent civilization in what we once were taught was " the Great Ameri- can Desert," and far up at Edmonton, on the Peace River, farming flourishes de- spite the fact that it is where our school- books located a zone of perpetual snow. Farther along we shall study a country crossed by the same parallels of latitude that dissect inhospitable Labrador, and we shall discover that as great a difference exists between the two shores of the con- tinent on that zone as that which distin- guishes California from Massachusetts. Upon the coast of this neglected corner of the world we shall see that a climate like that of England is produced, as England's is, by a warm current in the sea; in the southern half of the interior we shall dis- cover valleys as inviting as those in our New England; and far north, at Port Simpson, ju.st below the down-reaching claw of our Alaska, we .shall find such a climate as Halifax enjoys. British Columbia has a length of eight hundred miles, and averages four hundred miles in width. To whoever crosses the country it seems the scene of a vast earth- disturbance, over which miuntains are scattered without system. In fact, how- ever, the Cordillera belt is there divided into four ranges, the Rockies forming the eastern boundary, then the Gold Range, then the Coast Range, and, last of all, that partially submerged chain whose upraised parts form Vancouver and the other mountainous islands near the mainland in the Pacific. A vast valley flanks the southwestern side of the Rocky Moun- tains, accompanyingthem from where they leave our Northwestern States in a wide straight furrow for a distance of seven hundred miles. Such great rivers as the Columbia, the Fraser, the Parsnip, the Kootenay, and the Finlay are encountered in it. While it has a lesser agricultural value than other valleys in the province, its mineral possibilitJes are considered to be very great, and when, as must be the case, it is made the route of communica- tion between one end of the territo y and the other, a vast timber supply will be rendered marketable. The Gold Range, next to the westward, is not bald, like the Rockies, but, except- ing the higher peaks, is timbered with a dense forest growth. Those busiest of all British Columbian explorers, the "pros- pectors, " have found much of this system too difficult even for their pertinacity. But the character of the region is well understood. Here are high plateaus ot rolling country, and in the mountains are glaciers and snow fields. Between this system and the Coast Range is what is called the Interior Plateau, averaging one hundred miles in width, and follow- ing the trend of that portion of the conti- nent, with an elevation that grows less as the north is approached. This plateau is crossed and followed by valleys tliat take every direction, and these are the seats of rivers and watei'courses. In the southern part of this plateau is the best grazing land in the province, and much line agricultural country, while in the north, where tlie climate is more moist, the timber increases, and parts of the land are thought to be convertible into CANADA'S EL DORADO. 178 farms. Next comes the Coast Range, whose western slopes are enriched by the milder climate of the coast; and beyond lies the remarkably tattered shore of the Pacific, lapped by a sheltered sea, ver- dant, indented by numberlessinlets.which, in turn, ai-e faced by uncounted islands, and receive the discharge of almost as many streams and rivers — a wondrously beautiful region, forested by giant trees, and resorted to by numbei's of fish ex- ceeding calculation and belief. Beyond the coast is the bold chain of mountains of which Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands are parts. Hei*e is a vast treasure in that coal which our naval experts have found to be tlie best on the Pacific coast, and here also are traces of metals, whose value industry has not yet established. It is a question whether this vast terri- tory has yet 100,000 white inhabitants. Of Indians it has but 20,000, and of Chi- nese about 8000. It is a vast land of si- lence, a huge tract slowly changing from the field and pleasure-ground of the fur- trader and sportsman to the quarry of the miner. The Canadian Pacific Rail- way crosses it, revealing to the immigrant and the globe-trotter an unceasing pano- rama of grand, wild, and beautiful scenery unequalled on this continent. During a few hours the traveller sees, across the majestic canon of the Fraser, the neglect- ed remains of e old Cariboo stage road, built under pi-essure of he gold craze. It demonstrated surprising energy in the ^"■-W..,,.... AN IMPRESSION OF THE SHU8WAP LAKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA. baby colony, for it connected Yale, at the head of short steam navigation on the Fraser, with Barkerville. in the distant Cariboo country, 400 miles away, and it cost half a million dollars. The traveller sees here and there an Indian village or a "mission," and now and then a tiny town ; but for the nu>st part his eye scans only the jirimeval forest, lofty moun- tains, valleys covered with trees as bea.sts are with fur, cascades, turbulent streams, and huge sheltered lakes. Except at the stations, he sees few men. Now he notes a group of Chinamen at work on the rail- way ; anon he sees an Indian upon a clumsy porch and searching the Fraser for salnum, or in a canoe paddling tow- ard the gorgeous sunset that confronts the daily west-bound train as it rolls by great Shuswap Lake. But were the same traveller out of the train, and gifted with the power to make himself ubiquitous, he would stili be, for the most part, lonely. Down in the smil- ing bunch-grass valleys in the south he would see here and there the outfit of a farmer or the herds of a cattle-man. A 163484 174 HARPERS NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. burst of noise would astonish him near by, in the Kootenay country, wliere the new silver mines are being worked, wliere claims have been taken up by tlie tliou- sand, and whither a railroad is hastening. Here and there, at points out of sight one from another, he would hear the crash of a lumberman's axe, the repoi't of a hunter's rifle, or the crackle of an Indian's fire. On the Fraser he would find a little town called Yale, and on the coast tiie streets and ambitious buildings and busy wharves of Vancouver would astonish him. Vic- toria, across the strait, a town of larger size and remarkable beauty, would give him company, and near Vancouver and Victoria the little cities of New West- minster and Nanaimo (lumber and coai ports respectively) would rise before him. There, close together, he would see more than half the population of the province. Fancy his isolation as he looked around him in the nortiiern half of the territory, where a few trails lead to fewer posts of the Hudson Bay Company, where the end- less forests and multitudinous lakes and streams are cut by but infrequent paddles in the hands of a race that has lost one- third its numerical strength in the last ten years, where the only true homes are within the palisades or the unguarded log cabin of the fur-trading agents, and where the only other white men are either wasli- ing sand in the river bars, driving the stages of the only line that penetrates a piece of the country, or are those queer devil-may-care but companionable Davy Crocketts of the day who are guides now and then, hunters half the time, placer- miners when they please, and whatever else there is a call for betweentimes! A very strange sight that my supposi- titious traveller would pause long to look at would be the herds of wild horses tliat defy the Queen, her laws, and her subjects in the Lillooet Valley. There are tliou- sands of them there, and over in tlie Nicola and Chilcotin country, on either side of the Fraser, north of Washington State. They were originally of good stock, but now they not only defy capture, but eat valuable grass, and spoil every horse turn- ed out to graze. The newspapers aver that the government must soon be called upon to devise means for ridding the val- leys of this nuisance. This is one of those sections which promise well for future stock-raising and agricultural operations. There are plenty such. The Nicola Val- ley lias been settled twenty years, and there are many cattle there, on numerous ranches. It is good land, but rather high for grain, and needs irrigation. The snow- fall varies greatly in all these valleys, but in ordinary winters hoi'ses and cattle man- age well with four to si.\ weeks' feeding. On the upper Kootenay, a valley eiglit to ten miles wide, ranching began a quarter of a century ago, during the gold excite ment. The "cow-men" raise grain for themselves there. This valley is 3000 feet high. The Okanagon Valley is lower, and is only from two to five miles wide, but both are of similar character, of very great length, and are crossed and inter- sected by brancli valleys. The greater part of the Okaimgon does not need irri- gating. A beautiful country is the Kettle River region, along the boundary between the Columbia and the Okanagon. It is narrow, but ilat and smooth on the bottom, and the land is very fine. Bunch-grass covers the hills around it for a distance of from 400 to 500 feet, and there timber be- gins. It is only in occasional years that the Kettle River Valley needs water. In the Spallumcheen Valley one farmer had 500 acres in grain last summer, and the most modern agricultural nnchinery is in u.se there. These are mere notes of a few among almost innumerable valleys that are clothed with bunch-grass, and that often pos.sess the characteristics of beautiful parks. In many, wheat can be and is raised, possibly in most of them. I have notes of the successful growth of peaches, and of the growth of almond- trees to a height of foui-teen feet in four years, both in the Okanagon country. The shooting in these valleys is most alluring to those who are fond of the sport. Caribou, deer, bear, prairie-cliick- en, and partridges abound in them. In all probability tiiere is no similar extent of country that equals the valley of the Columbia, from which, in the winter of 1888, between six and eight tons of deer- skins were slii))ped by local traders, the result of legitimate hunting. But the for- ests and mountains are as they were when the white man lirst saw them, and though the beaver and sea-otter, the marten, and tho.se foxes whose furs are coveted by the rich, are not as abundant as they once were, the rest of the game is most plenti- ful. On the Rockies and on the Coast Range the mountain-goat, most dillicult of beasts to hunt, and still harder to get, I CANADA'S EL DORADO. 176 rears, and numerous ilher high The snow- alleys, but attleman- s' fecdinj,'. ■y eight to a quarter alil excite grain for is 3000 feet lower, and ; wide, but 1-, of very and inter- he greater : need irri- 1 the Kettle ry between ?on. It is the bottom, lunch-grass .distance of timber be- years that water. In farmer had ler, and the Tcliinery is J notes of a ble valleys i-grass, and cteristics of heat can be of them. I growth of of almond- feet ill four country. eys is most Olid of the airie-chick- them. In iiilar extent ;illey of the winter of ons of deer- traders, the But the for- were when and though marten, and coveted by as they once most plenti- u the Coast lost uitKcult irder to get. is abundant yet. The "big-horn," or mountain-sheep, is not so common, but the hunting thereof is usually successful if good guides are obtained. The cougar, the grizzly, and the lynx are all plentiful, and black and brown bears are very numerous. Elk are going the way of the " big horn " — are preceding that creature, in fact. Pheasants (iniported), grouse, quail, and water-fowl are among the feathered game, and the river and lake llshiiig is such as is not approached in any other part of the Dominion. The province is a sports- man's Eden, but the hunting of bi l\ at. he vast silent )urneys upon , gun in hand, ' game, the in- ians are met )rovince seems isonisthatthe i-e ever on tlie led food at all natives of the or prosperous uund them, and asles,vice, and Uiem terribly, feature of the rs in the prov- le railroad they iser, each grave apparently having a shed built over it, and a cross rising from the earth l)e- neath the shed. They hud various burial customs, hut a majority buried their dead in tliis way, with queerly carved or paint- ed sticks above them, where the cross now testifies to the work at tlie "missions." Some Indians marked a man's burial- place with his canoe und his gun; some still box their dead and leave the boxes on top of the earth, while others bury the boxes. Among the southerji tribes a man's horse was often killed, and its skin decked the man's grave; while in the far north it was the custom among the Stickeens to slaughter the personal attendants of a chief when he died. The Indians along the Skeena River cre- mated their dead, and sometimes hung the ashes in boxes to the family totem pole. The Hydahs, the fierce natives of certain of the islands, liave given up cremation, but they used to believe that if they did not burn a man's body their enemies would make charms from it. Polygamy flourished on the coast, and monogamy in the interior, 'but the contrast was due to the difference in the worldly wealth of the Indians. Wives had to be bought and fed, and the woodsmen could only af- ford one apiece. To return to their canoes, wliich most J' distinguish them. When a dugout is A hollowed and steamed, a prow and stei-n I are added of separate wootl. The prow is J always a work of art, and greatly beauti- I lies the boat. It is in form like the breast, >■ neck, and bill of a bird, but the head is intended to represent that of a savage animal, and is so painted. A mouth is cut into it, ears are carved on it, and eyes are painted on the sides; bands of gay l)aint are put upon the neck, and the IVilole exterior of the boat is then painted red or black, with an ornamental line of another color along the edge or gunwale. The sailors sit upon the bottom of the boat, and propel it with paddles. Upon the water these swift vessels, with their Ji lierce heads uplifted before their long 9| slender bodies, appear like great serpents ■% or nondescript marine monsters, yet they ^ are pretty and graceful withal. While 1 still holding aloof from the ethnologists' I contention, I yet may add that a book- S seller in Victoria came into the possession ;, of a packet of photographs taken by an 4. amateur traveller in the interior of China, and on my first \'isit to the province, near- ■1 ly four years ago, I found, in looking^ through these views, seven.l Chinese boats which were Nlrung(!ly and remarkably like the dugouts of tlu^ provincial Indians. They went too small in the |>ictures for it to bo iK)ssil)h( to decide whetlier tliey were built up or dug out, but in general they were of the same external appearance, and each one bore the upraised animal-head prow, shaped r.nd painted like those I could see one bl(K k away from the hooic- seller's shop in Victoria. But such are not the canoes used by the Indians of the interior. From the Kootenay near our border to the Cassiar in the far north, a cigar-shaped canoe seems to be the gen- eral native vehicle. These are sometimes made of a sort of scroll of bark, and some- times they are dugouts made of cotton - wood logs. They are narrower than either the cedar dugouts of the coast or the birch-bark canoes of our Indians, but they are roomy, and fit for the most dan- gerous and deft work in threading the rap- ids which every whei'e cut up the naviga- tion of the sti'eams of the province into separated reaches. The Rev.Dr.Gordon, in his notes upon a journey in this prov- ince, likens these canoes to horse-troughs, but those I saw in the Kootenay country were of the shape of those cigars that are pointed at both ends. Whether these canoes are like any in Tartary or China or Japan, I do not know. My only quest for special information of that character proved disappointing. One man in a city of British Columbia is said to have studied such matters more deeply and to more purpose than all the others, but those who referred me to him cau- tioned me that he was eccentric. "You don't know where these Iiulians came fi-om, eh?" the savant replied to my first question. "Do you know liow oys- ter-shells got on top of the Rocky Moun- tains? You don't, eh? Well, I know a woman who went to a dentist's yesterday to have eighteen teeth pulled. Do you know why women prefer artificial teeth to those which God has given them? You don't, eh ? Why, man, you don't know anything." While we were — or iie was — convers- ing, a laboring-man who carried a sickle came to the o^jen door, and was asked what he wanted. "I wish to cut your thistles, sir," said he. "Thistles?" said the savant, disturbed Ill 178 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. at the interruption. the thistloH! We are tulkinf^ ahout IndiaiiH. ' Nevertlniloss, wlieii the laborer had gone, he luul left the subject of thistles uppermost in the aavant'H mind, and the conversation took so erratic a turn that it mipht well have been introduced haphaz ard into Tristruui Shandi/. "About thistles." said tiui surunt, lay- ing a gentle hand upon my knee. "Do you know that they are the Scotchmen's totems? Many years ago a Scotclnnan, sundered from liis native land, must needs set up his totem, a thistle, here in this country; and now. sir, the thistle is such a curse that I am haled up twice a year and fined for having them in mv yard." But nearly enougli has been here said of the native population. Though (he Indians boast dcizens of tribal monies, and almost every island on the coasit and vil- lage in the interior seems tlie home of a separate tribe, they will be found much alike — dirty, greasy, sore-ej'fd. short- legged, and with their unkempt hair cut sqnai'ely off, as if a pot had been upturned over it to guide the operation. The Brit- ish Columbians do not bother about their tribal divisions, but use the old traders' Chinook terms, and call evei-y male a "siwash" and every woman a " klootch- man." Since the highest Canadian authority upon the subject predicts iliat the north- ern half of the Cordilleran ranges will admit of as high a metalliferous develop- ment as that of the southern half in our Pacific States, it is important to review wliat has been done in mining, and what is thought of the future of that industry in the province. It ma\' almost be said that the history of gold-mining there is the history of British Columbia. Victo- ria, the capital, was a Hudson Bay post established in 1843. and Vancouver, Queen Charlotte's, and the other islands, as well as the mainland, were of interest to only a few white men as parts of a great fur-trading field with a small Indian population. The first nugget of gold was found at what is now called Gold Harbor, on the we.st coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands, by an Indian woman, in 1851. A part of it, weighing four or five ounces, was taken by the Indians to Fort Simp- son and sold. The Hudson Bay Compa- ny, which has done a little in every line of business in its day, sent a brigantine to tlie spot, and found a quartz vein tracea- ble eighty feet, and yielding a high per- centage of gold. Blasting was begun, and the vessel was loaded with ore; but she was lost on the return voyage. An American vessel, ashore at Kscpiimault, near Vii^toria, was j)nrchased, renamed the liecurcrif, and sent to (told Hari)or with thirty miners, wiio worked the vein until the ves.sel was loaded and sent to England. News of the mine travelled, and in another year a small fleet of ves- sels jamo up from San Franc'sco; but the supply was seen to be very limited, and after $2(),()(){) in all had been taken out, the field was abandoned. In 1855 gold was fouiul by a Hudson Bay Comjiany's employe at Fort Colville, now in Washington State, near the boun- dary. Some Tlxmip.son River (B. C.) Ind- ians who went to Walla Walla spread a report there that gold, like that discov- ered at Colville, was to be found in the valley of the Thompson. A |)artj' of Ca- luidians and half-breeds went to tlie re- gion referred to, and found placers nine miles alxive the mouth of the river. By 1858 the news and the authentication of it stirred the mim-rs of California, and an astonishing invasion of the virgin prov- ince began. It is said that in the spring of 1858 more than 20,000 ])ersons reached Victoria from San Francisco by sea, dis- tending the little fur-trading post of a few hundred inhabitants into what would even now ho called a ccmsidcrable city; a city of canvas, however. Simultaneously a third as many miners made their way to the new province on land. But the land was covered with mountains and dense forests, the only route to its interior for them wiis the violent, almost boiling, Fraser River, and there was nothing on which the lives of this horde of men could be susttiined. B,v the end of tlie year out of nearly 30.000 advcnturei's only a tenth part remained. Those wh» did stay worked the river bars of the lower Fraser until in five montiis they had shipped from Victoria men; than half a million dollars' worth of gold. From a historical point of view it is a peculiar coincidence that in 1859, when the attention of the world was thus first attracted to ih' • , <^vr country, the charter of the Hud •' '!ay Company expired, and the territ'n'.^ •■ a-'H- ed from its control to becon.b like any other crown colony. In 1860 the gold-miners, scekinf^ the I i: r CANADA'S EL DORADO. 179 n tracea- higli per- ,8 bt'guii, or«; but ujje. All i|iiiiiiiuilt, rcusimed (1 Harbor I tbo vt'iii (1 sent to tmvelletl, H«'l of ves- lo; but the iiiited, and Luken out, a Hudson •t Colville, r ibtsboun- iB.OInd- iHii s])rcad bat discov- uiid ill tbe larly of Ca- ; to the re- dacers nine river. By ication of it nia. and an rirgin prov- II the spring oiis reached by sea, dis- lostof a few liat would •able city; a ultaneously le their way But tbe intains and [1 its interior lost boiling, nothing on f nien could of the year rers only a wb» did stay ower Fraser lad sliipped f a million 1 a historical coincidence tion of the to ih' - i ^w Hud •' 'iay irvitoi-y f "f^^s- n.b like any sce\iMi'>- the source of the "flour" gold tbcy found in sucli al)Uii- daiieo in tlie bod of the river, jiursucd th(^' THE FIRST OK THE SALMON RUN, FRASER RIVER. gold is SO generally distributed over the province that scarcely a stream of any importance fails to show at least " colors" of the metal, the principal discoveries clearly indicate that tbe most important mining districts are in the systems of mountains and high plateaus lying to the southwest of the Rocky Mountains and parallel in direction with tliem. Tills mountain system next to and south- west of tbe Rockies is called, for conven- which liave been explored. The deposits already made known are very varied in character, including liiglily argentiferous galenas a»; I other .diver ores and aurifer- ous quartz veins." This same authority asserts that the Gold Range is continued by the Cabinet, Coeur d'xVlene, and Bitter Root mountains in our country. While there is no single well -developed gold field as in California, the extent of terri- tory of .1 character to occasion a hopeful > i ience, the Gold Range, but it comprises search for gold is greater in the province a complex belt " .^f several more or less than in California. The average man of distinct and partly overlapping ranges" — business to whom visitors speak of the the Purcell, Selkirk, and Columbia ranges mining prospects of the province is apt 180 HARPi^R'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. n ( 11 to declare that all that has been lacking is the discovery of one gnind mine and the enlistment of capital (from the United States, they generally say) to work It. Mr. Dawson speaks to the same point, and incidentally accounts for the retarded de velopment in his statement that one note- worthy difference between practically the entire area of the province and that of the Pacific States has been occasioned by the spread and movement of ice over the province during the glacial period. This produced changes in the distribution of surface materials and directions of drain- age, concealed beneath "drifts" the indi- cations to which prospectors farther south are used to trust, and by other means ob- scured the outcrops of veins which would otherwise be well marked. The dense woods, the broken navigation of the riv- ers, in detached reaches, the distance from the coast of the richest districts, and the cost of labor supplies and machinery — all these are additional and weighty reasons for the slowness of development. But this was true of the past and is not of the present, at least so far as southern British Columbia is concerned. Railroads are reaching up into it from our country and down from tiie transcontinental Canadian Railway, and capital, botli Canadian and American, is rapidly swelling an already heavy investment in many new and prom- ising mines. Here it is silver -mining that is achieving importance. Other ores are found in the province. Tiie iron wliich has been located oi' work- ed is principally on the islands — C^ueen Charlotte, Vancouver, Texada, and the Walker group. Most of the ores are mag- netites, and that which alone has been worked — on Texada Island — is of excel- lent quality. The output of copper from the i)rovince is likely soon to become con- siderable. Mas.ses of it have been found from time to time in various parts of the province— in the Vancouver series of isl- ands, on the mainland coast, and in the interior. Its constant and rich associa- tion with silver shows lead to be abundant in the country, but it needs the develop- ment of transport facilities to give it value. Platinum is more likely to attain impor- tance as a product in this than in any other part of North America. On the coast the granites are of such quality and occur ill such abundance as to lead to the belief that their quarrying will one day be an important source of income, and there are marbles, sandstones, and orna- mental stones of which the same may be said. One of the most valuable products of the province is coal, the essential in which our Pacific coast States are the poorest. The white man's attention was first attracted to this coal in 1835 by some Indians who brought lumps of it from Vancouver Island to the Hudson Bay post on the mainland, at Milbank Sound. The Beaver, the first steamship that stirred the waters of the Pacific, reached the province in 1836, and used ct)al that was found in outcroppings on the island beach. Thirteen years later the great trading company brought out a Scotch coal-miner to look into the char- acter and extent of the coal find, and he was followed by other miners and the necessary apparatus for prosecuting the inquiry. In the mean time the present chief source of supply at Nanaimo, sev- enty miles from Victoria and about op- posite Vancouver, was discovered, and in 1852 mining was begun in earnest. From the very outset the chief market for the coal was found to be San Fran- cisco. The original mines are now owned by the Vancouver Coal -mining and Land Company. Near them are the Welling- ton Mines, which began to be worked in 1871. Both have continued in active operation from their foundation, and with a constantly and rapidly growing output. A third source of supply has very recently been established with local and American capital in what is called the Comox District, back of Baynes Sound, farther north than Nanaimo, on the eastern side of Vancouver Island. These new works ai-e called the Union Mines, and, if the predictions of my in- formants prove true, will produce an out- put equal to that of the older Nanaimo collieries combined. In 1884 the coal shipped from Nanaimo amounted to 1000 tons for every day of the year, and in 1889 the total shipment had reached 500,000 tons. As to the characttn* of the coal, I quote again from Mr. Daw.'son's report on the minerals of British Colum- bia, published by the Dominion govern- ment : " Roclle numbers, side by side, lilce logs in a raft, and I have the word of a responsible man for tlie state- ment that he has gotten all the salmon needed for a small camp, day after day, by walking to the edge of a river and jerking tlie fish out with a common poker. Tiiere are about sixteen canneries on the Fraser, six on the Skeena, three on the Nasse, and tliree scattered in other waters — River Inlet and AHm-I Bay. The total canning in 1889 was 414,294 cases, each of 48 one-pound tins. Tlie fish are sold to Europe, Australia, and eastern Canada. Tlie American market takes the Colum- bia River salmon. A round million of dollars is invested in the vessels, nets, trawls, canneries, oil factories, and freez- ing and salting stations used in this iii- dustry in British Columbia, and about 5500 men are employed. "There is no difficulty in catching the fish," says a local historian, "for in some streams they are so crowded that they can readily be picked out of the water by hand." However, gill-nets are found to be preferable, and the fish are caught in these, which are stretched across the streams, and handled by men in fiat-bot- tomed boats. The fii^h are loaded into scows and transported to the canneries, usually frame structures built upon piles close to the shores of the rivers. In the canneries the tins are made, and, as a rule, saw-mills near by produce the wood for the manufacture of the packing-cases. The fish are cleaned, rid of their heads and tails, and then chopped up and load- ed into the tins by Chinamen and Indian women. The tins are then boiled, solder- ed, tested, packed, and shipped away. The industry is rapidly extending, and fresh salmon are now being shipped, frozen, to the markets of eastern Amer- ica and England. My figures for 1889 (obtained from the Victoria Times) are in all likeliliood under the mark for the sea- son of 1890. The coast is made ragged by inlets, and into nearly every one a water- course empties. All tin larger streams are the haven of .salmon in the spawning season, and in time the principal ones will be the bases of canning operations. The Dominion government has found- ed a salmon hatchery on the Fraser, above New Westminster. It is under the supervision of Thomas Mowat, In- spector of Fisheries, and millions of small fry are now annually turned into the great river. Whether the unexampled run of 1889 was in any part due to this process cannot be said, but certainly the salmon are not diminishing in numbers. It was feared that the refuse from the canneries would injure the "runs" of live fish, but it is now believed that there is a profit to be derived from treating the refuse for oil and guano, so that it is more likely to be saved than thrown back into the streams in the near future. The oolachan, or candle-fish, is a valua- ble product of these waters, chiefly of the Fraser and Nasse rivers. They are said to be delicious ^7hen fresh, smoked, or salt- ed, and I have it on the authority of the little pamphlet "British Columbia," handed me by a government official, that "their oil is considered superior to cod- liver oil, or any other fish oil known." It is said that this oil is whitish, and of the consistency of thin lard. It is used as food by the natives, and is an article •i bui • the i in ■ the; stra aiK iiiu- can Ilill; tin. C ful. S(>l pi or priv I CANADA'S ET. DORADO. 188 ley can ater by bund to ,uglit in ross the flat-bot- [led into mneries, f)on piles In tiie nd, as a the wood ng-cases. Bir heads and load- id Indian id, solder- sd away, ding, and shipped, rn Anier- 1 for 1889 aes) are in or the sea- ragged by le a water- er streams I spawning cipal ones )erations. |has found- he Fraser, is under lowat, In- ns of small _ into the nexampled due to this rtainly the numbers, from the runs" of that there reating the that it is irown back Liture. ., is a valua- lietly of the y are said to ced, or salt- .uthority of Columbia," ollicial, that rior to cod- Mi known." itish, and of It is used s an article ■V. THE SALMON CACHK. of barter between the coast Indians and the tribes of the interior. Tliere is so much of it in a candle -fish of ordinary size that when one of them is dried, it will burn like a candle. It is the custom of the natives on the coast to catch the fisli in immense numbers in purse-nets. They then boil them in iron - bottomed bins, straining the product in willow baskets, and running the oil into cedar bo.xes hold- ing tiftoen gallons each. The Nasse River candle-lish are the best. Tliey begin run ning in March, and continue to come by the million for a period of several weeks. Codlish are supposed to be very i)lenti ful, and to frequcl extensive banks at sea, but these si. ;s have not b^^en ex- plored or charted by the government, and 'private enterprise will not attempt the Vol.. i.xxxiv.— No. xm.—\t work. Similar banks off the Alaska coast are already the resorts of California lishermen, who drive a i)rosperoiis trade in salting large catches there. The skil, or black cod, formerly known as the "coal-fish." is a splendid deep Avater jiro- duct. The.se cod weigh from eight to twenty i)ounds. and used to be caught by the Indians with hook and line. Already white men ai-e driving the Indians out by superior methods. Trawls of three hun- dred hooks are used, aiul the fish are found to be ])lentiful. especially off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The fish is described as su))erior to the cod of Newfoundland in l>otli oil and meat. The general market is not yet ac- customed to it, but such a ready sale is found for what are caught that the num- 184 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. f, I ber of vessels engaged in this fishing in- creases year by year. It is evident that tlie catcli of skil will soon be an impor- tant source of revenue to the province. Hen'iiig are said to be plentiful, but no fleet is yet fitted out for them. Halibut are numerous and common. They are often of very great size. Sturgeon are found in the Fraser, whither they chase tlie salmon. One weighing 1400 pounds was exhibited in Victoria a few years ago, and those that weigh more than half as much are not unfrequently captured. The following is a report of tlie yield and value of the fisheries of the province for 1889: Kind of Flih. Qumitlty. Vain*. 1 Salmon in cans lbs. fresh lbs. salted bbls. " smoked lbs. Sturgeon, fresh Halibut, •' Hei'i'liif;, " smoked Oolachaus, " fresh " salted bbls. Trout, fresli Ib.s. Klsli, assorted I Smelts, fresh Koiik cod j SItil. salted bbls.j Fooshqua. fresh Fur seal-skins No. Hiiir •• " Sea-otter skins " Fish oil eals. Oysters s.icks Clams ■• Mussels " Crabs No. Abeiones boxes Isinglass lbs. Estimated fish consumed In province Shrimps, prawns, etc Estimated consumption by Indians- Salmon Halibut Sturgeon and other flsh Fish oils ; Approximate yield . ■ i ao.ias,!^ a, 187,(100 3,749 12,900 81H,t>00 (iO,5,0.50 lilO.OOO as.ooo 88,500 6,700 880 14,025 3Sa.7^ ,52.100 39,250 1,560 268,350 3:J,570 7,000 115 141.420 3,000 3,.500 250 175,000 100 6,000 $2,414,655 m 218.700 00 87,460 00 2..580 00 15.980 00 80.1.52 60 9,500 00 3.300 00 8,250 00 1,340 00 ,1,800 00 1,402 60 16,1.S« 25 3,126 00 1,962 60 18,780 00 13,417 60 835,700 00 6,250 00 ll,.50O 00 70,710 00 5,850 00 6,186 00 500 00 6,260 00 500 00 1,760 00 100,000 00 6.000 00 2,782,800 00 190.000 00 260,000 01) , 75.000 00 I S6,605.467 61 \ When it is considered that this is the showing of one of the newest communi- ties on the continent, numbering only the population of what we would call a small city, suffering for want of capital and nearly all that capital brings with it, there is no longer occasion for surprise at the provincial boast that they possess far •-..ore extensive and richer fishing -fields than any on the Atlantic coast. Time and enterprise will surely test this asser- , tion, but it is already evident that there is a vast revenue to be wrested from those waters. I have not spoken of the sealing, which yielded $236,000 in 1887, and may yet be decided to be exclusively an American and not a British Columbian source of profit. Nor have I touched upon tlie ex- traction of oil from herrings and from dog-fish and whales,all of which are small channels of revenue. I enjoyed the good fortune to talk at length with a civil engineer of high re- pute who has explored the greater pari of southern British Columbia — at least in so far as its main valleys, waterways, trails, and mountain passes are concern- ed. Having learned not to place too high a value upon the printed matter put forth in jn-aise of any new country, I was especially pleased to obtain this man's practical impressions concerning the store and quality and kinds of timber the province contains. He said, not to use his own words, that timber is found all the way back from the coast to the Rockies, but it is in its most plentiful and majestic forms on the west slope of those mountains and on the west slope of the Coast Range. The very largest trees are between the Coast Range and the coast. The country between the Rocky Moun- tains and the Coast Range is dry by com- parison with the parts where the timber thrives best, and, naturally, the forests are inferior. Between the Rockies and the Kootenay River cedar and tamaracks reach six and eight feet in diameter, and attain a height of 200 feet not infre- quently. There are two or three kinds of fir and some pines (though not very many) in this region. There is very lit- tle lea'" wood, and no hard-wood. Maples are found, to be sure, but they are rather more like bushes than trees to the British Columbian mind. As one moves west- ward the same timber prevails, but it grows shorter and smaller until the low coast country is reached. There, as has been said, the giant forests occur again. This coast region is largely a flat coun- try, but there are not many miles of it. To this rule, as here laid down, there are some notable exceptions. One par- ticular tree, called there the bull-pine— it is the pine of Lake Superior and the East — grows to great size all over the prov- ince. It is a common thing to find the trunks of these trees measuring four feet in diameter, or nearly thirteen feet in cir- cumference. It is not especially valu- able for timber, because, it is too sappy. It is short-lived when exposed to the weather, and is therefore not in demand for railroad work; but for the ordinary i i 'I; n source of jpon the ex- s and from ich are small 6 to talk ut of high re- greater pari -at least in , waterways, are concern- o place too nted matter lew country, obtain this concerning nds of timber said, not to iber is found coast to the plentiful and dope of those , slope of the •gest trees are ,nd the coast. Rocky Moun- s dry by corn- ire the timber , the forests Rockies and md tamaracks diameter, and 3et not infre- jv three kinds ough not veiy ere is very lit- wood. Maples they are rather 3 to the British e moves west- »revails, but it • until the low There, as has ,s occur again. ly a flat coun- y miles of it. lid down, there ons. One par- he bull-pine— it or and the East over the prov- ling to lind the suriug four feet i-teen feet in cir- especially valu- it is too sappy, exposed to the not in demand or the ordinary 1 ■J ^p wimm^^fm 186 HARPERS NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. ■.. ' t >! 11 uses to which huiidei-s put timber it an- swers very well. There is a nia]>le which attains {jreat size at the coast, and wliich, wlien dres.sed. closely resembles bird's-eye-mai)le. It is called locally the vine-majjle. The trees are found with a diameter of two and a half to three feet, but the triinl;s seldom rise above forty or i fty feet. The wood is crooked. It runs very badly. This, of course, is what gives it the beautiful {jrain it po.ssesses. and which must, sooner or later, find a ready market for it. There is plenty of hemlock in the province, but it is nothing like .so larjfe as that which is found in the East, and its bark is iu>t so thick. Its size renders it serviceable for nothing larger than railway ties, and the trees grow in sucli inaccessible ])laces, half way up the mountains, that it is for the most part un])rofitable to haiulle it. The red cedars — the wood of which is consumed in the manufacture of ])encils and cigar-boxes — ai-e also small. On the other hand, the white cedar reaches enor- mous .sizes, up to fifteen feet of thickness at the base, very often. It is not at all extraordinary to find these cedars rea<'li- ing 200 feet above thf- ground, and on»* was cut at Port Moody, in dearijig the way for the railroad, that had a length of MIO feet. When fire rages in the pi-ovin- cial forests, the wood of these trees is what is consumed, and usually the trunks. lioUow and empty, stand grimly in their places after the fire would otherwise have been forgotten. These great tubes are often of such dimensions that men put windows and doors in them and \ise them for dwellings. In the valleys ai'e im- mense numbers of poplars of the common and Cottonwood species, white hire;!', alder, willow, and yew trees, but they are not estimated in the forest wealth of the i)rov- ince, because of the ex^iense that murket- ing them would entail. This fact concerning the small timber indicates at once the jn'imitive character of the country, and the vast wealth it i)os- sesses in what might be called heroic tim- ber, that is, sufficiently valuiihl • to force its way to market even from out tlint un- opened wilderne.ss. It was the ojiinion of the engineei- to whom I have referred that timber land which does not attract the second glance of a pi-ospector in Brit- ish Columbia would be considered of the first importance in Maine and New Bruns- wick. To put it in another way, river- side timber land which in those countries would fetch fifty dollars the acre solely for its wood, in Briti.sh Columbia would not be taken up. In time it may be cut, undoubtedly it nuist be, when new rail- roads alter its value, and therefore it is impossible even roughly to estimate the value of the pi-ovincial forests. A great business is carried on in the ship- ment of ninety-foot and onehundred-foot Douglas fir sticks to the great car-building works of our country and Canada. They are used in the massive bottom frames of palace cars. The only limit that has yet been reached in this indusf i-y is not in the size of the logs, but in the ca])acities of the saw-mills, and in the jmssibilities of trans portation 1)y rail, foi- these logs i'e(iuire three cars to support their length. Excej)! for the valleys, the whole vast country is enormously rich in this tind)er, the jiuMin- tains (excepting the Rockies) beingclothed with it from their b.'i.ses to their tops. Vancouver Island is }i heavily and valu- abl\ timbered e|)t that it has the oak-li-ee. and does not jiossess the tamarack. The Vancouvei- Island oaks do not exceed two or two and a half feet in diameter. The Douglas fir (our Oregon ))ine) grows to trenuMidous ))rop()rtions, especially on the north end of the island. In the old offices of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Vancouver are ))anels of this wood that are thirteen feet across, show- ing that they came from a tree whose trunk was forty feet in circumference. Tens of thousands of these (irs are from eight to ten feet in diann'ter at the bottom. Other trees of the province are the great silver lir. ihe wood of which is not very valuable ;Englemann"ssj)ruce, which is very like white spruce, ami is very abun- tlant; balsam-sjiruce, «)ften exceeding two feet in diameter; the yellow or pitch ])ine: white ))inc : yellow cypr«;ss; crab-api)le, (k-- curringasii small tree or shrub; Westei-n birch, common in the Columbia i-egion : ])aper or canoe birch, found sparingly on Vioicouver Island and on the lower Era- ser, but in abun estimate the sts. on in the ship- !-luui(lrfMl-fool itcar-buildinjr S'anada. They torn fraiues of it that has yet •y is not in the v])acities of the liiities of trans ?■ logs require (nprth. Except I'ast counti-y is l)er. thenioun- i)beingclothed to tlieir tops, vily and valu- hears tlie same ept that it lias [)t possess the Island oaks do I alialf feet in ir (our Oreproii IS projiortions, [1 of the island, inadian Pacific panels of this it across, show- I a ti-ee whose circumference. le Mrs are fi'oni rat the bottom, ivincf are the ;)f which is not IS spruce, which lid is very abun- I exceeding two iV «)ri>itch pine; ; crab-apple, oc- dirub; Western dumbia region; lid sparingly on the lower Fra- I of large size in Fraser regions; several minor < which grow in trictsor nil over )1 lowing: hazel, y, wild red cher um, choke-cher- , bearberry, cur- •^^^•^mmm ^m^m tmaam 188 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. rant, and snowberry, mooseberry, bilberry, cranberry, whortleberry, mulberry, ..nd blueberry. I would have liked to write at length concerning the enterprising cities of the province, but, after all, they may be trusted to make themselves known. It is the region behind them which most interests mankind, and the government has begun, none too promptly, a scries of expeditions for exploiting it. As for the cities, the chief among them and the capital, Victoria, has an estimated popu- lation of 22,000. Its business district wears a prosperous, solid, and attractive appearance, and its detached dwellings — all of frame, and of the distinctive type which marks the houses of the California towns — are surrounded by gardens. It has a beautiful but inadequate harbor; yet in a few years it will have spread to Esquimault, now less than two miles dis- tant. This is now the seat of a British admiralty station, and has a splendid ha- ven, whose wii er is of a depth of from six to eight fathoms. At Elsquimault are government offices, churches, schools, hotels, stores, a naval "canteen," and a dry-dock 450 feet long, 26 feet deep, and 65 feet wide at its entrance. The electric street railroad of Victoria was extended to Esquimault in the autumn of 1890. Of the climate of Victoria Lord Lome said, " It is softer and more constant tlian that of the south of England." Vancouver, the principal city of ♦^he mainland, is slightly smaller than Victo- ria, but did not begin to displace the for- est until 1886. After that every house except one was destroyed by fire. To-day it boasts a hotel comparable in most im- portant respects with any in Canada, many noble business buildings of brick or stone, good schools, fine churches, a i*eally great area of streets built up with dwell- ings, and a notable system of wharves, warehouses, etc. The Canadian Pacific Railway terminates here, and so does the line of steamers for China and Japan. The city is picturesquely and healthfully situated on an arm of Burrard Inlet, has gas, water, electric lights, and shows no sign of halting its hitherto rapid growth. Of New Westminster, Nanainio, Yale, and the still smaller towns, there is not oppor- tunity here for more than naming. In the original settlements in that ter- ritory a peculiar institution occasioned gala times for the red men now and then. This was the "potlatch," a thing to us so foreign, even in the impulse of which it is begotten, that we have no word or phrase to give its meaning. It is a feast and merrymaking at the expense of some man who has earned or saved what he deems considerable wealth, and who de- sire:i to distribute every iota of it at once in edibles and drinkables among tli'> peo- ple of his tribe or village. He does this because be aspires to a chieftainship, or merely for the credit of a "potlatch" — a high distinction. Indians have been known to throw away such a sum of money that their "potlatch" has been given in a huge shed built for the feast, that hundreds have been both fed and made drunk, and that blankets and orna- ments have been distributed in addition to the feast. The custom has a new significance now. It is the white man who is to enjoy a greater than all previous potlatches in that region. The treasure has been gar- nered during the ages by time or nature or whatsoever you may call the host, and the province itself is offered as the feast. « jMMCttmnBTSN- AN IDEAL OF THE COAST. really dwell- arves, 'aciflc >es the Tapan. hfully et, lias ws no owtli. e, and oppor- at ter- sioned . then. to us which ord OP i feast some lat he ho de- ,t once "^ peo- 3ft this up, or «h"— ) been um of I been I feast, id and i orna- Idition B now. njoy a ties in sn gar- nature st, and feast.