Chittenden- Travels in British Columbia. SOS Can អ៊ុច *១៨នច= ចំទ័===dLL Ich - AARVARD COLLEGE Can 3108,82 ran o a ( JUL ? 1924) D ALERARY feud BRITISH COLUMBIA MARKET VAN VOLKENBURGH & Co. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL BUTCHERS ALHAMBRA BUILDING, CORNER GOVERNMENT AND YATES STREETS, VICTORIA, B. C. W. & J. WILSON FOR Clothing, Hats, and Furnishing Goods. Their Stock is the Largest and the Best Quality and Value in this Province. Opposite Post Office, Victoria. Established Twenty Years STEAM REFINED SKIDEG ATE OIL! A Superior Lubricant and Excellent Lamp Oil. Put up by the Skidegate Oil Co. Location of Steam Works, Queen Charlotte Islands B. C.. Do This Oil is produced from SHARK LIVERS, and manufactured by the most approved steam appliances. Numerous testimonials of undoubted authority substan- tiate its excellence, and it has only to be more generally known and used, to establish a reputation as one of the best lubricating and Illuminating Oils in the world. Put up in cases, two 5-gal. cans in each case. ADDRESS:--Skidegate Oil Co., Victoria, British Columbia. HENRY SAUNDERS, IMPORTER AND DEALER IN GROCERIES, PROVISIONS, ETC. Johnson Street, Cor. Oriental Alley. VICTORIA, B. C. AGENT FOR WINDSOR CANNING COMPANY SKEENA RIVER. STEAMER SARDONYX AND TUG PILOT. WELCH, RITHET & CO. Merchants and Commission Merchants. Shipping and Insurance Agents Agts. Pacific Coast Steamship Co's Steamers Carrying Her Majesty's Mails between San Francisco and Victoria. Sailing dates from each port : 10th, 20th and 30th of each month. LIC urance Agents for Imperial Fire Insurance Co. Agents for Maritime Marine Insurance Co. Agents for Reliance Marine Insurance Co. A gents for New Zealand Marine Insurance Co. AGENTS FOR MOODYVILLE SAWMILL COMPANY OF BURRARD INLET. Advances made on consignments to our friends in Eng- land, Australia, China and Canadian markets. REPRESENTED BY WELCH & CO., R. D. WELCH & CO., 109 California Street, Tower Chamber, SAN FRANCISCO. LIVERPOOL. PREFACE. ca There is probably no portion of the North Ameri- can Continent, within the confines of government and civilization, concerning which the general public has less definite and reliable information, than British Columbia Hitherto comparatively inaccessible, and only by tedious and expensive modes of travel, it has been known chiefly as the vast wilderness trap- ping, and hunting ground, of the Hudson Bay Company, and gold field of adventurous miners. Since the inauguration of that stupendous undertaking, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and its progress towards the western shores of the Province, people abroad are beginning to inquire what this region contains, to warrant such an enormous outlay for its development. In the following pages we have briefly outlined its resources and capacities for sustain- ing a large and prosperous population, and directed attention to its wonderful attractions for the tourist and health seeker. In the preparation of the same, I am under great obligations to his Honor Lieut.- Gov. Clement F. Cornwall, Hon. Jos. W. Trutch, C. M. G., F. R. G. S., M. Inst. C. E., Dominion Gov- ernm't Agt. for British Columbia, Hon. Allen Francis, American Consul, Mr. William Charles, Chief Fac- tor of the Hudson Bay Company, to the members and officers of the Provincial Government, Mr. Noah Shakespeare, M. P., Mayor of Victoria, Loftus R. McInnes, M. D., Mayor of New Westminster, the British Columbia Board of Trade, through its President, Mr. R. P. Rithet, and Secretary, Mr. E. Crow Baker, M. P., and to Mr. Wm. Wilson, and others to whom I tender sincere thanks. N. H.C. Victoria, B. C., 4th November, 1882. TRAVELS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA BY NEWTON H. CHITTENDEN. INTRODUCTORY. A little over one hundred years ago, that bold mariner, Capt. Cook, cruised among the wonderful islands stretching along the shores of the then unknown, unnamed land of Bri- tish Columbia. Capt. Vancouver of the Royal Navy soon followed in his course, and gave his name to the largest of the islands, and that of New Georgia to the south coast of the mainland. This was in 1792, but for more than forty years following, the numerous and populous Indian tribes inhabiting these shores, were the sole possessors and occupants of this whole region. Adventurous traders had occasionally visited the west coast of Vancouver, but no permanent settlement was made until 1843, when the Hudson Bay Company built a Fort and established a trading post upon the beautiful site of the City of Victoria, followed six years later by the forma- tion of the Vancouver Colony. In 1858, daring prospectors advancing up the coast from California, discovered the rich gold diggings of the Fraser, and so rapid was the influx of population, that another Colony was organized upon the main- land, and the present territory of the Province set apart, and designated British Columbia. In 1866 the two Colonies united, and in 1871, were confederated as one of the seven Provinces comprising the Dominion of Canada. It is a vast region, bodies upon Burrard and Jervis Inlets, Mud Bay, Howe Sound, and the east coast of Vancouver Island. It attaing an enormous growth, and being straight and exceedingly tough and durable is in great demand the world over for ship spars and timbers. Over thirty million feet are manufac- tured into lumber annually, chiefly for exportation to Asiatic, Australian, and South American ports. The pine and spruce of the interior, though much inferior in size and quality to the fir of the coast, is sufficient in both and also in quantity for all local purposes. Fish. The waters of British Columbia teem with countless mil- lions of the choicest salmon, halibut, cod, herring, smelt, sturgeon, whiting, &c., &c. The canning of salmon for expor- tation is already a very important industry, thc product for the present season amounting to about 177,000 cases. They also constitute the chief food dependence of the Indian popu- lation. Oil is manufactured from dog fish, berrings, and oolachans, but the other fish mentioned are as yet, except to a limited extent, only caught for home consumption. Fur-bearing Animals Are more numerous in this Province than in any other part of America, excepting, perhaps, portions of Alaska, having for nearly 40 years through the Hudson Bay Company supplied the world with most of their finest furs. They comprise Bears, Beaver, Badgers, Coyotes, Foxes, Fishers, Martens, Minks, Lynxes, Otters, Panthers, Raccoons, Wolves, Wol- verines, and other smaller kinds. The product of the fisheries and furs of the Province amounts to nearly a million and a half dollars annually. Stock Raising in British Columbia. British Columbia contains a very extensive area of grazing lands of unsurpassed excellence. The whole inter-Rocky Mountain Cascade Region is specially adapted for pastoral purposes. During my recent travels through the interior of They feed in the elevated valleys during the summer, and in winter on the sheltered sunny slopes and bottoms, keeping in good condition upon a species of white sage, called worm- wood, which succeeds the bunch grass, where the latter is too closely grazed. Mr. Van Volkenburgh has had over 1000 tons of hay stacked up for over three years, having had no occa- sion to feed it. Three winters in twenty, cattle have died from starvation and exposure occasioned by deep snows covering the feed. Such losses are confined mainly to breeding cows, in the spring of the year, for which most prudent stock-raisers now provide a reserve of hay. The steers seldom succumb, except in extraordinary winters, such as that of 1879-80, many of them keeping fat in the mountains the year round. The winter ranges throughout the Province are generally fully stocked, but hay for the winter feeding required in the northern part may be cut in unlimited quantities. The Agricultural Lands of British Columbia Comprise in the aggregate several million acros, only a small portion of which are at present occupied. Vancouver Island alone is estimated to contain over 300,000 acres,100,000 in the vicinity of Victoria, 64,000 in North and South Saanich, 100,000 in the Cowichan district, 45,000 near Nanaimo, 5,000 on Salt Spring Island, 50,000 in the Comox district, and 3,500 acres near Sooke. Along the lower Fraser, including the delta, there are about 175,000 acres of unsurpassed fertility. There is a large tract of open arable land on the Queen Char- lotte Islands without a white settler. In the Lillooet, Cache Creek, Kamloops, Spallumcheen, Salmon River, Okanagan, Grand Prairie sections there are large amounts of excellent farm- ing lands; and in the Lake La Hache, upper Fraser, Chilicotin, and Peace River countries, vast bodies, hundreds of miles in extent, awaiting settlement. They afford the greatest choice of situation with reference to climate and productions. Here- tofore, there has been but little encouragement for agricul- turists in the interior, but the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, will give them an excellent market on the seaboard for all their surplus grain, potatoes, &c. The great- ness, character, and diversity of the natural resources of the Province, will ultimately employ a large population in their development and utilization, creating a great demand at good prices for all kinds of farm produce. "The Provincial Land Laws Provide that any person being the head of a family, a widow, or single man over the age of 18 years and a British subject, or any alien upon declaring his intention to become a British subject, may record any tract of unoccupied, unsurveyed and unreserved Crown Lands, not exceeding 320 acres, north and east of the Cascade or Coast Range of Mountains, and 160 acres in the rest of the Province, and “pre-empt” or “home- stead” the same, and obtain a title therefor upon paying the sum of $1 per acre in four equal annual instalments, the first one year from the date of record. Persons desiring to acquire land under this law must observe the following requirements: 1st. The land applied for must be staked off with posts at each corner not less than four inches square, and five feet above the ground, and marked in form as follows: (A B's ) Land, N. E. post. (A B's) Land, N. W. post, &c. 2nd. Applications must be made in writing to the Land Commissioner, giving a full description of the land, and also a sketch plan thereof, both in duplicate, and a declaration under oath, made and filed in duplicate, that the land in question is properly subject to settlement by the applicant, and that he or she is duly qualified to record the same, and a recording fee of $2 paid. 3rd. Such homestead settler must within 30 days after record enter into actual occupation of the land so pre-empted, and continuously reside thereon personally or by his family or agent, and neither Indians or Chinamen can be agents for this purpose. Absence from such land for a period of more than two months continuously or four months in the aggregate during the year subjects it to forfeiture to the Government. Upon payment for the land as specified, and a survey thereof at the expense of the settler, a Crown grant for the same will issue, 10 provided that in the case of an alien he must first become a naturalized British subject before receiving title. Homesteads upon surveyed lands may be acquired, of the same extent and in the same manner as upon the unsurveyed, except that the applicant is not required to stake off and file a plat of the tract desired. . Unsurveyed, unoccupied, and unreserved Crown lands may be purchased in tracts of not less than 160 acres for $1 per acre, cash in full at one payment before receiving title by complying with the following conditions :- 1st. Two months' notice of intended application to pur- chase must be inserted at the expense of the applicant in the British Columbia Gazette and in any newspaper circulating in the district where the land desired lies, stating name of applicant, locality, boundaries and extent of land applied for, which notice must also be posted in a conspicuous place on the land sought to be acquired, and on the Government office, if any, in the district. The applicant must also stake off the said land as required in case of pre-emption, and also have the same surveyed at his own expense. Surveyed lands, after having been offered for sale at public auction for one dollar per acre, may be purchased for cash at that price. The Mining Laws Provide that every person over sixteen years of age may hold a mining claim, after first obtaining from the Gold Commis- sioner a Free Miner's Certificate or License, at a cost of five dollars for one year and fifteen dollars for three years. Every miner locating a claim must record the same in the office of the Gold Commissioner, for a period of one or more years, paying therefor at the rate of $2.50 per year. Every free miner may hold at the same time any num. ber of claims by purchase, but only two claims by pre-emp- tion in the same locality, one niineral claim and one other claim, and sell, mortage, or dispose of the same. The size of claims are as follows :- The bar diggings, a strip of land, 100 feet wide at high- 11 water mark and thence extending into the river to the lowest water level. For dry diggings, 100 feet square. Creek claims shall be 100 feet long measured in the direction of the general course of the stream and shall extend in wid h from base to base of the hill, or bench on each side, but when the hills or benches are less than 100 feet apart, the claim shall be 100 feet square. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square. Mineral claims, that is claims containing, or supposed to contain minerals (other than coal) in lodes or veins, shall be 1,500 feet long by 600 feet wide. Discoverers of new mines are allowed 300 feet in length for one discoverer, 600 feet for two, 800 feet for three, and 1000 in length for a party of four. Creek discovery claims extend 1000 feet on each side of the centre of the creek or as far as the summit. Coal lands west of the Cascade Range in tracts not less than 160 acres, may be purchased at not less than ten dollars per acre, and similar lands east of the Cascade Range, at not less than five dollars per acre. The Government and People. British Columbia is governed by a Legislative Assembly of twenty-five members elected by the people every four years. The Lieut.-Governor and a Council of three Minis- ters constitute the Executive body, Hon. Robert Beaven, Prem- ier, Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, Minister of Fin- ance and Agriculture, Hon. J. R. Hett, Attorney General, Hon. W. J. Armstrong, Provincial Secretary and Minister of Mines, being its present officers. Political and religious free- dom, free public schools, liberal homestead pre-emption and mining privledges, are guaranteed and secured by the laws. Justice is firmly administered, good order prevails, and life and property are secure throughout the Province. So far as the government is concerned, there has been nothing to remind me that I have crossed the line into the Queen's dominions, excepting the glad demonstrations of welcome accorded the Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne and 14 Olympic and Cascade Mountains. A person unfamiliar with the marvelous progress of civilization in the new world sur- veying its busy marts of trade, ships of commerce laden with exports for the most distant ports, numerous manufacturing in- dustries, well graded streets, and good public and private build- ings, would scarcely believe that all these things are the crea- tion of a little more than twenty years, and that only a gener- ation has passed since the Hudson Bay Company first planted the English flag on these shores. But this is only the begin ning as compared with the brilliant future which awaits Vic- toria. The resources of the vast region to which she holds the commercial key are only in the bud of their development. That she has reached her present status while laboring under the great disadvantages of extreme remoteness from the centres of population and demands for her products exces- sively costly transportation, shows not only their enormous extent and richness, but what may reasonably be expected when all railway communication shall be established with the East and the country opened to immigration and capital. Victoria is provided with all the concomitants of the pro- gressive cities of our times—good religious and educational advantages, three newspapers, the Coloni st, Standard and Evening Post, a public library, and the usual benevolent orders, an able and active Board of Trade, gas and water works, efficient police and fire departments, a beautiful public park, and a well ordered government. Victoria as a Summer Resort for Tourists and Health Seekers. Nature has awarded to Victoria, the most attractive and interesting situation and surroundings, of any city on the north Pacific Coast. Possessing a most enjoyable, invigorating and healthful climate, she lies central amidst the sublimest scenery in the new world. The waters of Puget Sound and of the Inside Passage to Alaska, between Vancouver and the Mainland, embraces more that is unique and wonderful in nature, than can be found on any equal area of the earth's surface. I can scarcely conceive of a grander panorama of VICTORIA ADVERTISEMENTS. NEUFELDER & ROSS, Importers and Dealers in Groceries, Provisions and Island Produce GOVERNMENT STREET, VICTORIA, B. C. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL THOS. SHOTBOLT, Chemistand Druggist Importer of English, American and French Drugs, Chemicals and Perfumery. JOHNSON STREET, - - - VICTORIA, B. C. "ESTABLISHED 1864. . A. & W. WILSON, FORT STREET, VICTORIA, B. C. Importers and Dealers in Gas Fixtures and Plumbing Materials. dal TE LOLOTE LITTLE OME Cooking Heating TITULLITTUTTITUIN HOT CLOSE STOVES and RANGES Keep in stock the Best and Cheapest Assortment of Gas Fixtures north of San Francisco. Travels in British Columbia BY NEWTON H. CHITTENDEN. TRIP NUMBER ONE. From Victoria to Yale, the head of navigation on the Fraser River, with Capt. John Irving, on the steamer R. P. Rithet. Through the Archipelago De Haro, Plumper Pass, Gulf of Georgia, and South Arm of Fraser River. Magnificent scenery, sulmon fisheries and canneries, rich delta and bottom lands. The towns of Ladner's Landing, New Westminster, Mission, Maple Ridge, Langley, Matsqui, Sumas, Chilliwhack, Harrison River, Hope, Emory, and Yale—350 miles. YALE, B. C., 14th August, 1882. Victoria, the beautiful capital city of the Province, is the headquarters and starting point of all the principal steamboat and other lines of transportation through it. Of these, the Pioneer line of steamers to the head of navigation on the Fraser River, iş one of the most important. It comprises three boats, the Wm. Irving, R. P. Rithet and Reliance, owned by Capt. John Irving and others, which run in con- junction with the Hudson Bay steamers Princess Louise, Enterprise and Otter. I took passage on the R. P. Rithet, Capt. John Irving, one of the finest boats upon the waters of the North-West Coast. She is a new, powerful stern-wheeler, 200 feet long, 39 feet wide, 816 tons burden, accommodating 20 visible in the distance. The Gulf of Georgia is from nine to twenty miles in width, and one hundred and twenty miles un length. When opposite Point Roberts, the boundary ine between British Columbia and the United States, a wide pathway cut through the timber, entirely across, is plainly seen from the steamer with the naked eye. Just before entering the South Arm of the Fraser River we pass the Steamer Beaver, which Capt. Irving says is the oldest on the Pacific coast, having come round the Horn in 1835. She is still doing good service for her owners, the British Columbia Towing Company. The Fraser River. The third largest stream flowing into the Pacific upon the Continent of North America, rising in the Rocky Mountains, drains, with its tributaries, an area estimated at 125,000 square miles, reaching from the hundred and eighteenth to the hundred and twenty-fifth degree of longitude. The inter- vening country embraces the greatest diversity of physical features, climates, soils, natural resources, and adaptations. East of the Cascade Range, mountains, rolling foot hills, and elevated plateaus, covered with bunch grass, sage brush, plains, forest and table lands, with occasional prairie open- ings, are its prevailing characteristics. It is rich in gold and other valuable minerals, contains extensive stock ranges of unsurpassed excellence, and large areas of arable lands ex- cellently adapted to the growth of cereals, roots, and fruits generally. Irrigation is necessary over a considerable portion of this region. The summers are hot, the nights cool and sometimes frosty in the valleys and in the elevated plateaus; the winters dry and not unfrequently severe, though the snow fall, except in the mountains, seldom exceeds two feet in depth. Crossing the Cascades its Western slopes, river val- leys, embrace the greatest variety of climates and range of pro- ductions, varying according to altitude and local surface con- figurations. Forests of Douglas pine, cedar, spruce, and hemlock cover a considerable portion of this region, though there are extensive bodies of excellent grazing and agricultural land. But no general description can convey correct impressions 22 lands are also well adapted to oats, barley, and roots general- ly. They are offered in tracts to suit at from ten to twenty dollars per acre, and are being rapidly reclaimed and im- proved. Mr. E. A. Wadhams and Mr. Adair have each dyked over 1,200-acre tracts, and at Ladner's Landing there is a prosperous settlement of farmers and stock raisers upon smaller tracts. The Salmon Fisheries and Canneries. Although salmon fishing and canning has been an important industry on the Pacific coast since 1866, and during the last twelve years has grown to immense proportions—a single firm on the Columbia River (Kinney's) canning fifty thousand cases during the season of 1881—it is only a few years since the establishment, by Ewen & Co., of the first cannery on the Fraser. Now there are thirteen—the Phoenix, English & Co., British American Packing Co., British Union, Adair & Co., Delta, Findlay, Durham & Brodie, British Columbia Packing Co., Ewen & Co., Laidlaw & Co., Standard Co., Haigh & Son, and the Richmond Packing Co., their aggregate product during the present season amounting to not less than 230,000 cases. The fish of Northern waters are of superior quality, and their ranges for hatching and feeding so extensive and excellent that the salmon, especially if protected by the Gov- ernment, a ill constitute one of the great permanent resources of this region. Before proceeding far up the Fraser we meet the advance of the numerous fleet of salmon fishing boats which throng the river for a distance of fifteen miles from its mouth. They are from twenty-two to twenty-four feet in length, and from five to six feet wide, each furnished with a gill net, made of strong linen, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred fathoms long, and about forty half- inch meshes deep, and manned by two Indians. The steamer stopping to discharge and receive freight at a small settlement on the left bank, at Ladner's Landing, consisting of the Delta salmon fishery and cannery and McNeely and Buie's store and hotel, afforded an opportunity to visit 24 miles from the mouth and 75 miles from Victoria. The site was chosen by Col. Moody, in 1858, being then covered with a dense growth of enormous cedars some of which were twelve feet in diameter. Hon. J. W. Armstrong, just ap- pointed Provincial Secretary, erected the first house—a store and dwelling—in March, 1859. This gentlemen related to me how it came by its present name. Originally called Queen or Queensborough, a dispute having arisen between Gov. Douglas and Col. Moody as to which should prevail, the matter was submitted for settlement to Her Majesty Queen Victoria who decided against both by substituting New Westminster. It lies in the heart of the great resources of the Province, surrounded by the most extensive and richest bodies of agricultural lands, with large tracts of the finest timber near at hand, and in the midst of fisheries so enor- mously productive that thirteen canning establishments within a radius of twelve miles, will put up over twelve million cans of salmon, alone, the present season. Vessels drawing fifteen feet of water reach New Westminster in safety at all times and find good anchorage and wharfage, and Port Moody, on Burrard's Inlet, the best and most commodious harbor along these shores, selected as the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, is only six miles distant. The city, now containing a population of about 2,500, is in a very prosperous condition, but scarcely realizes the future which awaits it upon the establishment of railroad communication with the interior and the East, the influx of population, and the consequent development of the great resources of this region. Besides many well built stores, residences, and hotels, it contains the Provincial Penitentiary and Asylum, a public hospital, and good church and school buildings. A fine Post Office is in course of erec- tion. A free reading room and library is well sustained, There are two local newspapers—the British Columbian and Mainland Guardian-well conducted and supported. At the hospital, Mr. Adam Jackson, the courteous and efficient Superintendent, after conducting me through the several commodious and sunny wards showed me, in the fine flower garden attached, a sweet pea vine over seven-and-a-half feet 25 in height, and close by, vegetables of surprising growth. Rheumatism and paralysis are the most prevalent diseases among his patients. At the time of my visit, just after pay- day among the canneries, the city was full of Indians, repre- senting all the various Mainland and Island tribes, living in canvas tents and huts, dressed in every conceivable mixture of barbarous and civilized costume, one of the most interest- ing collections of human creatures ever seen on the earth. These Northern tribes are generally good workers, and earn during the summer considerable sums of money which they spend freely upon whatever most pleases their fancy. Many of their purchases, which the traders said included almost everything, were exceedingly amusing, especially in the line of dress goods. Sometimes a prosperous buck will jump from a barbarous into a civilized costume at a bound, and parade the streets in a black suit and white silk necktie, and everything except habits to correspond. One Indian was seen proudly leading his little daughter whom he had gaily dressed in white, with a blue silk sash, a pretty white waist, and a silk parsol in hand, but bare footed and legged. Though there were probably upwards of a thousand Indians in the city I saw no disorderly conduct among them. I am indebted to Capt. A. Peele, a prominent druggist and apothe- cary of New Westminster, and Meterological Observer for the Dominion Government and Signal Officer for the United States, for the following valuable notes of the mean temper- atures and rainfall at that place for a period of six years :- MEAN TEMP. HIGHEST TEMP. LOWEST TEMP. RAINFALL. January .... February March April May ..... June..... July .............. August September.. October November .... December .... 34.9 37.9 40.3 48.1 54.9 58.3 63.8 61.9 56.9 48.9 40.6 36.2 7.26 6.61 6.77 2.85 34 2.33 1.66 2.10 3.68 5.83 7.65 7.87 Between New Westminster and Yale, a distance of 100 miles, the mail steamers not unfrequently make 29 platform of the cars, at short intervals, the entire distance. The Indians were catching and drying them in large quanti- ties. Standing upon the edge of perpendicular projecting ledges, they capture the largest and finest specimens, either by means of hooks or scoop-nets, dress them upon the spot and hang them up on long poles to dry in the wind and sun. When sufficiently cured they are packed in caches made from cedar shakes, and suspended for safe keeping among the branches of trees from twenty to fifty feet above the ground. It is the opinion of those familiar with the habits of the salmon, that not one in a thousand succeeds in depositing their spawn, and that if hatching places were provided upon these streams, and protected that they could scarcely be exhausted, under proper restrictions as to catching them. On the morn- ing of the 15th I reached Yale, The head of navigation on the Fraser River, a town of several hundred inhabitants and buildings situated upon a narrow bench, surrounded by mountains of striking grandeur, rising precipitously thousands of feet among the clouds. In the early days of the gold discoveries in this region, Yale present- ed those scenes of wild dissipation and reckless extrava- gance only witnessed in great and rich mining camps. An old miner, who was stopped from working his claim when paying from sixteen to twenty dollars per day, because encroaching upon the city front, told me that he seldom cleaned up without finding gold pieces which had been dropped from the overflowing pockets of men intoxicated with liquor, and excitement. It was nothing uncommon in those times to spend fifty dollars in a single treat around at the bar. It is now an orderly place, supporting churches, schools, and a weekly paper, the Inland Sentinel, by Mr. M. Hagan—the extreme North-Western publication upon the Continent. There is still paying placer mining on the river bench opposite, though the place derives its main support from the construction of the C. P. R. R., traffic with the interior, and through travel. 30 The Grand Scenery of the Cascade Region. The grandest scenery on the Western slope of the Conti- nent is formed by the passage of its great rivers through the Cascade Range. When I looked with wonder and admira- tion upon the stupendous architecture of the mountains through which the Columbia has worn her way by the flow of unknown ages, I thought surely this scene can have no parallel ; but ascending the Fraser River, above Yale, moun- tains just as rugged, lofty, and precipitous, present their rocky, furrowed sides; a stream as deep, swift, and turbulent, rushes headlong to the sea, between granite walls hundreds of feet in height, above which rise, by every form of rocky embattle- ment, tower and castle, and terraced slope which the imagination can conceive, the snow-covered peaks of the Cascades. Great broad, deep paths, have been worn down the mountain sides by the winter avalanches ; crystal streams come bounding over their narrow rocky beds, sometimes leaping hundreds of feet, as if impatient to join the impetuous river below, enormous rocks stand out threateningly in the channel, over and around which, the waters boil and foam with an angry roar; and thus above, and below, and on every hand for more than fifty miles, extends this sublime exhibition of nature. From TRIP NUMBER TWO. Victoria to Barkerville, Cariboo, via New Westminster, Yale, Boston Bar, Lytton, Cook's Ferry, Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Clinton, Soda Creek, and Quesnelle. Returning through the Kamloops, Okanagan, Spalluńcheen, and Nicola Country~1,682 miles. On the 9th of September, two days after returning from Alaska, I took passage on the steamer Western Slope for New Westminster, en route for Cariboo, Capt. Moore, com- manding, is one of the pioneers in the steamboat navigation of 34 running of trains upon any portion of the railway, such as the traffic should require, not less than twenty miles in length, the Government agreed to pay and grant to the company the subsidies applicable thereto. The Government also granted to the company the lands required for the road-bed of the railway, and for its stations, station grounds, work shops, dock ground, and water frontage, buildings, yards, etc., and other appurtenances required for its convenient and effectual construction and operation, and agreed to admit, free of duty, all steel rails, fish plates, spikes, bolts, nuts, wire, timber, and all material for bridges to be used in the original construction of the railway and of a telegraph line in connection therewith. The Company's Land Grant. Comprises every alternate section of 640 acres, extending back twenty-four miles deep on each side of the railway from Winnpeg to Jasper House, and where such sections (the uneven numbered) are not fairly fit for settlement on account of the prevalence of lakes and water stretches, the deficiency thereby caused to make up the 25,000,000 acres, may be selected by the company from the tract known as the fertile belt lying between parallels 49 and 37 degrees of North lati- tude or elsewhere, at the option of the company, of alternate sections extending back twenty-four miles deep on each side of any branch line, or line of railway by them located. The company may also, with the consent of the Government, select any lands in the North-West Territory not taken up to supply such deficiency. The company have the right, from time to time, to lay out, construct, equip, maintain, and work branch lines of railway from any point or points within the territory of the Dominion. It was further agreed by the Dominion Parliament that for the period of twenty years no railway should be constructed South of the Canadian Pacific Railway, except such line as shall run South-West or to the Westward of South-West, nor to within fifteen miles of lati- tude forty-nine degrees, and that all stations, and station grounds, workshops, buildings; yards, and other property, rolling stock, and appurtenances required and used for the 44 ble stretch of the Fraser abounds in subjects of interest. Numerous parties of Chinamen were seen placer mining on the bars and benches. Twenty miles oat we pass Alexandria, an old Fort of the Hudson Bay Company, but now aban- doned, and a few miles beyond, the well-known Australian and Bohanan Ranches, the most extensive grain farms in Northern British Columbia, raising upwards of 400,000 pounds of wheat and oats yearly, and considerable quantities of apples, plums and other fruits. Away to the Westward over the terraced pine and poplar wooded bluffs lies the Chilcotin Country Which embraces several hundred thousand acres of rolling prairie, undulating, lightly timbered forest plateaus, as yet. unoccupied except by a few Indians, and by bands of cattle in Summer. Steaming slowly up the rapid stream, past Castle Rock, Cottonwood Canyon and the Pyramids, at five o'clock, P. M., the 22nd, we arrive at Quesnelle. The town is very pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Fraser, at the mouth of the Quesnelle, and contains about fifty white inhabitants, fifty buildings, two hotels, several stores, shops, &c. The Hudson Bay Co., J. R. Skinner, J. C. F., and the firm of Reed & Hudson, carry large stocks of merchandise and do an extensive trade. The Occidental Hotel, Mr. John McLean, proprietor, is one of the best in the upper country. Here we resume our journey by stage, and before daylight, the 23rd, are on the home stretch for The Gold Fields of Cariboo. Twenty-two years ago the advance of the bold and hardy prospectors, following up the rich diggings of the lower Fraser, penetrated as far north as the Forks of the Quesnelle, Here Keithley struck it rich upon the creek of that name, and then followed in rapid succession those remarkable discov- eries which have made Cariboo so famous in the history of gold mining. Antler Creek in 1860 and Williams, Lightning, 47 From Cache Creek to Kamloops and through the North and South Thompson, Okanagan, Spallumcheen and Nicola Country. Returning to Cache Creek, Leighton's stage which makes weekly trips to the head of Okanagan Lake via Savona's Ferry and Kamloops, had left the day previous. I therefore started out on foot six miles up the Cache Creek, Valley, previously discribed, and then along the right bank of the Thompson, 18 miles further to Savona's Ferry At the foot of Kamloops Lake. This portion of the Valley of the Thompson is about 4 miles in width from foothill to foot- hill, and consists mainly of rolling grazing lands. Bands of cattle and horses were seen feeding in all directions, though most of the stock ranges in the mountain valleys from spring until the beginning of winter. Harper, Graves, Willson, Stewart, Sanford, Hoar, Uren, Barnes, Pinney, Goten, Craig and Semlin, are the principal stock raisers and farmers in this section. Calling at the first house reached in the village at the ferry, I found it to be the pleasant home of Mr. James Leighton, post master, telegraph operator and proprietor of the Kamloops stage line. His father-in-law, Mr. Uren, keeps a good hotel close by, and is also the owner of a 370-acre ranch, 500 head of cattle and fifty horses. He showed me fine specimens of pump- kins, vegetables and fruits grown on his farm and in the neighborhood. Mr. John Jane has a store here, Mr. James Uren a blacksmith shop and James Newland the ferry. At Savona's Ferry is the beginning of 140 miles of steamboat navigation upon the Thompson and through a succesion of lakes, the Kamloops, Little Shuswap and Shuswap Lakes, extending to Spallumcheen—25 miles from the mouth of the river of that name and within 19 miles of the head of Lake Okanagan. Three steamers, the Peerless, Capt. Tackabery, The Lady Dufferin and Spallumcheen, are running upon these waters during about 7 months of the year, from April to 53 twenty miles, through a rolling, pine timbered section. This stream then flows Worth into Shuswap Lake, its lower valley containing several thousand acres of open, fertile farming lan'l. Continuing south-easterly, ten miles brings us to O'Keefe's and Greenhow's ranches, at the head of Okanagan Lake. They came here fourteen years ago with limited means, and and are now the owners, each, of 2,000-acre ranches, and seven or eight hundred head of cattle, worth twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. We are now in the Okanagan Couatry, Which, together with the near lying valleys of Spallumcheen and Salmon River, embraces the largest scope of pastoral and arable lands in one body, in south-eastern British Columbia. Okanagan Lake, the source of the Okanagan River, a tributary of the Columbia, is about eighty miles in length, and from two to three miles in width. A survey has just been completed for a canal connecting the lake with the navigable waters of the Spallumcheen, only about twenty miles from its head. Its construction would extend steamboat navigation to within thirty miles of the Boundary Line or 49th parallel, and greatly promote the rapid settlement and developement of naturally the richest part of the interior of the Province. Reaching O'Keef's at noon and lunching hastily, I walked four miles, and then mounting a powerful horse, galloped thirty-eight miles South on the East side of Okanagan Lake and took supper at seven o'clock with Eli Lequime at The Okanagan Mission. I rode through the most magnificent pastoral and farming region I have seen since visiting the Walla Walla Valley of Washington. On the right a low range of mountains about four miles in width reaching to the Eastern shore of the Lake extends most of the way. They are covered with bunch grass from foot-hill to sum- mit, and though lightly pine timbered afford excellent summer grazing. Immediately on the left lie a chain of beautiful - - - -- - - - - SAVONA’S FERRY, KAMLOOPS, OKANAGAN & NICOLA ADVTS. K’AMLOOPS EXPRESS Carrying H. M. Mails, leaves Cache Creek for Okan. agan Mission every Tuesday on arrival of mails from Victoria. Passengers and Freight put through on time. General Express Bus- iness. Charges Moderate. JAMES B. LEIGHTON - PROPRIETOR COSMOPOLITAN HOTEL, KAMLOOPS, B. C. Thomas Spellman, - Proprietora The Best Hotel in the Interior. Hudson Bay HOUSE, Gen'l Merch’dse, John Tait, J. C. F. J. A. MARA, General Merchandise. MARA & Wilson's Steamboat Line. ARCHIBALD McKinnon, General Blacksmith and Wagon Maker. SHUSWAP MILLING Co., Kamloops, James McIntosh, Proprietor. WILLIAM. FORTUNE, Flour and Sawmill, and Steamer Lady Dufferin, Tranquille. CORNELIUS O'KEEFE, General Merchandise, Okanagan Lake. THOMAS GREENHOW, General Merchandise, Okanagan Lake. ELI LEQUIME, General Merchandise, Okanagan Mission. E. O’ROURKE, General Merchandise, Nicola Valley. RICHARD O'ROURKE, General Blacksmith, Nicola Valley. P. L. ANDERSON, General Merchandise, Nicola Valley. John HAMILTON, Horse Dealer, Nicola Valley. NICOLA LAKE HOUSE, Joseph Blackbourn, Proprietor. John GILMORE, Stock Ranch, and Nicola and Spence's Bridge Express, Nicola. NICOLA PLOUR & SAWMILL, G. Fensom, Proprietor. PETIT & Co., General Merchandise, Nicola, Valley, Nicola. C. M. BEAK, Stock-raiser, Nicola Valley. JOHN CHARTRES, Stock-raiser, Farmer, Nicola Valley. ALEX. COUTLIE, Gen. Mdse, Stock-raiser, Nicola Valley. R. M. WOODWARD, Flour and Sawmill, Rosedale, Nicola Val. 22-MILE HOUSE, James Phair Pro., Nicola Valley. 71 chere in 1859. Though at first employed principally in the fur trading service of the company, they established as early as 1862, upon the breaking out of the Stickeen River gold excitement, a regular line of steamers for passengers and freight between Victoria and Fort Simpson, B. C., running occasionally during the summer months to Fort Wrangel, Alaska, 160 miles beyond and 750 miles from Victoria. From May to September is the most favorable season for the voyage, rain, mists and fogs prevailing along the coast North of lattitude 56 during a considerable portion of the remain- der of the year. On the 26th of August we started from Victoria for Fort Wrangel on the steamer Otter. Capt. McCulloch, commanding, has had over twenty years' experience in navigating these wonderful waters. An Irishman by birth, in 1860 he sailed upon the Nanette for the Island of Van- couver. The vessel was wrecked and lost upon Race Rocks, in the Straits of Fuca, a few miles from the harbor of their destination, and to this circumstance the New World is in- debted for his skillful and faithful services. Following the Fraser River route to near Plumper Pass, and then taking the Nanaimo Channel, a little past noon we emerged from a narrow rock-bound passage, known as Dodd's Pass, and sail- ing within sight of the city of Nanaimo, three miles beyond, enter the fine little harbor of Departure Bay. This is the location of the most extensive and valuable coal mines on the Pacific Coast. While the steamer was coaling I jumped into a car and rode three miles through a thick forest of Douglas fir to the North Wellington Colliery, the most productive mine now in operation. Here I found a pleasant village and several hundred men taking out coal at the rate of about 800 tons a day. Five ships and two steamers were waiting for cargoes at their wharves for San Francisco, Wilmington, Honolulu, and China. These mines, owned by Dunsmuir, Diggle & Co., were first opened in 1870 and are now being worked by two slopes and three shafts to a depth of about 300 feet, the annual output amounting to 175,000 tons. Mr. Dunsmuir informs me that 78 of the group, contains a tract of timberless grazing land suffi- cient, it is estimated, to support over a thousand head of cattle. The climate is comparatively mild, and snowfall so light that stock would subsist throughout the year entirely upon the native grasses. It is peopled by the Hydahs, evidently of Asiatic origin, the finest specimens, physically, and the most courageous of all the native tribes. They live in villages upon the seashore, building large and substantial houses from great logs and planks of cedar. They now number about 830, but were formerly much more populous. Hunting, fishing, and trapping is their main dependence, though they are great canoe builders, supplying them to the other tribes, and also very skillful workers in gold and silver, and carvers upon wood and slate. Bold and skillful navigators, and war- like, they ruled among the natives of these northern seas, and until a comparatively recent date have been hostile to the whites. Now they are friendly, and anxious for missionary teachers, who are about to establish a school for their in- struction. The Count has discovered an extensive vein of lignite and a four foot vein of anthracite coal, and also coal-oil there. Graham Island has been occupied as a trading post by the Hudson Bay Company since 18 , and for the last four years by the Skidegate Oil Company, which is manufacturing a very excellent lubricating and burning oil from sharks. They are so numerous in the surrounding waters that the Company have caught over 5,000 in thirty-six hours, by means of thousands of strong steel hooks, fastened by cotton cod lines to a fifteen thread hemp rope, and anchored in from seven to thirty-five feet of water. At daybreak on the morning of the 30th we were crossing the waters of the en- trance to the Portland Channel, into which flows the River Naas. This stream abounds with salmon, and is the greatest known resort of the oolachan, which swarm here by the million, and are caught by the Indians in the Spring of the year in im- mense numbers. A kit of them salted has just been brought on deck. They are a bright silver colored fish, smaller than the herring, of more delicate flavor and so rich in oil that when 81 Deans' Canal, B. C., the Northern limit of the fir or Douglas pine, though he has examined the country thoroughly, he knows of no good timber in sufficient quantities to warrant the manufacture of lumber for the general export trade. At Fort Wrangle I found Mr. William Woodcock, who has been in Alaska for several years, swearing over the Rev. Sheldon Jackson's statement before a Congressional Committe con- cerning it, which lay spread out before him. Mr. Jackson says in substance that the climate and resources of the coun- try are such that it is bound to have a large population, but that he cannot encourage immigration into it until provided with some form of government, for the security of life and property. While nearly all agree that it should have a local magistrate or commissioner with power to enforce law and order, all whom I have consulted, quite a number of traders, miners, and others who have been in Southern Alaska from two to fourteen years, are unanimous in the opinion that the very reasons, the character of its climate and resources, which Mr. Jackson thinks offer inducements to immigration, will ex- clude it except to quite a limited extent. Speaking more from information obtained from such sources than personal observation, it is difficult to understand how that any man of intelligence and honesty at all familiar with the country, could, under any circumstances, be induced to recommend it for colonization by the American people. Its fish, furs and min- erals are alone worth more than it cost, and will attract con- siderable settlements along the Southern coast, and hardy Northmen will doubtless by slow degrees settle in the vast almost unknown interior, though Alaska may probably for generations to come be most fitly described as the “Great Lone Land.” Heading for Cape Fox, the abandoned U. S. Fort Ton- gass and an Indian village adjoining are seen in the distance on the right. A little further on the U.S. Coast Survey steamer Hasler, lying at anchor in a snug little harbor on the left, sends out a boat and receives her mail. Then steaming on through the Revilla Gigido Channel, Duke of Clarence and Stachinski Straits, before daylight the 31st I was awakened THE COLONIAL HOTEL. (J. E. INSLEY, PROPRIETOR.) The Largest and Best Hotel on the Main- land of British Columbia. Columbia Street, New Westminster, B. C. CASCADE HOTEL. J. E. INSLEY, PROPRIETOR. Baggage Conveyed to the Hotel Free of Charge. THE TABLES ARE SUPPLIED WITH EVERY LUXURY IN SEASON. This House Affords Every Accommodation for Guests. CORNER FRONT AND ALBERT STREETS, YALE, B, C. ORIENTAL HOTEL, LEWIS SALTER, PROPRIETOR. Good Accommodations -AT- $1 per day or $6 per week. BAGGAGE CONVEYED TO AND FROM STEAMERS FREE OF CHARGE. YALE, B. C. R. H. CHITTENDEN, New York. NEWTON H. CHITTENDEN Washington, D. ('. COUNSELLORS AT LAW. New York, Washington, and San Francisco. A General Practice in State and Federal Courts, and before all the Executive Departments of the Government, Special attention to cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, Court of Clainis, and before the General Land, Patent and Pension Offices, Reliable legal correspondence in all the principal cities of the Union. For matters requiring attention in New York, Washington, and in any of the States East of the Rocky Mountains, address R. H. Chittenden, Brooklyn, N. Y., or Chittenden and Lincoln, Washington, D. C. All communications pertaining to legal business on the Pacific Coast should be addressed to Chittenden & Van Duzer, U. S. ('ourt Building, North-east corner Sansome and Washington streets, San Francisco, Cal.