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' ‘ = . ."1 i A‘ . 1;.‘ .irw‘fi ‘a a £2“, “W1 “w A G. w W Y uwv , i?" - 155mm!!! 7 W in ‘ l ' a fiflrvvuwv a .. sJAvWQA. 1.... v $1» HLLu nn .=,= ======E== == 1! I'll! 2.13‘. ,5 S .1 , Kill 5.! $1. ii 11 ‘x s 25 fedvi. n, r. witw 1161.3" ‘4.35%. “'9 m. rum 1 l? a? $5 . , . . : ‘ . V V M!) . . k , . . ‘ ‘ . , , . . 2 ii . $0.35; 1 V , “Va? :3 . , . , ‘ , , in“ Ea» . _ , . . ‘ . ‘ ‘ ‘ . . l1". . , V v . I v ‘ .1‘ . . J v .. , . v. . .. . . . . v. >3? m, .. . my,‘ ‘F \Q‘&" .\‘\\*r VANCO UVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODB AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUARE ,,‘ v “i ‘ ‘. ilfi'fl“ |“(lip j“! ‘ "NW ‘NW ' My» Wm} , "Tpljnmvh‘p‘ H \ ' x- j|l\| ‘ll 3 > \ Mimi? “ H b >i 1' ii‘a h! ‘,Wi‘i‘h U L “ Mmi'yéhg:UMU‘HQ; I41‘ ‘W! . ‘ ml ‘ |‘| v‘ ‘ wi‘M ‘ ‘ v. {‘=- 11 \: mm I , wym m1‘ ' i, m MM ii: v‘ in in WW ‘ pwpy'éiqt‘ ,\~\)",Wfyf|n,1|‘:71‘.‘ iWly-F!’ II: , 1!‘ film il‘qlil‘H‘V‘ 'ii' WWWIIWIINWW": ‘ ‘ ‘ \‘ W1 HEHMU‘ "if"! , ‘ii MM} H‘IIHU; \! “ “ ‘whim U ‘ "\Efl’i- 3.1 I‘ ‘1 “ v fijml‘p,‘ ‘; .1 v MIMI‘ 4 ‘ RIVER OPERATIONS ON THE NORTH PACIFIC. VANCOUVER ISLAND’ AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. THEIR HISTORY, RESOURCES, AND PROSPECTS. BY MATTHEW MACFIE, FIVE YEARS RESIDENT IN VICTORIA, v.1. LONDON : LON OMAN , GREEN, LON GMAN , ROBERTS, &- GREEN. 1 8 6 5. D E D I C A T E D (BY PERMISSION) TO THE RIGHT HON. EDWARD GABDWELL, M.P. HER MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES. PREFACE. -_.°.-—-_ TIIIs VOLUME is the first that has been published in this country containing full and classified information on the variousitopics relating to the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. It is hoped that, at the same time, comprehensiveness has not been lost sight of in the grouping of details. A few other Works have already appeared; some of which give valuable statistics bearing upon the physical and political geography, climatology, flora, fauna, and aborigines of these important dependencies. Some little has also been Written on their principal resources; but all the books that have hitherto issued from the English press on the subject put together fail, in the author’s estimation, to exhibit the commercial, timber-exporting, mining, and agricultural capabilities of the colonies With the mmuteness and prominence they merit. Had these points been discussed, however, in the most satisfactory manner, it is noW several years since any extended account of Vancouver Island and British Columbia has been sub- mitted to the British public, and the progress of these thriving settlements in that brief and eventful interval necessarily renders previous volumes, in many respects, out of date. X PREFACE. ' The first chapter is in no way essential to the complete- ness of the work. It has, however, been deemed suitable in its present place for the twofold purpose of conveying some general idea of California, and placing our pending dispute with the American Government on the question of their occupation of the island of San Juan in a clear light. Our commercial relations with the State referred to are more intimate than with any other on the Pacific Coast; and as the auriferous mountains of British Columbia are but a continuation of the Sierra Nevada in California, the Colony and the State may be said to be connected by a community of resources. The affair of San Juan has never been fairly stated by the newspaper press of this country. The body of the present work is intended chiefly for the perusal of merchants, statesmen, and intending emigrants; while it is hoped that it will not be found uninteresting to general readers. The author makes no pretensions to faultlessness of style under any circumstances; but the limited time at his command for throwing his materials into shape pre- cludes the possibility of any such quality here. Still, it may be accepted in partial compensation for defects of composition that he has endeavoured, to the best of his ability, to avail himself of the special advantages he enjoyed for collecting facts respecting the country of which he writes. The position he occupied for five years in the colonies afforded him opportunities of becoming acquainted, more or less, with all classes of society, from the officials of Government to the most obscure citizens; and in view of the task he has now undertaken, he laid his friends under tribute. PREFACE. Xi Till Within the last seven years, these possessions were regarded by the people of England, for the most part, as a term incognita, embracing a region of the globe inhos- pitable beyond description; the scene of perpetual and sanguinary encounters between prowling savages and beasts of prey, and having no title to be reclaimed by industry, or visited with the benefits of civilisation. They still sustain the disadvantage of being more incon- venient of access from England than certain other distant British colonies, which are favoured to receive from year to year the tide of an emigrating population. Considering their remoteness from the parent country, the very limited knowledge of their topography, and resources still pos- sessed by the mass of Englishmen, and the conflicting reports that have been circulated in books and news- papers respecting their adaptability for settlement, it is not surprising that the most diligent efforts to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion on the subject should sometimes end in perpleXity and disappointment. Many immigrants who have found prosperity—looking at the condition and prospects of the country exclusively from a favourable point of view—may, in some cases, have been tempted to indulge in representations too highly coloured to their friends at home. Others, having the misfortune to share a different fate, may have occasionally allowed trials to warp their judgment, and impart gloom to the expression of their opinions. These pages are written to aid in unravelling this tangled skein of contra- dictions, and to show that the country is neither a perfect Elysium, nor an absolute Sahara, but one which presents a field for theinvestment of capital and the application of a 2 xii PREFACE. industry, unsurpassed in elements of wealth, in propor- tion to area, by any other part of the empire. If one hindrance to the rapid advance of these colonies deserves to be specified more than another, it is the want of an emigrant route from Canada to the Rocky Moan- taz'ns. The interoceanic railway scheme, so much talked of, is premature, though certain in future years to be realised. But a Waggon-road, via Red River and the Sas- katchewan, is practicable in every respect, as shown at length in that chapter which deals with the question; and it is devoutly to be wished that Lord Wharnclifi’e, Mr. A. Mills, and other noblemen and gentlemen in both Houses of Parliament, who have recently evinced so deep and intelligent an interest in the subject of colonising the Great North West, may be induced to bring their influence to bear for the accomplishment of the object which is most urgent. Could the comparatively inexpensive com- munication thus sought be opened simultaneously with the proposed telegraph from Red River to British Columbia, especially now that ever-strengthening induce- ments to emigration across the plains are held out by the mines east and west of the Rocky Mountains, the settlement of the intervening territory would soon follow. While acknowledging obligations to the Governments of Vancouver Island and British Columbia for the maps ‘and blue-books they have so liberally placed at the author’s disposal, thanks are due to the authorities at the Colonial Office and the Board of Trade for courtesies extended, and to those gentlemen of influence in Canada who, during his late visit there, supplied the author with valuable official documents. Acknowledgments are also PREFACE. tendered to Professor Balfour, of the Edinburgh Univer- sity, for an interesting contribution to the list of flora ; to the Librarian of the London Institution, for access to Government papers ; and to the Rev. E. W. Shalders, B.A., of Rochester, for useful hints suggested by his excellent taste and judgment. LONDON : May 1865. CONTENTS. ‘nu—W— CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE our. Departure—Azores -—\Description of Passengers—St. Thomas, W. I. -— Carthagena—Sharks—Scenes on the Isthmus—Panama—Passage to California—Acapulco—The Natives of Mexico—San Francisco—The Founding and Growth of the City—Discovery of Gold at General Sutter’s Mill—Californian Life in 1849—-‘ Rowdyism’—The ‘ Vigilance Com- mittee’—Judge McAlmond—Present Order and Prosperity of San Francisco—Fertile Valleys—A Trip to Sacramento—State Legislature— Meeting of the ‘ Democratic Convention ’-—Mammoth Trees—American Taxation—Metallic Wealth of California—Washoe—Up the Columbia River to Portland— Oregon Fruit— Sail to the Isle of San Juan—Parley with American Officers—Origin of the Dispute between the British and American Governments, as stated from their respective Points of View. PAGE 1 CHAPTER II. VANCO U VER_ ISLAND. TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, AND GENERAL HISTORY. The England of the Pacific—Straits of Fuca —-The Coast Line—Geological Formation—Sooke—Esquimalt—Victoria—Islands in the Gulf of Georgia —-Saanich—Cowichan -—Nanaimo—Comox~— Northern Extremity of the Island—Quatsino—Nootka-——Barclay Sound—Pioneer Discoveries in the Pacific by the Spaniards—BalboaéCabrillo--Ferrelo-—Sir Francis Drake and his Adventures—Cavendish—Story of Juan de Fuca and his imagined Discovery of a. North—East Passage—Expedition under Heceta and Quadra —Cook’s Reconnoitre of the Coast——Kendrick—Berkeley—Meares—- Vancouver’s Mission and its Results—Grant of the Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company—Their Monopoly unfavourable to Colonisation. . . 39 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1858, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE GROWTH OF VICTORIA. Rush of Immigration—Sudden Rise in the Value of Land—Rival Cities attempted by the Americans—Unequalled Superiority of Victoria and Esquimalt Harbours—Return of faint-hearted Speculators to California, and their Maledictions—Struggles and Triumphs of Miners on the Fraser—Hardships on the New Route—Temporary Gloom of Victoria—- Yield of Gold for the first four Months—State of the City in 1859- News from Quesnelle—Things looking up—The Letters of the Times’ Correspondent and the Immigration of BBQ—Disappointment and Pri- vation of the Inexperienced—Description of Victoria as it now is—Beacon Hill—Government House—Streets—Public Buildings and Associations—— Newspaper Press—Religious Bodies—Colleges and Schools—Manu- factories—Joint-Stock Companies—The Municipal Council—Banks— Price of Town Lots—List of Trades and Professions. . . PAGE 64 CHAPTER IV. VICTORIA AS A FREE PORT. Principal Free Ports throughout the World-—Results of the Free Port System in Hamburg, the Channel Islands, and Hongkong—Importance of guarding Victoria against the Introduction of Customs Duties—Pro- posed Union with British Columbia as affecting the Free Port Arrange- ment—Comparative Prospects of New Westminster and Victoria—Reso— lutions of the Island Legislature in regard to Union—Imports—Number and Tonnage of Vessels—Exports of Gold from 1858 to Edi—Exports of British and French Goods to Sitka—Washington Territory—Oregon—Cali— fornia and Mexico—Commanding‘ Position of Victoria as a Free Port, and the powerful Inducements it ofi‘ers British Merchants for opening up Trade with the Coast of Western America—Facilities offered by Vancouver Island for Return Cargoes to China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand —-Californian Opinion of Victoria as a probable Rival of San Francisco-— Description of Goods suited for the Victoria Market--Rapid Increase of Population in Puget Sound—The proposed Erection of Esquimalt into the chief Naval Station of the Pacific, the Construction of a Sanitarium for invalided Naval Men, and the bearing of these Events on the Growth of Victoria. . . . . . . . . . . . 91 CONTENTS. xvii CHAPTER V. GENERAL RESOURCES or vANOoUvER ISLAND. TIMBER: Exports of this Article—Profits realised on it—Advantages over Canada and New Brunswick—Timber more remunerative to the common Carrier than Gold—Trade in Export of Railway Sleepers—Prices of Spars, Masts, &c. COAL: Mines at Nanaimo—Immense Consumption of Coal on the Coast—Chemical Comparison of Vancouver Island Coal with other Varieties—Imports of Coal to San Francisco—Prices—Thick- ness of Seam—Conveniences for Loading—Vancouver Island Pioneer Coal- mining Company—Quantities shipped from Nanaimo—Report of First Annual Meeting of Directors—Other Coal Companies. COPPER: Queen Charlotte Island Mine—Inspection of a Vein—Want of British Capital to develop this Source of Wealth effectually. MAGNETIC IRON ORE- LIMESTONE—SANDSTONE— BLUE MARBLE—BLUE CLAY.‘ GOLD: First found in Queen Charlotte Island—Gold Stream—G old discovered at Sooke—General Character of the Region—‘ Prospects’ obtained—Mining ‘ Claims’ and ‘Yields.’ FISHERIES: Herring—Hoolakan—Salmon—Trout -- Sturgeon —Halibut- Haddock — Rock —- Whales— Walrus —Foreign Markets to be supplied . . . . . . PAGE 131 CHAPTER VI. AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. Remunerative Character of Agricultural Pursuits in the Colony—Climate— Soils—Farming Districts—Yield of Crops—Prices of Produce and Stock-— Relation of the Free-Port System to the Question of Markets—Expense of Farm Labour—Times of Clearing, Sowing, Reaping, &c.—Terms of Agricultural Settlement . . . . . 172 CHAPTER VII. BRITISH COL UMBIA. HISTORICAL SKETCH. —-—GEOLOGY, ETC- Seaboard—Sir Alexander Mackenzie—First Trading Post—Hudson’s Bay Company’s regime—Geological Formation . . '. . 207 CHAPTER VIII. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Scenery in the Passage from Victoria to Fraser River—Cascade Range— New Westminster—Imports—~Shipping Returns—Customs Revenue— xviii CONTENTS. Rates of Duties Leviable—Government Buildings—Churches—Langley— Sumass and Chilukweyuk—Harrison River—Douglas—Diary of a Journey thence to Williams’ Creek—Cariboo—Table of Distances—Hope—Yale —Rapids-Lytton-- Clinton—William’s Lake—Routes m'd Bentinck Arm and Bute Inlet—Routes to Shuswap . . . PAGE 215 CHAPTER IX. THE MINES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Diggings at Hope—Ya]e—Similkameen—OKanagan—Rock Creek—Tran- quille and North Rivers—Kamaloops Lake—Quesnelle—Antler—Cariboo -—Bed Rock Flume and Artesian Mining Companies—Remarkable In- stances of Success—Prices at the Northern Mines—Shuswap and Koo- tanie Diggings—Mining Prospects on the north-west of the Fraser-— Mining Laws . . . . . . . 240 CHAPTER X. PROCESS OF MINING. Essentials for carrying on Mining Operations successfully— The Art of ‘ Prospecting’-—The Use of the Rocker—Sluicing—Hydraulic Mining-— Water Companies—The ‘ Flutter-wheel’ -—Turning a River out of its Bed—‘ Ground Sluicing’—Tunnelling—-Quartz Mining—The Rastra— Crushing Quartz by Steam Power-‘ Quartz, the Mother of Gold’ . 266 CHAPTER XI. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Climate—Farming Capabilities—Agricultural Districts—Mr. Davidson’s Experience of Farming north of the Pavillon—Yield of other Farms— Fruit -Stock-raising—Remunerative Character of Dairy Produce—Sheep ——Hogs—Terms on which Land may be acquired . . . 280 CHAPTER XII. ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Bears—Racoons—Marten—Mink—Skunk—Otters-Foxes—The Puma—Its Ravages— Adventure with a Puma— Wolves —Rats-—-Stags—-Deer—- Mountain Sheep—BIRDS OF PREY, &c.—Swans, &C.—-—REPTILES——FLORA '—-Scientific Names of Animals—List of Shells—Additional List of Plants . . . . . . . . 297 CONTENTS. xix CHAPTER XIII. POLITICAL STATISTICS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company—Governor Blanshard—Germ of the Colonial Legislature—Appointment of Governor Douglas—Disputes between Independent Colonists and the Authorities—- Sources of Revenue —First Bill of Appropriation — Disproportionate Paraphernalia of Government—Rates of Taxation—Estimates for 1864- Opposition of the Legislature to the Proposals of the Duke of Newcastle— The First Legislative Council of British Columbia—Reception of Governor Kennedy—The Question of Union between the two Colonies—Public Expenditure of the British Columbian Government in 1863—Check given to Immigration in 1858 by the restrictive Policy of the Colonial Government and the Hudson’s Bay Company—Testimony of the Grand Jury . . . . . . PAGE 310 CHAPTER XIV. PROPOSED INTEROCEANIC RAILWAY—EMIGRANT ROUTE AND TELE- GRAPH—THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE GROWTH OF THE COLONIES. Westward, Ho !--Trade with the East coveted by Western Nations from remotest Antiquity—The Tyrians, &c.-—Alexander the Great- Antiochus—Mahomet —The Arabians—Effect of the Discovery of a Passage to India 22222 the Cape of Good Hope—America found in the Search for the shortest Route to the East—VVhy has this Communication, so industriously sought, never been practically realised ?—Eastern Trade now to flow across to the American Side of the Pacific, and great Cities to grow up in its Track -—The Americans preparing to receive and distribute Eastern Commerce by the Construction of an Interoceanic Railway—- Would such a Line on the British Side pay ?—It must prove the shortest possible Route to Australia and China as well as British Columbia—The political Utility of the Scheme—How transcendent its Influence upon Victoria—Most eligible Tract of Country for the proposed Railway- Singular natural Features of the great Valleys through which the Line would pass, favouring its Construction—Central Position of Red River Settlement—Road via St. Paul’s—Alleged Difiiculties in the Way of extending the Line from Fort Garry to Canada—Railway Enterprise not likely to take immediate Effect—Emigrant Route imperatively demanded —The Course it should take from Lake Superior—How are the territorial Rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company to be adjusted ?--Dr. Rae and the Telegraph—Climate and Soil of the Country between Canada and XX CONTENTS. British Columbia—The Adaptability of Red River and Saskatchewan for Colonisation—The Gold Discoveries East of the Rocky Mountains and their Attractions—Passes in the Range—Lord Milton’s J ourney—Dis- tances from Lake Superior to Cariboo—Strides of Russia in Opening up Water and Telegraphic Communication between the Amoor River, Sitka, and St. Pete‘rsburg—Designs of Napoleon III. in Relation to Mexico and Trade in the Pacific—By whom is the desired Route to be formed 5’— Note . . . . . . . . PAGE 334 CHAPTER XV. SOCIETY IN vANcoUvER IsLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Varieties of Race represented in Victoria—Tschudi’s Classification of Human Hybrids— The ultimate Effect of present heterogeneous Mixture of Types upon the Character of the Population—Civil Disabilities imposed on Negroes and Chinamen in California, to discourage their Residence— Missionary Labour among the Chinese—Visit to a Buddhist Temple—- Address of the Chinese of Victoria to the Governor—Condition of the Negroes—Differences between them and the Whites—Sir James Douglas —-Verdant Simplicity of New Comers—English and American Ladies com- pared—Tone of Society in 1859—Defalcations of Government Officials— Escapade of a Quack—‘ Widows ’ and their Adventures—Temptations of Young Men—The ‘ Skedaddler’—Excitement of Colonial Life and its Effect on the Brain—Intelligence of the Community-The social Pyramid inverted—Life at the Mines—Miners’ Ten Commandments . . 378 CHAPTER XVI. THE INDIANS or VANCOUVER IsLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Theories as to their Origin—Their probable Migration from Asia—Names and Occupations of Tribes—Their Ideas of Rank—The ‘Potlatch’- Feasts— Dramatic Exhibitions—Mysteries of ‘ Kluquolla ’—-Election of a ‘Medicine Man ’-—Cannibals—-Converse with the Man in the Moon- Doctors and the Healing Art—Incantation—Witchcraft—ldeas of Beauty —- Treating for Peace—An Indian Village —— Gambling —Heraldry — Credulity—Courtship and Marriage—Sepulture—Burning the Dead -- Catching Grasshoppers—Rain Making—Tradition of the Creation—The Yale and his Doings—The Flood—The Sim-moqza's—Theory of Thunder and Lightning—Religious Beliefs of the Fishing Tribes—Treachery and Bloodthirstiness of the Indians—Massacres of Whites—Exciting En- counter of Sir J. Douglas—Catholic Missions to the N atives—The Sign of the Cross—Awkward Predicament of Bishop Hills—Papal ‘ Self-inter- preting Bible’-Protestant Mission to the Tchimseans—Good Work of CONTENTS. xxi Mr. Duncan—The Opposition of Medicine Parties -- Establishment of Met-la-kat-lah— Treatment of Unreformed ‘ Tillicums ’ —- Government and Prosperity of the Native Settlement—Ingenuity of the Tribes — Civilisation and Evangelisation should go hand in hand—Rapid Diminu- tion and threatened Extinction of Primitive Tribes—Races not likely to disappear have the first Claim upon Missionaries—Chances of a bar- barous People surviving . . . . . PAGE 423 CHAPTER XVII. EMIGRATION. Inducements offered—Classes encouraged to Emigrate—Capitalists wanted -—Manufact1u*es that might be introduced—Climate inviting to retired Officers and Men of moderate Means—Openings for respectable Females -—Dancing round a Bonnet—Cautions to Emigrants—Rates of Wages— Prices—Routes from England—Hints as to Choice of Vessel and Outfit— —-Hindrances to colonial Progress—Necessity for direct Postal Commu- nication with England-Claims of young Colonies on the Aid of England -—Trade for an English Steamer in the North Pacific—Contrast between the United States and England in their Care for New Territories—Error of the Government in disposing of Irish Emigration—Emigration the most important Question of the Day . . . . 493 APPENDIX. Requirements for the Voyage—Money—Insurance——Time of Sailing—— Victoria and Esquimalt Harbour Dues Act—Land Proclamations—Rules for Working Gold Mines . . . . . . 519 INDEX . . . . . . . . . 559 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MAPS. MAP or VANcoUvER IsLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA MAP sHoWING OVERLAND RoUrE . WOOD EN GRAVINGS. RIvER OPERATIoNs ON THE NoRTH PAcIrIc . PRosPEcToRs AT WORK WORKING WITH THE RocxER . ~ HYDRAULIC MINING . GRoUNI) SLUIcING HELvETIA QUARTZ MILL, GRAss VALLEY CATGHING GRAssHoPPERs Page 39 335 . Frontz'spz'ece Page 267 0 9) 7) 269 271 275 277 450 VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGE OUT. Departure—Azores—-Description of Passengers—St. Thomas, W. I. —- Carthagena—Sharks—Scenes on the Isthmus—Panama—Passage to California— Acapulco—The Natives of Mexico—San Francisco—The Founding and Growth of the City—Discovery of Gold at General Sutter’s Mill—Californian Life in 1849—‘ Rowdyism’—The ‘ Vigilance Com- mittee’—Judge McAlmond—Present Order and Prosperity of San Francisco—Fertile Valleys—A Trip to Sacramento—State Legislature—- Meeting of the ‘ Democratic Convention ’—Mammoth Trees—American Taxation—Metallic Wealth of California—WaShoe—Up the Columbia River to Portland— Oregon Fruit—Sail to the Isle of San Juan—Parley with American Officers—Origin of the Dispute between the British and American Governments, as stated from their respective Points of View. THE ROUTE to be presently described is not selected for notice because it is believed to be necessarily the best— though perhaps more could be said in its favour than for any other—but simply because it happened to be the one taken by the author, and affords him an opportunity of referring to places visited on the voyage to British Columbia that cannot fail to interest emigrants who may determine on following the same track. B Y’ 2 THE VOYAGE OUT. On the 2nd of August, more than five years ago, I embarked in one of the West Indian Royal Steam Packet Company’s steamers from Southampton. Extracts from a journal written at the time will best convey to the reader my impressions received during the voyage :— ‘ After suffering for a few days the usual penalties incident to unprofessional navigation, the passengers gra- dually recovered their accustomed complexion and made their appearance on deck. By Sunday all had become proof against the elements. ‘ In harmony with the sacred character of the day, a brighter sun, a clearer sky, and a calmer sea changed the aspect of the scene. Service was conducted on board in the morning by a clergyman, when all devout hearts glowed with gratitude to the Almighty for preservation and fair weather. ‘ In the afternoon, at five, we made one of the Azores, Terceira. Brief as the space was since we caught the last glimpse of the English shores, it was a pleasant relief to the eye—for seven days in contact with the blank waste of waters—to rest on land once more. By the aid of the glass we could descry the terraced vineyards, scattered orange-trees, and picturesque houses in the distance. In the course of the same evening we sighted Pico, another of the western group, which derives its name from a mountain, 7,000 feet high, in the island. This peak, so majestic and so lonely, gilded by the rays of the setting sun, was an object of uncommon splendour. It was not long before this “ thing of beauty” disappeared in the gathering obscurity of the northern horizon, and the only natural scenery by which the uniformity of the passage was subsequently varied consisted of occasional “ schools” of porpoises, shoals of flying-fish, and belts of sea-weed; THE wEsT INDIES. 3 the direction in which these last floated indicating the course of the gulf-stream. A classification of our fellow- passengers by country would include English, Scotch, Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Mexican, 820. Their creeds were almost as varied as their nationality. As far as I can gather anything about their pursuits, they number among them a West Indian chief-justice—not always “ as sober as a judge” ought to be, an attorney- general, a clergyman, a Dissenting minister, an army officer, a royal engineer, merchants, medical men, and planters, bound for different parts. Only two out of the sixty on board are going to British Columbia. ‘St. Thomas, W. I., August 18, 1859.--I shall not soon forget our approach to the “Virgin Group” by the Som- brero passage. It consists of a cluster of lofty islets and rocks, extending about twenty-four leagues east and west, and sixteen north and south. The blue summits of those islands, their numerous channels, bays, and promontories, their luxuriant growth of trees and shrubs, and the bright green of the cultivated estates they contain, are admitted by those familiar with this part of the world to exhibit an aspect of enchanting variety. The groves of palm trees, the white rolling surf, the lights and shadows of passing clouds, present views of combined novelty and magnificence. So freshly fair are everywhere the features of the scene, That earth appears a resting-place where angels might alight, As if sorrow ne’er a visitant in human breast had been, And the verdure of the summer months had never suffered blight. ‘ That mind, acquainted with the history of the West Indies, must be incapable of sentiment, which, in a region so rich in historic associations, sails through it without being reminded that within sight of the vessel’s track Columbus passed more than three centuries and a half B 2 4 THE VOYAGE our. ago. To him belongs the honour of being discoverer of the Virgin Group, then inhabited by Indian cannibals, called “ Caribes,” after whom the neighbouring sea was named. ‘ The harbour of St. Thomas is a scene of peculiar ani- _ mation twice or thrice a month by the arrival and depar- ture of transatlantic and intercolonial steamers. Here passengers by the Royal Mail Company’s packets change ships according to their respective destinations. As soon as we arrived, our steamer was besieged with crowds of boats, plied chiefly by negroes, waiting for hire, and pleading hard for their object with the massas that were looking down at them from the vessel’s side. Then fol- lowed the more elegant boats of merchants in quest of packages, news, or friends from England. Shortly after, a couple of dozen negro boys, practised divers, came swimming round us, and repeatedly calling out, “Moshoo, one dime.” Their hope was to induce the passengers to pitch ten cent pieces into the water that the black youths might have the satisfaction of scrambling for these coins under the surface as they descended to the bottom, and that the donors might be entertained. ‘ ‘ Being detained here four days, I have had an oppor- tunity of seeing something of the town. It is built partly on a flat and partly on three hills which abut from the main range to the shore, with savannahs between. The heat is past endurance. White suits and straw hats were visible in all directions, and umbrellas were generally found necessary to ward off the potent glare of a tropical sun. The population of the town does not much exceed 13,000, and on all the estates in the country inclusive does not reach 1,500. The bulk of it is composed of negroes, embracing every shade of colour, from the pure African to the octoroon. There is also a considerable ISLAND OF ST. THOMAS. 5 white population devoted to trade and commerce. St. Thomas is the renowned banking depot of the West Indies. It contains no public buildings of any importance except places of worship, in which religious Service is conducted by Lutherans, Catholics, Dutch Reformers, and Episcopalians respectively. Palm and cocoa-nut trees gratefully alternate to the view of a visitor from Northern Europe. The markets are held in a small square in the main street, and in an alley leading thence to the sea- shore. Here all manner of wares, especially an olla. podrz'da of eatables, are disposed of amidst a heterogeneous and unceasing gabble of negro female voices, e. g. man- goes, butchers’ meat, bananas, shell fish, pine apples, sweet bread, cocoa nuts, yams, sugar cane, melons, oranges, limes. In the evening the chatter of darkies’ voices in the streets, and the loud choruses of frogs in the gardens, combine to produce a singular effect upon the “ Britisher.” ‘ The morals of the community do not seem in the most satisfactory condition. A clergyman long resident in the island writes thus : “ In the majority of cases the marriage- tie is shunned or despised, and thus a flood of vice and unhappiness is poured upon our community, and oflicial accounts inform us that three-fourths of the children born here are illegitimate.” ‘In 1848, the authorities of the island, now a Danish possession, were compelled, by an insurrection of the slaves, to grant them immediate emancipation. The benefits accruing from this measure to the negroes and their masters have fallen far short of what philanthropists might have anticipated. Many persons of colour, released from the performance of compulsory labour, are now willing to work only as much as the necessities of a bare subsistence demand. But the Government introduced a 6 THE VOYAGE OUT. “ Labour Act,” requiring all free labourers to contract with employers for a period of not less than a twelvemonth at a time. They also deem it expedient to extend the application of law to the relations between master and servant more rigidly than would be called for in a normal state of society. By this means many evils have been prevented that have been complained of in the British West Indies in connection with the abolition of slavery there. ‘Near Carthagena, New Grenada, August 23.-Here we have been kept nearly a day, from the difficulty of obtaining the services of a regular pilot to take us up the channel, which is circuitous, to the basin. The coast from Santa Marta, where we landed mails, to this place, is rocky, and the hills lying behind are covered with dense vegetation. Carthagena was formerly one of the most flourishing settlements in the Spanish colonies, and still boasts some good buildings and a considerable population. It is over 700 miles from St. Thomas. Under the influence of the Jesuits, and from the revolutionary spirit of the people, its glory has departed. At present the town, which is the seat of government for the state, is convulsed by revolution. The eX-Vice-President of the Legislative Assembly and staff were recently banished, and took refuge under the neutral flag of a British man-of-war at anchor in the harbour, whence they took passage by our steamer to Aspinwall for the purpose of mustering troops to defend their cause. Poor Spain! she seems to have neither had social stability nor political vitality suflicient to establish peaceful and enterprising colonies, though the choicest climes and richest countries on the globe fell to her lot. But how mighty must have been that nation which gradually conquered and attempted to colonise the greater part of North and South America, while holding ISTHMUS or PANAMA. 7 under her sway several West Indian islands and the fairest parts of Europe! To this day her language pre- vails in all the republics south of the United States border, down to Chili. ‘ I saw huge sharks playing lazily at the vessel’s stern while at anchor in the harbour of Carthagena, the usual complement of pilot-fish preceding each of these monsters with all the dignity of mace-bearers at a Lord Mayor’s show. It is said that while sharks have a penchant for white men, they do not esteem darkies good eating, and consequently they are rarely if ever in their “ bill of fare.” Certain species of monkeys and tropical birds are to be met with here in abundance. ‘ Panama, August 30.—-I arrived at Aspinwall on Thurs- day evening, and took the train the following morning across the isthmus, passing through a tract of country which used to be generally regarded as the most unhealthy on earth. It rained nearly the whole way in torrents, and terrific thunder-storms occurred at intervals. I am baked and stewed with the heat. This morning the sun was 1200 in the shade. Panama is about 8 degrees from the equator. Fetid swamps exist on either side of the railway at this season. Before the ground was partially drained by cutting the line, it is estimated that, by the action of the torrid rays upon those abodes of malarious fever, 10,000 workmen met an untimely grave. There was, however, sufficient variety in the route to divert the thoughts of passengers from these gloomy themes. I suppose there is nowhere to be seen such wild luxuriance. Castor-trees, acacias, cassias, palms, &c., with innumerable fruits, grow without a touch of cultiva- tion. Every now and then one sees groups of native wig- wams along the road with inclosures of tropical fruit-trees and Indian corn for domestic use. These huts are often 8 THE VOYAGE our. inconveniently well ventilated; for they cannot, while so open, afford complete shelter from the tremendous rains that fall for several months in the year on the isthmus. They usually rest on tall props, and are entered by a ladder through a hole near the eaves. Thus the natives protect themselves from the wild animals that inhabit the woods and jungles. They are known as Spanish negroes, and both men and women look clean and tidy. But their male children are allowed, for the first few years after learning to walk, to go about in a condition of stark nudity. At the railway stations the natives drive a strong trade in boiled stalks of Indian corn, ground cocoa-nut cake, bananas, oranges, limes, iced water, milk, &c. At Aspinwall and Panama passengers are bored by countless darkies pushing the sale of racoons, parrots, monkeys, Panama hats, besides “ hot coffee, if you are cold (I), and iced ginger-beer, if you are warm!” These idle fellows have migrated, for the most part, from Jamaica, and, rather than return to their legitimate employment as free labourers on West Indian plantations, where their services are required, prefer to live here as vagrants, on the brink of starvation. I have met some who actually confessed to me that in many respects slavery, under a kind master, was more to be desired than the aimless life they are now leading. Having to stop here a week, I have seen a little of the neighbourhood and the people.’ To those who have been accustomed to see the waters of the Pacific daily for years, poetic fancies on this sub- ject look ridiculous ; but the first view of these waters in the bay of Panama is remarkable as reviving all the romantic associations which the tales of youth threw around that vast ocean-coral islands, golden strands, missionary adventures, Spanish galleons, British privateers, and Red Indians. TOWN OF PANAMA.‘ 9 Journal resumed.——‘ The fare to Panama by railway, a distance of only 47% miles, is 5l., and for every pound weight of luggage over 501bs., the charge is 5d. per lb. N o wonder there is no Panama Railway Stock in the market; it is too valuable an investment to sell out. Panama has quite an ancient appearance ; the streets are narrow, and the houses have latticed Windows and veran- dahs. It is unsafe to be in the streets after dusk, as all sorts of refuse is unceremoniously thrown from the windows. ‘ The Spanish, in early times,built several Roman Catholic churches in the Moorish style, and the spires of the principal of them still display a profusion of mother of pearl. The better class of ladies dress extravagantly, and, as throughout the whole of South America (one might add everywhere else), women are the chief supporters of places of worship. l/Vhen a lady is dressed no bonnet is worn, but only some light ornamental covering thrown on the back part of the head. It is uncommon for her to Walk out alone; she would feel not afraid but ashamed if unaccompanied by a servant. _On Sunday the native girl follows her mis- tress to church, carrying the carpet on which she is to kneel on the open unseated space of the church floor. Last Sunday I could perceive no distinction in that day from other days, except that a few worshippers repaired ,to church in the morning. The remainder of the day after noon was spent in mule-racing, cock-fighting, or some kindred recreation. The priests have, in many cases, no scruple about training dogs or other animals to fight, and risking heavy stakes upon one side or other in the sport. N o Protestantism is tolerated here. ‘San Francisco, Sept. 16.-We sailed from Panama Bay on the 1st inst, and reached this port on the 14th. I was not sorry to leave Panama, notwithstanding its interesting 10 THE VOYAGE OUT. visions of lightning-bugs by night and buzzards by day?‘ I was liable to visits in my bedroom from Brobdignagian cockroaches, and the table at meals swarmed with divers forms of insect life, exciting the apprehension that it was about to take itself Oif. We were conveyed to the ocean steamer by tender, several miles in the bay, in consequence of there not being proper wharf accommodation near the shore. The scene that now burst upon me was decidedly the most novel and animated I had yet witnessed. Six hundred passengers who had just arrived from New York were taking ship for California, and this number was be- low the average at one time, the year round. The steamer’s burden was over 2,000 tons, and the passengers and crew were for the most part Americans. At 1 A. M. the gun was fired, and the paddles were soon in motion. The islands clustered in the bay are beautiful, especially Taboga, which is about four miles from Panama. The steamers plying on the South American coast of the Paci- fic, combined with the mail and opposition lines to San Francisco, create considerable trade and circulation of money in the neighbourhood. Large engineering estab- lishments erected on one of the islands are kept in full blast, by the requirements of the steamers. ‘After a night’s rest, I felt resigned to my new situation, and shared a community of interest for the time being with all on board. The aft quarter of the steamer was furnished with four distinct floorings, rising one above the other. The lowest was the saloon of the second cabin, a miserable hole containing a few berths, and stowed full * The first are a species of fly that is visible at night, which emits a spark with every motion of its wings, and when a number of them are together the effect is very fine. The second are crows of tropical size, that form a kind of volunteer sanitary committee for removing all feculent matter that may be thrown from the doors of butchers, fishmongers, and provision- merchants. PAssAGE To CALIFORNIA. 11 of luggage, the temperature being hot to suffocation. The next was the saloon of B first cabin passengers ; the next was the saloon of A first cabin passengers, and the topmost the hurricane deck. The second cabin, and especially the steerage passengers, had a rough time of it. The latter had to stand at meals, which were served up to a couple of hundred of them at once in tin dishes, upon a deal table lowered by ropes from above their heads. The state-rooms in the B saloon of the first cabin con- tained three berths, rising parallel the one above the other. In these we gravely stowed ourselves away like mummies, with this difference, that we managed to preserve vague signs of consciousness in this confined space. As the voyage advanced and the characteristics of the passengers developed, I found them a motley throng: young men going to push their fortune, wives with young families to join their husbands, parents on a visit to prosperous chil- dren, merchants in pursuit of business, women to supply the demands of vice in California, bankrupts, gamblers, thieves, farmers, miners, doctors, lawyers and ministers. This was my first experience of American society. We were much sooner at ease with each other than we should have been had we been all British subjects. The most profane knew how to be civil. Many grew upon acquaintance. The most humble American has always something to say worth listening to, and the Yankee artisan can assume manners that compare favourably with those of many who pretend to better station. The sharpness of an American’s perceptions, whether man or woman, is eminently noticeable. There is a larger pro- portion of refined and delicate beauty among American ladies than is to be found among the English fair sex, but it is usually of that waxen hue that soon blooms and soon fades. After becoming a mother, the American lady’s 12 THE VOYAGE OUT. cheeks collapse. Their fluency (by which I rather mean rapidity of utterance) and vivacity are marvellous. ‘American boys have but a short childhood, and American girls but a short youth. In a certain walk of life the one sex are “smart” traders at fifteen, and the other are flirts at twelve. There is a dash of generosity about the people for which we look in vain to the same extent among Englishmen of the same class. But only a wider range of observation can enable me to do justice to the nation. I decline to accept the political or “ rowdy” class that occasionally figure in “ Punch” as fair specimens, any more than I would view the swindlers, swell-mobs- men, fops, or workhouse people as conveying an adequate notion of the whole-hearted middle classes of England. ‘But to return. In favourable weather quadrilles were the amusement of the mass in the evenings, and cards were in vogue all day long. . .. . ‘We caught glimpses of the coasts of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, in Central America, but were out of sight of land for a day or two in crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec, as afterwards that of California. On the 8th we‘ anchored in the highly-picturesque harbour of Acapulco, in the state of Guerero, Mexico, and stopped several hours to coal. I went ashore, and was most feebly reminded, by the present dilapidated aspect of the place, of the importance attaching to it centuries ago when Spanish argosies used to bring rich freight from Manilla, and ship hence the precious metals from Mexico to Spain. Much the same scenes of idleness were visible as I saw on the isthmus. The poorest natives, frequently a mixture of the Spaniard, the Indian, and the negro, do not seem an industrious race. I observed the lower class engaged in gambling and selling the productions of the country to OALIEORNIA. 13 persons in transit like ourselves. Many of the cultivated Mexicans are enterprising and immensely wealthy.’ I will take occasion to say here that the plan of N a- poleon in the coup cl’e'tat of Mexico is not understood in England. In another chapter it will be shown that his objects in the late conquests of that country are quite as much com- mercial as political. But Mexican gentlemen, who were fellow-passengers on the homeward voyage, gave me to understand that the throne of Maximilian is only sup- ported by French bayonets, and that their Withdrawal would be attended with his banishment. When our steamer passed Acapulco, going southward, a few months since, we found it blockaded by the French squadron. Journal resumed—J The priests in Mexico are, as a class, very corrupt. I think I have heard that their unworthi- ness resulted some time ago in the dissolution of the tie between them and Rome. ‘ Glad was I to get out of the tropics, and bare my locks to the northern breezes. But how shall I attempt to speak of California? I take it to be the wonder of the world. The state is 750 miles in average length, and 250 in breadth. It was discovered by Sir Francis Drake in 1579, while engaged in one of his buccaneering expedi- tions against the commerce of Spain. What a pity that the discovery should not have become associated with the name of that distinguished navigator under more honour- able circumstances. From its white cliffs he named this new land NOVA ALBION, and but for the apathy and ignorance of Old Albion (only now beginning to give way) respecting the resources of the coast, the “ Union Jack,” instead of the “ Stars and Stripes,” would this day be floating over the entire region from the northern boundary of Mexico to the Russian possessions 'of America. 14. TIIE VOYAGE OUT. Even in Drake’s time the metalliferous character of the country was believed in, for an old chronicler of the admiral’s expedition says, “ The earth of the country seemed ' to promise rich veins of gold and silver, some of the ore being constantly found on digging.” In view of the important commercial relations rapidly springing up between this state and our colonies on the coast, the reader will forgive any trespass on his patience which a brief glance at California may occasion. The mid entrance to the bay of San Francisco—to which city I have paid three separate visits—lies in lat. 37° 48’ N ., and long. 122° 30’ W. This entrance consists of a strait called Chrysopylaa, or the GOLDEN GATE. This designa- tion was applied in 1848 by Col. Fremont, before the modern discovery of gold, and was probably intended to be descriptive of the rich products of the soil yet to be exported, and the commerce of all nations to be imported through that channel. This strait is a mile wide at the narrowest point, and reaches an average breadth of from ten to twelve miles; the entire length of the bay from north to south is about seventy miles. From midsummer to November the hills by which the bay is flanked look parched and barren, but from the latter month till May, they are clothed with verdure. Massive forts defend the approach to the city, and as I passed through a few months ago, an iron-clad ship of war was being con- structed expressly for local service. The first dwelling ever built by a White man on the present site of San Fran- cisco dates back to 1835. ‘ It was simply a large tent, supported on four red-wood posts, and covered with a ship’s foresail.’ Nine years afterwards, Yerba Buena, as the place was then called, contained but a dozen houses, and its permanent population did not exceed fifty persons. The Mexican war resulted in the annexation of California sAN FRANCISCO. 15 to the United States, and from ~1846-the year in which that event took place—the progress of San Francisco was sensibly quickened. It is estimated that. when the rush to the ‘ diggings’ commenced in 1848, the residents had increased to 1,000. It is not quite seventeen years since then, and already‘ the city is inhabited by 120,000 souls, many of whom are millionaires. To secure deep water for shipping, one-third of the place stands on piles extend- ing a considerable way beyond high-water mark. Lots for wharves—surveyed on the water—that in 1847 could have been bought for 20l., are now worth 400,000l. each. As an example of the strides with which city property advances in value still, it may be mentioned that a gentle— man, known to a friend of mine, invested 1,600l. in town ‘lots’ in 1860, when I was on a visit there ; and in June last, when stopping a few days, I was informed that the week before my arrival the same party had been offered 16,000l. for the property, which had thus in little more than four years augmented in value tenfold. The total value of exports from the state for 1847 averaged $120,000. The entire exports of productions for 1863 are classified in ‘ The Mercantile Gazette and Prices Current’ as follows :— Products of the mine . . . . . $47,982,388 ,, agriculture . . . . . 2,013,975 ,, the herd . . . . . . 2,182,153 ,, the forest . . . . . . 134,086 ,, the sea . . . . . . 11,285 , , manufacture . . . . . 873,854 ,, the vine . . . . . . 81,456 $53,279,197 The discovery of gold operated like the manipulation of Aladdin’s lamp, in inaugurating that era of stupendous prosperity under which the state continues to flourish; and 16 THE VOYAGE OUT. my apology for referring to this circumstance is, that these pages may be read by many who have grown into man- hood since it was first brought under the notice of the British public. General Sutter had erected an adobe (i. e. of untempered mortar) house a few miles from what is now the site of Sacramento city-situated about a hundred miles from San Francisco; and, speaking from experience, I am of opinion that the sight of that homely dwelling—of him whose name is prominently associated with the early de— velopment of California-must fill the intelligent traveller with emotion. In the winter of 1847-48, the general made a contract, with one James W. Marshall, to erect a timber saw-mill on the south fork of the American river. Marshall was engaged one day in making alterations in the ‘ tail race’ of the mill, and, for this purpose, let on the water in full volume. While walking on the bank of the stream next morning, he observed glittering specks mixed with the sand and gravel that had been washed down by the force of the water. One of these, brighter than the rest, drew his attention, and on examining he found it to be a scale of pure gold. Picking up a few specimens he showed them to the general, in a state of great excitement. The statements of the man at first appeared to Sutter so ex- travagant that he thought him crazy. But on seeing the sparkling scales, he too soon became infected with what miners call ‘the yellow fever.’ The discovery could not be long kept a secret. The news flew to San Francisco ; spread to the Eastern States, and electrified the world. Men of all trades and professions, and of every nation, in a few months had found their way to El Dorado. One nugget was ‘found of thirteen pounds weight. In another instance, five loads of 'auriferous earth, sold for $750, ‘TEE HOUNDS’ AND THEIR DOINGS. l7 yielded, after washing, 816,000. Three men obtained $8,000 in a single day. The rise in the price of flour was at first deemed moderate—4.00 per cent, and of beef 500 per cent! Soon, eggs rose to one, two, and three dollars a piece. Medicines, e.g. laudanum, fetched $1 per drop, and $40 was paid for a dose of that quantity; a pill cost $10 without advice, and with it from $30 to 8100. The mechanic that previously thought 82 per day good wages, now rejected $20. At the end of July ’49, nearly two hundred square-rigged vessels lay in the bay at one time ; and no sooner had they dropped anchor than they were deserted by their crews ; and, in many cases, goods and vessels together went to ruin for want of hands. In course of time men arrived, willing, for fabulous wages, to follow their accustomed employments; and wharves, stores, and other improvements became visible. Gambling saloons were the almost universal resort of successful miners, who, in their reckless disregard of gains so easily acquired, were often known to stake bags of gold-dust, amounting to thousands of dollars, at one time, upon the turn of a card. If unlucky, they would leave the gaming- board with a light heart, confident of speedily retrieving their fortunes. On the huge wave of immigration that set in at this period there was floated a considerable proportion of the convict population from New South Wales, familiarly known as ‘ Sydney ducks,’ together with exifilibusters, and the most notorious pinks of American rowdyism. These ruffians organised themselves into a society for the professed object of ‘ mutual defence,’ but their real pur- pose was to hatch schemes of rapine and plunder. They adopted the significant sobriquet of ‘ The Hounds,’ placed themselves under a sort of discipline, had head-quarters in a certain part of the city, and appointed a ‘lieutenant’ to c 18 THE VOYAGE OUT. conduct their operations. Their numbers were estimated at 200. Sunday was their ‘ field-day,’ when they paraded the streets, armed with bludgeons and loaded revolvers, displaying banners, and led with fife and drum.‘ Their favourite sport in daylight was to force their way in over- powering strength into taverns and hotels, demanding expensive fare, and in return for the hospitality extorted, they smashed all the furniture within their reach. At night they sallied forth, tore down the tents, and pillaged the houses—chiefly of foreigners -often without provo- cation, b_eating their unoffending victims with clubs and staves, and wantonly firing upon them amidst the shrieks of women and the groans of wounded men. When public indignation was roused against their lawlessness, they adapted their tactics to the crisis, claimed to be the abused guardians of the community against the encroachments of Spanish immigrants, and had the effrontery to drop the designation of ‘ hounds,’ and assume that of ‘ regulators.’ The respectable citizens, finding the constituted autho- rities too weak—at so early and chaotic a stage in the ‘history of the state-to deal with this formidable emer- gency, took the law into their own hands,formed themselves into a volunteer corps, and arrested about twenty of the rioters. A jury was summoned, judges and counsel ex- temporised, and the trial which was held resulted in the leader of the gang, with eight accomplices, being sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Several of the ‘ hounds’ escaped from confinement, owing, with other causes, to the insecurity of the tem- porary prison, which was the hull of an old vessel in the harbour. Their success in this respect emboldened their companions in crime, and scenes of robbery and murder were enacted by them on a yet more frightful scale. In the course of a few years the city was burnt to ashes five LYNCH LAW. 19 or six times over?‘ Other towns in the state shared the same fate. N 0 one could have any doubt in regard to the authors of this wholesale incendiarism. The leading citi- zens, waiting in vain for the local Government to adopt efficient measures for repressing these outrages, determined upon organising themselves into a permanent ‘ Vigilance Committee.’ Such was the name by which this remark- able association was known, and occasions soon happened for testing its utility. To strike terror into the scoundrels that were spreading desolation throughout the state, daring burglaries, as well as crimes of higher degree, were punished by the ‘ Committee’ with death, after being fairly tried. An hour or two after sentence was pronounced, the criminal was marched to the place of execution. As soon as he reached the spot the rope was adjusted round his neck, in front of a warehouse or a ‘ derrick.’ He was there hoisted from the street by the simple aid of a pulley, the infuriated mob—impatient of all ceremony in the operation--‘ swinging him off.’ It was not surprising that this association, whose acts had the sanction of the mass of the people, should be brought into collision with the ‘ proper authorities.’ But ‘so impotent were the latter at that time, that they were obliged to witness, without even attempting resistance, ‘the prisons broken into by the crowd, and their more dan- gerous inmates dragged to the gallows. Whatever view be taken of the informal proceedings of these exasperated citizens, it is satisfactory to reflect that no innocent blood was shed by them, and no culprit was condemned without receiving an impartial trial. It is certain that their con- duct can only be correctly understood by the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed being taken *‘ The corporate seal of the city appropriately exhibits a phoenix rising from its ashes. c2 20 THE VOYAGE OUT. into account. The effect of the ‘ Vigilance Committee organisation upon the bench and the bar was salutary. To sweep away from California the appalling corruption of that period was a task that might well remind us of Hercules and the Augean stables. But the importance of the results amply repays all the toil and anxiety expended; for it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that San Francisco is now one of the best governed and most prosperous cities in the world. The ornament of the bench in those primitive days, and one of the first magistrates to introduce a pure order of judicial administration, was W. B. M‘Almond, Esq, a name still much venerated. His honour, however, had a sovereign contempt for legal technicalities, grandiloquent speeches, and learned citations. ‘ The judge’ opened his court in a school-room. His seat was an old ricketty chair, and, when sitting officially, his feet were generally perched considerably higher than the level of his head upon a small mantel-piece over the fire. It is said that he was in the habit of paring his corns or scraping his nails while the ‘ learned counsel’ was addressing the court. On one occasion his honour outwitted in an amusing manner a lawyer who was anxious to display his abilities. When the first witness was called, and the counsel was prepared to put questions in the usual tedious fashion, the judge, without changing the posture which has just been described, instructed the witness to tell all ._he knew about the matter in as few words as possible; requesting the lawyers at the same time not to interrupt him with questions. This witness had but little to say, but gave plain straightforward evidence. The counsel was about to call another, when his honour informed him that it would be unnecessary to pursue the enquiry farther. ‘ The Court,’ said he, ‘ understands the merits of PROGRESS or SAN rRANcIsco. 2]- the case, and its mind is made up.’ ‘ But,’ said a lawyer, ‘ you will at least hear us speak to the points of law.’ ‘ That would be a great waste of time, which is very precious,’ replied the judge. ‘ I award the plaintiff 3150. Mr. Clerk, what is the next case ?’* The number of churches in San Francisco, and their tasteful architecture, are very imposing. The leading Christian bodies are in every respect well represented. The musical part of public religious Service is artistically conducted, and there is as large an amount of educated pulpit talent as could be met with in any other city of the same extent. There being no established church in the states, all places of worship are called churches, and these are for the most part largely attended. The clergy (there are no ministers) are generally well remunerated. Their salaries range from 600l. to 1,600]. a year, apart from marriage and baptismal fees, which vary from 20l. to 1l., according to the means of the parties. Magnificent asylums for the blind, the sick, and the orphan, schools public and private, and colleges, meet the visitor in every direction. Monster hotels, superior to any in London, and nearly equal to the best in New York, offer the most perfect accommodation that even fastidiousness could desire. In the suburbs are mansions decorated with costly embellishments of Grecian architecture. An air of activity, comfort, and grandeur pervades the well- dressed multitudes that incessantly cross one’s path. A monetary panic was reported to be imminent when I saw San Francisco recently ; but to the eye of a stranger this alleged crisis would seem only to exist in the public imagination, for no indication of it could be traced in the exterior of society, which was surprisingly animated. * Annals of San Francisco, p. 239'. 22 THE VOYAGE OUT. The general prosperity of this mighty emporium is to all appearance as little affected by pending adversity as the health of a sound physical system would be by a scratch on the skin. I was admitted, through the introduction of a friend, to the mint, where I had an opportunity of seeing the inter- esting process of transmuting gold dust into coins of the value of 820, 810, 85, 82 50c, $3, and $1. An official of the establishment informed me that in 1868 coins to the value of $31,100,000 had been struck Off. The great valleys of California are those formed respectively by the courses of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, with their tributaries, of the Suisum River with the creeks N apa, Sonoma, and Petaluma, and of River Guadalupe. In these fertile districts the grape is largely cultivated, and every kind of farm produce grows luxuri- antly. A gentleman of my acquaintance in Sonoma has an estate containing eleven miles of fencing round its circumference, and many proprietors of ranches have much larger holdings. In some of these districts a common yield from wheat is from 70 to 80 fold, maize occasionally gives a return of 150 fold. Potatoes have been produced of the enor— mous weight of seven and eight pounds, and the usual yield of that product is from two to three hundred sacks an acre. Carrots often grow nearly a yard in length and of corresponding girth. Turnips as large as hassocks, radishes as large as mangolds, pumpkins from 2001bs. to 250lbs., and squashes weighing 4001bs., are not unfre- quently seen at agricultural exhibitions held in San Francisco. A trip to Sacramento gave me an opportunity of visiting the state legislature in session, and I must confess that the spectacle was not calculated to heighten my admiration of i A PoLITIcAL MEETING. 23 the manners of American legislators. The majority in the Senate and Assembly seemed to have acquired the unfortunate habit of chewing tobacco and spitting the juice expressed from it upon the carpeted floor. Outside the bar of the Assembly several members of the House were smoking under the eye of the Speaker. The lobbies, too, were elaborately besmeared with highly-flavoured saliva, and slippery from the profusion of orange peel distributed in all directions. Curiosity prompted me to attend a meeting of the Democratic Convention which was held there during my visit. It was assembled in a place of worship, and scenes occurred during the proceedings setting at defiance all one’s British notions of propriety. The mercenary spirit that actuated the trustees of a place devoted to the worship of the Almighty to rent it for an uproarious political gathering, and the sentiments of men who could use it for such a purpose, are alike open to grave censure. The church on that occasion resembled a bear garden. The chairman impressed me very forcibly with the suspicion that he had not recovered from the effects of a jolly dinner, and several of the speakers were evidently in the same condition. Most of the audience were standing on the seats of the pews with their hats on, blowing clouds from their cigars, and expectorating without regard to the distinction between benches and floor. Fierce alter- cation accompanied with pugilistic exercise was of fre- quent occurrence in different parts of the building in the course of the evening; and, knowing the expertness of that class of Americans in the use of bowie-knife and revolver, I thought it expedient to beat an early retreat. Sacramento contains between 15,000 and 20,000 in- habitants; and though it has been repeatedly submerged by floods and destroyed by fires, it still holds a firm 24 . THE VOYAGE OUT. position as a commercial centre through the brave vigour and enterprise of its men of business. Certain portions of the town, as in San Francisco, are exclusively occupied by Chinamen, whose tails, flying about, present an interesting appearance to a stranger in nearly all the British and American towns on this coast. Between 40,000 and 50,000 of these ‘ Celestials’ are engaged in sundry branches of industry in California. Perhaps the greatest natural wonder in the state is the mammoth-trees (Wellingtonea gigantea) in Calaveras County. One of these is 450 feet high and 35 feet. in diameter; and it vvuuILl take nve good axemen 25 days to how it down. I was informed by one who had visited the spot that the top of a stump has been converted into the floor of a dancing-room, and affords easy scope for a moderate-sized party to indulge in ‘light fantastic ’ gyrations. The following table, supplied to me by a gentleman residing in Placerville, will convey an idea of the enor- mous amount of taxation levied in an inland town. This rate is, I believe, greatly exceeded in San Francisco. City license on annual sales under $1000 . . . 2 per cent. Federal ,, ,, . . . 2 ,, State and county tax . . . . . . 3% ,, City property tax 2 ,, 7) State and county property tax . . . . . 2 Income tax on nett profits (with the probability of } 5 being increased to 10 per cent.) Three separate poll-taxes from $6 to $9 per annum. There is a special feature in the topography and geology of California that cannot fail to deepen the interest of everyone concerned for the progress of British Columbia, in the resources of the American state. Every indication of metallic or mineral wealth in the latter RESoURcEs or OALIEORNIA. 25 renders the future prosperity of mining enterprise in the former more certain. The range of the Sierra Nevada__ the source of metallic riches in California—is but an extension of the metalliferous ridge that passes through British Columbia ; and the large quantities of gold already taken from the mountains of British territory—notwith- standing the limited appliances hitherto in use—give abundant promise that when more capital and labour shall have been attracted to the colony the variety and extent of its resources to be developed will prove bound- less. The following extract from a masterly article, entitled ‘Mining Review for 1863,’ was published in the San Francisco ‘ Mercantile Gazette and Prices Current,’ and put in my hands by the editor: There is perhaps no other portion of the globe of like extent containing such a variety and abundance of mineral products as the American possessions west of the Rocky Mountains. Within the limits of our own state there is scarcely a metal or mineral known to science but what is found in quantity suflicient to justify their being worked. . . . Thus we have gold both free and in combination with other substances; silver in all its varieties, of which there are twenty-six recognised by metal- lurgists; copper, virgin and with its usual associates, iron, mer- cury, zinc, lead, tin, arsenic, bismuth, antimony, and platinum, with many others of minor importance,—all here in such abun- dance as render them marked features in the mineralogy of the country, and Warrant the belief that they will very soon be extracted on a scale ample to meet every home demand, with a large surplus for exportation. Besides these metals a great variety of useful minerals abound in all parts of the state, chief among which are coal, salt, sulphur, nitre, alum, borax, asphaltum, chalk, soda, magnesia, and gypsum, with limestone and different kinds of marble and other building stone in endless variety. With a field so rich and boundless it is easy to see that the business of mining must grow rapidly on this coast. 26 THE VOYAGE OUT. The latter remark includes in its application British Columbia as appropriately as it does the state to which it was intended specially to refer. ' In California, placer or surface mining (the poor man’s diggings) has been displaced by the introduction of mechanical processes which large associated capital alone can compass. Chief among these is ‘ hydraulic’ mining. The sphere of this operation extends from Shasta to El Dorado. In some of the claims worked on this principle many thousands of dollars are taken out at a single clean- ing up. In this mode of working immense blasts are used ——-a single one exploding from 200 to 500 kegs of powder. The silver mines of Washoe—only as yet in the sixth year of their discovery—yield over 820,000,000 a year; the rate of production increasing annually. But argenti- ferous leads are not confined to this district. Some claiming to be equally rich, and still in their infancy, are found in the region east of the Sierra Nevada. Naming them in the order of their discovery, we have the Esme- ralda mines, the Humboldt, the Peavine, the Silver Moun- tains, the Reese River, the Cortez, and San Antonio ; the last-mentioned being 100 miles south of Austin, which is the chief town in the Beese River locality. Lying south of Virginia, and extending from Gold Hill to Carson River, are districts containing a multitude of ledges, many of them with promising out-croppings. But when the undeveloped wealth of Idaho and Utah territo- ries, with the Arizona side of the Colorado River, is considered, the mind is bewildered by the magnificent prospects of California, through which the greater part of precious metals extracted in those regions will pass. Many millions of dollars are already invested in silver mining, and often with vast results. In N evada* alone * Admitted into Union as a separate state since this chapter was written. RICHES or NEVADA. 27 there are now close on 200 quartz mills in operation. These carry from 5 to 40 stampers each. It is calculated that every stamper will crush a ton of rock in twenty-four hours. Supposing only 100 mills to be constantly in motion-thus allowing for the proportion obliged to stop for cleaning and repairs—these will carry, on an average, 10 stamps each, making 1,000 in all, capable of crush- ing 1,000 tons of ore daily. This ore will yield at the rate of $50 per ton, giving a daily product of $50,000 for the territory, or a total of $15,000,000 per annum, estimating the number of working days at 300. To illustrate the rapidity with which communities grow up and business thrives under the stimulus given by this system of mining, it may be stated that five years ago the population of Washoe was less than 2,000, and is now between 60,000 and 70,000; and the value of property has multiplied in a much greater ratio. The Reese River district, which less than two years ago contained 50 per- sons, now boasts nearly 10,000. Without delaying to instance other branches of the mining interest, . for the prosecution of which British Columbia offers, in its geological formation, inducements equally with California, I would reiterate the hope that the facts now adduced relative to the metallic resources of California may be regarded as affording the highest encouragement for the development of British Columbia. The American state, including Nevada, has a population of not less than 600,000, and the day is not far distant when the population of the British colony will also advance at a speed exceeding all present conception. Leaving San Francisco by a line of steamers plying thence to Victoria two or three times a month, the pas- senger is usually diverted from his course by being carried 28 THE VOYAGE OUT. up the- Columbia River as far as Portland. This is at present the largest city in the state of Oregon, its popula- tion numbering about 8,000. It is situated on the Willamette River, some miles above the junction of that stream with the former, and 100 miles from the ocean. The Columbia is said to be the finest river in the United States, except the Mississippi. There is, however, a sand ‘ bar ’ at its mouth, which in foul weather renders the navigation—particularly of sailing vessels—somewhat dangerous. The first port touched at on the voyage up is Astoria, the ancient depot of the American fur-hunting company; and to those acquainted with the fascinating work of Washington Irving on the subject, the place is invested with romantic interest. In 1843, immigrants—encouraged by liberal grants of land offered them by the Federal Government—began to enter the state over the Rocky Mountains, and since that period the population has been steadily increasing. Within the last few years rich gold mines have been discovered on the Salmon, John Day, and Boise Rivers, and under the impulse communicated by these ‘ diggings,’ the population has risen to about 90,000. The soil is eminently produc- tive, and the climate genial. In the growth of fruit, Oregon excels most other parts of the coast. A resident in Vancouver Island writes :-—‘ I have seen Oregon pears, to demolish one of which required the united effort of five guests ; the apples being large in proportion. These monsters are not usually wanting either in flavour or solidity.’ This testimony I can confirm from personal observation. An episode occurred at the termination of the voyage that may not be uninteresting to the English reader, as it relates to a circumstance that, in 1859, threatened to in- volve Great Britain in war with the United States. I VISIT To SAN JUAN ISLAND. 29 refer to the forcible occupation, by American troops, of the disputed Island of San Juan, situated in the Gulf of Georgia, about eighteen miles from Victoria. I had the pleasure, on the trip northward, to form the acquaintance of an officer in the United States navy, at that time hold- ing a responsible office under his Government on the coast. This gentleman, at whose service was placed a Govern- ment steamer, informed me that the vessel was awaiting his arrival at Port Townsend—an American town at the entrance to Puget Sound; and challenged me to a run to San Juan, also promising to take me thence to Victoria. This kind offer was the more acceptable, as I should thus be able to arrive at Victoria before the passenger steamer, which at that time called at Olympia, at the head of the Sound, before touching at Vancouver Island. A visit to the enemy’s camp at that moment I felt to be specially exciting, as intelligence of the American invasion had not reached England when I left. My luggage was soon put on board the steamer at the disposal of my naval friend, and in an hour or two we cast anchor in the Bay of San Juan. It was about 6 PM; the evening was calm, and the scenery along the shore of the island exquisitely beau- tiful. H.M.S. ‘ Satellite’ was lying off with guns shotted, and pointed in the direction of the American camp, which was about a mile and a half from the beach. A boat came to us from the British man-of-war for letters, and I was introduced to the midshipman in charge as a ‘clergy- man’ from England. This term, in British parlance, having a technical meaning-which it has not in America—and not being applied by my host in the British sense, the young officer was pleased to draw gratuitous conclusions, by which I seemed likely to be placed—innocently_-in a position as false as it was delicate. By some inexplicable logic, the report took wing on board H.M. ship that the 30 THE voYAGE OUT. Bishop of Columbia, who was expected by many to arrive that month, had come to San Juan under the American flag! A boat was again put ofl", on the strength of this ridiculous mistake, to the ‘ Shubrick,’ to take his lordship under the protection of the ‘ Union Jack.’ In the mean- time, I had gone ashore with the American captain to visit the enemy’s quarters ; and the invitation to the bishop being presented during my absence, I was saved the trial of having to disavow all claim to identity with his lord- ship. The story, on my return to the steamer, amused us greatly. The American force amounted to 500 men. Earth— works had been thrown up and mounted with cannon. Judging from appearances, I am not sure that our nation has ever been so nearly precipitated into war with ‘ Brother Jonathan’ since 1812. I had the satisfaction of being invited to the tents of many of the oflicers, and uniformly received from them a degree of courtesy of which I still cherish a grateful remembrance. They spoke freely of the international ‘ difficulty ’ that had arisen, and confessed that while con— vinced of the justice of their cause, they occupied their present position reluctantly. There was none of that thirst for war with England manifested by them which characterises the less cultivated portion of American citizens. Being introduced to the colonel commanding the detachment* in the absence of General Harney, I was invited to his quarters, where we had a pleasant in- terview. The venerable colonel, a man about sixty-five, seemed more concerned if possible than his brother oflficers that harmony should be maintained between the two countries, and assured me that he was using all his influence on the side of peace. He regarded it, he said, * Now General Casey. WAR IMMINENT. 31 as the greatest calamity that could befal the cause of civilisation all over the world, that two nations, allied by community of race, language, laws, and religion, should be plunged into hostilities. This was saying a great deal for a man whose fortune was war. Little did my excellent friend apprehend then the melancholy consequences of civil tumult with which his own country was so soon to be visited. I must express the surprise and gratification I felt at seeing one in the colonel’s station having a repu- tation for sober and unaffected piety. He told me that he was in the habit of repairing to the British ship of war to attend divine service every Sunday, and I learned that, by a pleasing coincidence, Captain Prev6st of the ‘ Satellite ’ was a man of the same character. Here were two gen- tlemen worshipping as Christians at the same altar, and knowing not at what hour they might receive commands to open fire on each other 1 Indeed, the colonel said that if a single shot was fired from that vessel his troops should at once respond. ‘ It is almost certain,’ said he, ‘ that? in that case your ships would blow our handful of men here to atoms, but 300,000 men would instantly pour in from the states and take our places.’ The colonel asked me to share his apartments for the night, a favour, however, which I was obliged to decline. On taking leave he invited me, with a catholieity of sentiment that did honour to his heart, to return as early as convenient and conduct divine service for the troops. Being favourably circumstanced to ascertain the merits of the misunderstanding between the two Powers, I have no hesitation in saying that but for the timely arrival of Admiral Baynes, war was inevitable. Governor Douglas had sustained personal loss from the position assumed by the United States Government in regard to the claims of the Hudson’s Bay Company and their employés, in 1846. 32 THE voYAeE OUT. From that moment he imbibed inimical prejudice towards them that only wanted a suitable occasion for its mani- festation?‘ ‘N ow, His Excellency was the Queen’s repre- sentative. The Americans brought by the flood of immigration in ’58 were objects of ill-disguised suspicion and dislike to him. In ’59 they seized San Juan. Here, thought he, is an opportunity for retribution, in which I shall have the concurrence of the imperial Government. He ordered vessels of war to go without delay and drive out the aggressors. The senior captain in the squadron, attributing the haste of the Governor to inexperience in matters of grave administration, manoeuvred in order to ‘gain time till the admiral, who was absent, should arrive. Fortunately, the wise counsels of the latter prevailed, and bloodshed was averted. But let not the reader sup- pose that danger is absolutely at an end; it is simply postponed. Up to the present time the island is jointly occupied by the soldiers of both nations-the Americans in the north part of it, and the English in the south. Settlement of the question at issue has been delayed solely on account of the existing civil commotion in the states. But this dispute, were there no other, remains as a spark that may at any time, after the Americans are released from internal troubles, be fanned into a destruc- tive flame. I eschew the character of an alarmist, but the result of considerable intercourse with men of all political parties in the Atlantic states lately, was to strengthen my persuasion that in a war with England the Federal Government would secure the enthusiastic appro- bation and support of the masses of the people. A more concise statement respecting the cause of the quarrel about San Juan, from the English point of view, could not be given, than is contained in the following quotation * His conduct to them subsequently became more amiable. THE SAN JUAN DISPUTE. 33 from an article entitled ‘ British North America,’ which appeared in the April (1864) number of the ‘ Edinburgh Review,’ a quarterly, however, that has always displayed a spirit of marked incredulity in regard to a belt of set- tlements and a line of railway ever being established between Canada and British Columbia. I have only to remark on this view, that the nature of the route across has of recent years been traversed by many persons known to me, whom I should much prefer as guides in this matter to the reviewer. The geographical blunders of the latter plainly Show that the informa- tion he imparts is not derived from the testimony of his SCIISSS. His words are :-- General Harney, on being appointed Commander of the Forces in the neighbouring United States territory of Oregon, took forcible possession of the Island of San Juan, one of the largest of the Hare group. Through extreme moderation on the part of England hostilities with the United States were averted, and the. whole matter in dispute was referred to the more amicable discussion of the two Governments. In the midst of negotiations somewhat protracted, the present civil war broke out, and all correspondence on the subject was temporarily sus- pended. The United States troops still maintained possession of the island, and an equal number of British troops were sent to take up a similar position on it. Thus matters remain to the present moment, and a few words will be suf’flcient to explain the very considerable issues which they involve. We have already mentioned that the large and Imdefined country which passed under the general name of Oregon had for many years been used as a neutral territory by the great fur companies of both England and the United States. After much protracted discussion and somewhat threatening complications, the nego- tiations of the two Governments at length resulted in the Oregon Treaty of 1846. By this treaty a boundary-line was to start from the western extremity of the great international lakes, D 34 THE VOYAGE OUT. and, following the 49th parallel of latitude, was to be con- tinued to the shore of the Pacific. All on the north of that line was henceforth to be the exclusive property of England, all on the south was to remain in the possession of the United States—that part of the continent known as Russian America being, of course, wholly unaffected by the terms of agreement. The British portion of the Pacific seaboard became, as we have already seen, the colony of British Columbia of the present day. The United States portion was erected into the two ‘ Territories ’ of Washington and Oregon—that of Washington being next the boundary-line. We mention this as the term Oregon now dis- appears from our narrative, that territory being excluded from all connexion with the present question by the intervening territory of Washington. In fact, it will be suflicient to bear in mind that the Oregon of former days was an undefined region on the coast to the west of the Rocky Mountains ; the Oregon of the present day is a United States territory some hundreds of miles to the south of the international boundary-line. Having brought this international boundary-line to the shore of the Pacific, the treaty of 1846 proceeds to state that the line is to be further continued ‘to the centre of the Gulf of Georgia, and thence southward through the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver Island to the Straits of Juan de Fuca.’ We have put these words in italics as containing the whole gist of the matter. So little was known of the physical geography of those regions, as late as in 1846, that it was assumed that there was an Open roadstead leading from the mainland to the Ocean between Washington territory and Vancouver Island. We have already seen that there is a whole archipelago of islets, and further examination showed that there were three channels through which ships of burden could make their way up to British Columbia. The Boundary Commissioners of 1858, sent out to determine by astronomical observations the line of the Oregon Treaty, lost no time in reporting these discoveries to their respective Governments. The most southern passage, known as the Rosario Channel, lies neat to the coast of Washington. Its adoption as the continuation of the boundary- ENGLISH VIEW on THE cAsE sTATED. 35 line would place the whole archipelago of islets in the possession of England. The H aro Channel, claimed by the United States, lies along the coast of Vancouver Island, and would bring the archipelago within United States soil. These two channels are about twenty miles apart. That on the Washington side was the only one, up to a recent period, in use, and indeed had been used by all the English and American navigators; that on the Vancouver side, though marked on some of the Spanish charts, was quite unknown to more modern traders until the masters of Hudson’s Bay Company’s vessels availed themselves of its shorter route to Victoria. Of course, to two such vast landowners as Great Britain and the United States, the rocks and pine-clad acres which lie between these two channels are intrinsically valueless. It is, however, their peculiar position which constitutes their importance. Let us consider for a moment how the claim of the United States Government would affect these British possessions on the Pacific. British Columbia can only be approached through the Straits of Juan de Fuca—~the entrance to the Gulf of Georgia—lying between the territory of Washington and Vancouver Island. . . . When we come opposite the islet of San Juan, the passage dwindles to five miles. Small steamers, by hugging the coast of Vancouver Island, can place five miles between themselves and San Juan; but large ocean-going vessels must pass within two miles of that islet, as also of the islets of Henry and Stewart. They would thus be exposed to the full range of modern artillery. A nearly similar objection might be urged by the United States Government against the adoption of the Rosario Channel, if that passage were a key to any of the possessions of the Union. But ’ the Gulf of Georgia simply leads to British Columbia, and to nowhere else. Fortunately, however, we are not restricted to these two channels. The Boundary Commissioners of 1858 ascertained the existence of a third channel, and navigable for steam vessels, to which the name of Douglas Channel has been given. It lies midway between these two entrance passages, leaving the islet of San Juan on its left. Thus, since it is no longer possible to carry out the precise instructions of the Oregon Treaty—seeing that there are three channels, in place of the D 2 36 THE voYAeE OUT. channel— the adoption of this middle channel, in place of the impossible ‘middle of the channel’ of the treaty, would seem to place the least strain upon its interpretation, and may cer- I tainly be accomplished without the least injury to the rights of any nation in existence. By the adoption of this channel as a continuation of the international boundary-line, it is not at all necessary that it should be used by the ships of either nation. Each nation would then possess a safe and commodious channel lying beside its own territory. It must be conceded by all parties that the Island of San Juan can be held by Great Britain only for defensive purposes. It must be conceded by all parties that it can be held by the United States only for offensive purposes. Indeed, it is simply a question whether England shall be allowed to visit her own possessions and export her own gold without passing under the guns of a foreign power. The impression of this writer, it will be perceived, is, that ignorance on the part of the agents of both Govern- ments in 1846, respecting the existence of any islands between the mainland and Vancouver, accounts for the terms of the treaty as to the question of channel not being more definite. There can be no doubt that his notion is correct, as far as the English Commissioners were con— cerned. But not so in regard to the Americans. So moderate were the claims urged by the representatives of the English Government, that the American Commissioners were astonished,“ The fact was that the former party knew ’ little about the region which was the subject of negotia- tion, and cared less; and to this combination of ignorance and apathy may be traced the misinterpretation of the treaty, from which the peace of the two nations is now imperilled. The latter party had sufficient acquaintance with it to possess very distinct ideas of the course the boundary-line should take through the gulf. Nor did they make any secret at the time of the construction they put on the now disputed clause of the treaty. The marvel THE AMERICAN VIEW STATED. 37 is, that the English Commissioners should have been unob- servant of this fact. Before me is a speech delivered by Mr. Thomas H. Benton, legal adviser to the President of that day, ‘ on the ratification of the Oregon treaty,’ in the U. S. Senate, Secret Session, June 18, 1846. It contains the following passages: ‘ That island (Vancouver) is not wanted by the United States for any purpose whatever. Above all, the south end of it is not wanted to command the Straits of Fuca. It so happens that these straits are not liable to be commanded, either in fact or in law. They are rather too wide for batteries to cross their shot, and wide enough—like all other great straits of the world-to constitute a part of the high seas, and to be incapable of appropriation by any nation. We want nothing of that strait but as a boundary, and that the treaty gives us. With that boundary comes all that we want in that quarter, namely, all the waters of Puget Sound, and the fertile Olympic district which borders upon them. When the line reaches the channel which sepa- rates Vancouver Island from the Continent (which it does within eight miles of Fraser River), it proceeds to the middle of the channel, AND THENcE TURNING SOUTH THROUGH THE CHANNEL DE HARO (wrongly written Arro on the maps) to the Straits of Fuca; and then west, through the middle of that strait, to the sea. This is a fair partition of those waters, and gives us everything that we want, namely, all the waters of Puget Sound, Hood’s Canal, Admiralty Inlet, Bellingham Bay, Birch Bay, and with them the cluster of islands,* probably of no value, between De Haro Canal and the Continent.’ The senator’s interpretation of the treaty in regard to the particular channel through which the boundary-line * It will be seen by the map that this cluster includes San Juan. 38 THE VOYAGE OUT. should pass, is expressed with a clearness that cannot be mistaken. No opposition was made to his view at the time, as far as I am aware. It was when this opportunity of objecting was given that the British Government should have enforced their claims beyond the possibility of mis- construction. {I l l >3'\\01‘n3q3 uddnb 52 _ v 7 l Milbank Q‘Nupifi W ,7 J‘XV M l G ‘531/0: E v 6'3 I ‘5% / a‘ I 55 5° r l A N D mic C El HE R HgfliANflh .Bvundaly dzu'aed by (/1 Britain ......... .- m 1).” D.’ Md‘? _ .. ._ _._. 48 "~~ Hvpoaed Compromise laws I :v .::_.-_ A‘ I’ English Miles v_ / liq—"u w ‘IIIVHP'IIE L a "k I 130 I23 126 Londomlongmm £ 6.’ idw‘ Yél'rr. M0 Hui 1.12"» 511240}: 39 CHAPTER II. VANCOUVER ISLAND. TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GENERAL HISTORY. The England of the Pacific—Straits of Fuca --The Coast Line—Geological Formation—Soake—Esquimalt—Victoria—Islands in the Gulf of Georgia —-Saanich—Cowichan-NanaimO-—Comox—Northern Extremity of the Island—Quatsino Nootka—Barclay Sound—Pioneer Discoveries in the Pacific by the Spaniards—Balboa—Cabrillo--Ferrelo—Sir Francis Drake and his Adventures—Cavendish—Story of Juan de Fuca and his imagined Discovery of a N orth-East Passage—Expedition under Heceta and Quadra —Cook’s Reconnoitre of the Coast—Kendrick—Berkeley—-Meares—- Vancouver’s Mission and its Results—Grant of the Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company—Their Monopoly unfavourable to Colonisation. VANCOUVER ISLAND is situated between the parallels of 48° and 51° N. lat, and between 123° and 128° W. long., and is 5,068 miles due west from London. By a remarkable coincidence, while for the most part in the latitude of Great Britain, the colony sustains a geographical relation to the Continent of North America in the Pacific, similar to that which the parent country does to the Continent of Europe in the Atlantic. So that Vancouver Island has been not unaptly designated the England of the Great Western ocean; and it is no ex- aggeration to assert that it only requires a vigorous appli- cation of British capital, enterprise, and labour in the development of its resources, to secure for it supremacy as a commercial and manufacturing centre in the Western Hemisphere, such as England has acquired in the Eastern. 40 VANCOUVER ISLAND. The island is 240 miles in length, and from forty to seventy in breadth, embracing a superficial area of 14,000 square miles,-— less than one-fourth the size of Great Britain. Entering the Straits of Fuca, which are about eleven miles wide, on a bright summer day, the spectacle pre- sented to the eye is peculiarly inviting. On the south- east, in the territory of Washington (United States), the Olympian range of mountains lift their rugged summits, capped with eternal snows, their dark precipitous sides appearing to descend abruptly into the sea. On the left is the rocky shore of the island, beyond which stretches a mountain-chain in a north-westerly direction, covered with thick vegetation. The surface of the country is generally of an undulating character, and contains lakes, rivers, inlets, forests, and prairies in every variety. The masses of metamorphic, trappean, and sandstone rocks—fringed with lofty pines—that first meet the gaze of the emigrant on his approach to his new home, present a rather frowning appearance, as compared with the softer aspect of the shores of England. But these sombre heights are portals, through which he is conducted to a land of promise. The most prominent elevation in the southern part of the island is Mount Arrowsmith, which rises to the height of 5,000 feet. East and west of the ridge which forms the backbone of the country are found pine, oak, willow, alder, cedar, and maple, together with various species of wild flowers and fruits in profusion. The coast line in all directions is broken by numerous bays and harbours, many of which are capable of being turned to commercial advantage as population and enter- prise continue to be introduced. While the geological formation of the country indicates that its future prosperity will spring chiefly from mineral products, the agricultural statistics to be given in subse- GEoLoGIcAL STRUCTURE or THE IsLAND. 41 quent pages, clearly prove that there exists a sufficient extent of land adapted for cultivation and pasturage to justify the hope of yet larger tracts being discovered as the interior becomes better known. With the exception of the proj ecting edges of strata on the coast, and a few portions of the interior, the geological structure of the island has not been examined. Dr. Forbes, R. N ., who has given some attention to the subject, records the results of his observations as follows :— An axis of metamorphic gneissose rock is found in the south- western extremity of the island, having resting thereon clay slates and silurian deposits, or, at all events, rocks of the palaeozoic age. A black bituminous-looking slate is brought from that locality, as also from Queen Charlotte’s Island, but no observer has yet seen it in situ, and no true or definite account of it can be obtained. A great deposit of clayslate has existed along the whole south and west, but shattered and broken up by intruded trappean rocks, it has been almost entirely removed by the subsequent glacial action which grooved and furrowed the dense crystalline felspathic traps. Masses of lenticular or concretionary limestone are interspersed through this formation, and afford good lime for economic purposes. Along with the traps, other rocks of igneous origin have been erupted, and at the Race Rocks, a remarkably beautiful dark green hornblendic rock is found massive, studded with large and perfectly formed crystals of quartz. The sedimentary rocks are carboniferous sandstone and grit, limestones and shales of both the cretaceous and tertiary ages ; these in patches fringe the whole coast, from the extreme north round by the Straits of Fuca, to Nootka Sound, and enter largely into the formation of the numerous outlying islands in the Gulf of Georgia. As shown by the associated fossils, the coalfield of N anaimo is of cretaceous age. The whole deposit has undergone many changes of level—numerous and extensive faults existing. The sandstone with lignitic beds at Burrard’s Inlet and Bel- 42 VANCOUVER ISLAND. lingham Bay on the mainland, are, on the contrary, almost horizontal, in general loose and friable in their structure, in some cases slightly metamorphosed by the intrusion and con- tact of heated rock, and containing, as fossil testimony of age, impressions of the leaves of a maple-like tree. Upheaval, subsidence and denudation had all done their work in the dense crystalline rocks of the axis of the island, and in the cretaceous beds of Nanaimo, long before the tertiary sand- stones and lignites were elevated by the slow upheaval of the post-glacial period. Associated with the coal-field, and scattered over the neigh- bouring islands, are numerous nodules of ‘ Septaria,’ a calcare- ous clay charged with iron, of great value as an hydraulic cement. Copper pyrites and peroxide of iron are found in various localities, giving promise of mineral. The general lithological character of the island is as follows : Among the metamorphic and erupted rocks are gneiss (gneisso-granitic) killas, or clayslate permeated by quartz veins, quartz and hornblende rocks, compact bituminous slates, serpentine, highly-crystalline felspathic traps (bedded and jointed), semi-crystalline concretionary limestone. Amongst the sedimentary are sandstones and stratified limestone, crystallised by intruded igneous rocks, carboniferous sandstones, fine and coarse grits, conglome- rates and fossiliferous limestones, shale, &c., &c., associated with the seams of coal?‘ The most remarkable feature in the geology of the south- eastern end of the island is the scooping, grooving, and scratch- ing of rocks by ice action. The dense felspathic traps already spoken of are ploughed into furrows six to eight inches deep, and from six to eighteen inches wide. The sharp peaks of the erupted intruded rocks have been broken off, and the surface smoothed and polished as well as grooved and furrowed by the ice acting on a sinking land, giving to the numerous promon- * The result of Professor Tennant’s analysis. SOOKE AND ESQUIMALT. 43 tories and outlying islands which here stud the coast, the appearance of rounded bosses, between which the soil is found to be composed of sedimentary alluvial deposit containing the debris of tertiary and recent shelly beaches, which have, after a period of depression, been again elevated to form dry land, and to give the present aspect to the physical geography of Van- couver Island. As might be looked for in a country so marked by glacial phenomena, the whole surface is strewn with erratic boulders. Great masses of many tons weight are to be found of various igneous and crystalline as well as of sedimentary rocks, suffi- ciently hard to bear transportation and attrition. Granites and granitoid rocks of various descriptions are to be met with, trappean rocks of every kind from whinstone through the whole series; mica, schist with garnets, breccias, and con- glomerates. From these granitic boulders, and from the sand- stones of the outlying islands, valuable building material is obtained; some of the grey granite equalling in beauty and closeness of crystalline texture the best granites of Aberdeen or Dartmoor?‘ For hydrographic details the reader is referred to the superior maps and sailing directions of Capt. H. Richards, R. N ., who was occupied for several years, under instruc- tions from the Admiralty, in surveying the coast, and won esteem by his urbanity, as well as admiration by his talent. In pursuing our course along the south-east coast of the island, we pass the agricultural settlements of Socks and Metchosin, the former of which within the past few months has, by the discovery of coal and copper, but especially of gold, been changed from a scene of rural quiet into a hive of busy industry. Soon we came in sight of the magnificent harbour of Esquimalt, distant eight and a half miles from Race Rocks. It is two miles by three in extent, with an average depth from six to * Essay, p. 10. 44 VANCOUVER ISLAND. eight fathoms of water, and affording, unquestionably, the most perfect shelter to ships of large tonnage that can be obtainedsbetween this locality and San Francisco—750 miles farther south. In this capacious place of anchorage a portion of H. M. Pacific squadron already rides, and eventually Esquimalt is certain to assume the position of chief depOt for the Royal Navy in that ocean. Here steamers from California land freight and passengers, and in future years the present village will expand into the dimensions of an important town, whose wharves will be gay with the shipping of all nations, and lined with numerous wholesale warehouses for the accommodation of merchandise from the East and the West, to be distri- buted to every country on the North American Coast of the Pacific. Three miles eastward of Esquimalt are the city and harbour of Victoria. The entrance to the harbour, which is narrow and intricate, may, without the least danger, be approached by vessels drawing fourteen or fifteen feet of water under ordinary circumstances. At the top of spring tides vessels drawing seventeen feet can enter. A dredging machine has been procured, by means of which the depth will be increased; and arrangements are about to be made for blasting some rocks at the mouth of the harbour, which constitute the principal obstruction to its safe navigation. The inlet which forms an extension of Victoria harbour is several miles long, and at one point is separated from Esquimalt harbour by a neck of land only 600 yards in width, through which it is not improbable that when the growing necessities of commerce demand a canal may be cut, so that the two ports would in that event be conveniently connected. Victoria is more flourishing and populous than any other centre in this or the sister colony, and is palpably vIcToRIA AND sAANIcH. 45 marked out by the unrivalled advantages of its geographi- cal position for the grand British mercantile emporium of the Pacific in coming years. Nothing could exceed the loveliness of its environs. Whether approached by land or by sea from Esquimalt, the gentle slope on which it stands exhibits with fine effect the buildings of all forms and colours that continue to rise in quick succession. Large patches of excellent land exist in the vicinity, and in whatever direction the admirer of nature turns, his vision is charmed with scenery charmingly diversified. The site was fixed upon by Mr. (now Sir. J Douglas, in 1843, for an Indian trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company.* Advancing northward, the Gulf of Georgia is observed to teem with islands from the size of a flower-pot upwards, presenting a scene rivalling in beauty the celebrated ‘lake of a thousand islands,’ near the entrance of Lake Ontario. Not the least prominent of the group is the Island of San Juan, to which reference has already been made. Many portions of this archipelago contain soil that would amply reward the labour of cultivation. Various minerals, too, are found in them that only await the application of capital and industry to be profitably worked. The Saanich peninsula, about twenty miles long, and varying in breadth from three to eight miles, lies in a N NW . and SSE. direction. Some of the most fertile land in the island is to be found in the Saanich valleys. It is not improbable that a watering-place may, when required for the convenience of the future merchant- princes of Victoria, be established in Summer bay, which is situated on the east side of the peninsula, and is one of the choicest spots for such a purpose in that neighbourhood. * As early as 1846 Sir G. Simpson, on visiting it, wrote, ‘Victoria promises to become a place of great importance.’ 46 VANCOUVER IsLAND. Farther north is the extensive agricultural district of Cowichan, including’ those subdivisions respectively known as Comiaken, Quamichan, Somenos, and Shavvingan. The importance of these localities as farming settlements will be referred to in the proper place. This region enjoys the advantage of possessing a large bay, and a river navigable a few miles from its mouth. From this point the island was crossed to Nitinat on the West Coast by Mr. J. D. Pemberton, in 1857. The fol- lowing is an extract from the report of that gentleman’s explorations, addressed to the governor :— After passing the Somenos plains and the large lake, several tracts of country eligible for settlement will be found, but they will require to be cleared. The situations alluded to will have all the advantages of a fertile soil, good Water, game and fish, variety of timber; the appearance of the surrounding country being pretty and cheerful, often grand. The same remarks will apply to the land in many places bordering upon the large lake. In the valleys, Douglas pines twenty-three feet to twenty- eight feet in circumference are not uncommon. . . . In rounding Mount Gooch, we pass through a forest of Hemlock spruce, larger than any I had seen before, often eight or nine feet in diameter. South River contains a large body of water, has several falls, a considerable quantity of flat land on its banks, particularly on the right bank ; pine trees (P. Menzies) six feet to nine feet in diameter, of corresponding height, standing at regular intervals; the under-growth of ferns, &c., being exceedingly thick. . . . Gold-bearing rocks are to be met with in the mountains ; sand- stone is frequently found in the beds of the rivers. In a despatch from Mr. Brown, commander of the exploring expedition that commenced operations last June, dated from Great Cowichan Lake, are the following remarks descriptive of the country passed through :- We have described the geography and capabilities of a con- coWIcHAN VALLEY. 47 siderable tract of cotmtry, including a very fair agricultural region; have discovered a vein of remarkably rich copper, of inexhaustible quantity, and have found gold in all the bars of Cowichan river, in quantities from i- of cent to 3 cents to the pan, with every indication of still richer diggings existing, to be found with superior appliances and more time. On Foley’s Creek we found any amount of ‘ prospects ’ to pay $2 per day, and one which ought, to an experienced miner, to pay from $5 to $8 per diem. We have discovered very rich ironstone in large quantities. Coal we have found many indications of. . . . The spars and lumber alone, with their capabilities of being floated to the sea, would prove a certain fortune to any man with capital enough to buy an axe and a grindstone. The borders of the lake abound with martens, and the surrounding country is richly stocked with bear, deer, and droves of elk. The width of Cowichan valley is estimated at about fifteen miles upon the sea coast, contracting rapidly in a westerly direction to about six miles. The prolific character of the soil in this district is ascribed to the'disintegration and decomposition of calca- reous sandstones, by which it is bounded, and which are highly charged with carbonate of lime. Every species of wild plant grows luxuriantly in Cowi- chan. In the meadow-lands are found the following: White pea, wild bean, wild timothy, wild sun-flower (said to be excellent for fattening poultry), wild oats, wild lily, wild angelica, wild lettuce, brown-leaved rush, ground nut, white clover reed meadow-grass, beat spear-grass, sweet grass, cowslip, crowsfoot, winter cress, partridge berry, mangold. Among wild shrubs are: the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry, whortleberry, red and white mulberry, wild blackberry, chokeberry, black and red raspberry, wild strawberry, white raspberry, prickly purple raspberry, 48 VANCOUVER ISLAND. prickly gooseberry, swamp gooseberry, different species of currant, bear berries, red elder, mooseberry, snowberry, yellow plum. Besides the staple woods, oak and pine, we have crab apple, hazel, willow, balsam, red or swamp maple, trailing arbutus, cedar, &c. Fern in the district reaches the extraordinary height of from 6 to 8 feet. Resuming our journey northward from Cowichan Bay, we pass through the ‘ Sansum Narrows,’ where there is a company at work developing a vein of copper. Imme— diately opposite, at the distance of a mile and a half, is Salt Spring Island, about twenty-four miles long, which has two good harbours on the eastern side, and is favoured with a considerable proportion of land fit for cultivation. The mineral springs, from which the island derives its name, are shown by analysis to contain 4,994 grains of salt per imperial gallon. After passing about twenty miles of coast line from the north end of this island, we arrive at N anaimo, which is distant seventy miles from Victoria. The harbour of this infant town ranks next to that of Victoria in importance, and affords accommodation for a large number of vessels. Brine springs exist here also, and the analysis of their waters gives a result of 3,446 grains of salt to the imperial gallon. ' But it is to the extensive coal formation in the vicinity that N anaimo has to look for its ultimate expansion. The coal mines here, even at their present early stage, give steady employment to several hundred men. Formerly the property of the old Hudson’s Bay Company, they were recently transferred to an enterprising joint-stock associa- tion in England, distinguished by vigour immeasurably beyond, their predecessors. Other companies have set to COMOX—CAPE SCOTT—QUATSINO. 4 _ work upon seams contiguous to those of the N anaimo concern, and the period cannot be far removed when a large export trade in this article will be carried on between American territory and the colony. . The country surrounding N anaimo has been divided into Mountain, Cedar, and Cranberry districts ; these designations referring to the character of the prevailing wild produce grown in each. A The Comox.Valley lies northward, and is being rapidly populated with settlers. This district and other agricul- tural districts are described at length in another chapter. Passing Valdez Inlet, and through J ohnstone’s Straits, the north-west extremity of the island is reached, where there is a trading-post of the Hudson’s Bay Company, called Fort Rupert—one of their most insignificant estab— ' lishments of that description. Yet it is said to realise an annual profit of not less than 6,000C Rounding Cape Scott, we meet a singular group of islands, extending westerly for 40 miles. It comprises three large, and a greater number of small ones. The westernmost of the group is 1,000 feet high, and peculiarly notched at the top. It is believed that valuable cod-banks will be discovered at the northwest end of Vancouver Island. Immediately south of this point is Quatsino, a useful inlet, running eastward across the island to Fort, Rupert. This locality, too, abounds in coal and other minerals. Koskeemo Sound—the name by which the inlet is usually known—is about 16 miles south of the Cape. It is divided into three main arms, one taking a due easterly direction, another running to the south-east, and another to the west-north-west. These arms are respectively 10, 16, and 25 miles long,'starting from the head of the main sound A number of shallow rivers empty into them. E 50 VANCOUVER IsLAND. At the entrance to the sound on the north side is Quatsino Bay, about one and a half mile in extent, from I which a narrow arm runs back eight miles, widening at the extremity into another small bay. At the head of the east arm, about 30 miles from the coast, a trail runs across to Fort Rupert, a distance of 12 miles. ' The country from Cape Scott to Koskeemo is very rugged and mountainous, the summits of some of the hills being capped with perpetual snow. Their sides also are entirely covered with heavy timber. The valleys along the banks of the rivers are generally densely wooded. The only level land in this tract of country is situated between the east arm and Fort Rupert, through which the trail crosses. From Koskeemo, half-way across, the land ‘ rolls’ gently, the remaining half consisting of cedar swamps and beaver meadows. ~ The principal timber in this inlet is hemlock,‘ which is found in large quantities. The quality of the wood greatly improves as we proceed inland among the mountains, where there are cedars averaging from 6 to 8 feet in diameter. Cypress grows round the lakes. The natives manufacture their wooden bowls out of small maple, which, with alder, is visible in extensive clumps. In addition to several promising seams of coal which crop out, there have been discovered two or three lodes of copper in that neighbourhood. One of these lodes, at a place called Ac-cla, has been slightly ‘ prospected,’ and gives every indication of being rich. Quartz veins also are traceable, and superior limestone has been found in different parts of the Sound. Woody Point lies between Quatsino and Kayoquot, a district extending to N ootka Sound. N ootka is a trian- BAROLAY SOUND. . 51 gular island that has obviously been detached in the course of ages from Vancouver by the gradual confluence of two inlets. The small harbour, which was the scene of Spanish occupation, can still be identified. Traces of a very numerous native population remain along this part of the coast. But the N ootka tribe is now reduced to 450. Clayoquot Sound is difficult of access from banks of sand and shoals of gravel. The rocky formation, however, by which it is bounded evinces the presence of great mineral wealth. En route southward we come to Barclay Sound, which is well situated for an export trade in fish, lumber, and minerals, as vessels loading there for foreign ports get out to sea without encountering those risks of delay which ships are liable to taking in freight on Puget Sound or Fraser River. At the head of Barclay Sound a cleft in the mountain range forms Alberni Canal, 25 miles in length, into which a river discharges. At this ‘point the country is level and heavily timbered. The nucleus of a thriving settlement has been formed here, in which two or three hundred hands are employed in connection with a large saw-mill company, engaged in the export of spars and sawn lumber. _ From personal knowledge of several of the localities that have been described, I am disposed to regard the language of Captain Vancouver, written more than seventy years ago, in reference to them, as sober and just :- To describe the beauties of this region will on some future occasion be a very grateful task to the pen of the skilful pane- gyrist. The serenity of the climate, the innumerable pleasing landscapes, and the abundant fertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only to be enriched by the industry of man with villages, mansions, cottages, and other buildings, to render E 2 52 VANCOUVER ISLAND. it the most lovely country that can be imagined; while the labours of the inhabitants would be amply rewarded in the bounties which nature seems ready to bestow on civilisation. The discovery of gold on the opposite side of the gulf was the grand event that brought this and the sister colony under the notice of the world; conferred upon them ‘ a local habitation and a name,’ communicated to them a progressive impulse, and started them on that career which is destined to conduct them to a condition of unexampled national splendour. But a rapid sketch of their history previous to the advent of a gold-seeking immigration in ’58 may not be inappropriate. The Spaniards were undoubtedly the pioneers of dis- covery on the Pacific coast, and their explorations were - the result of endeavours to reach the shores of India by a western route. Vague accounts, too, of the wealth of China and Japan had come to the ears of these enterpris- ing adventurers, and inflamed their ambition to monopolise the gold, silk, spices, and precious stones reported to be produced by those countries. The Pacific ocean was discovered by Vasco Nunez de Balboa in the year 1513. From that date the work of discovery northward was prosecuted at intervals, till in 1532 an expedition under the command of Grijalva and Becerra, sighted the peninsula of Lower California, of which Cortez took possession in the name of the King of Spain, in 1535. In June 1542 two vessels were despatched under Juan Cabrillo, from Xalisco in Mexico. He succeeded in ascending as far north as lat. 37° 10’, when he was driven back by stress of weather to the Island of San Bernardo, where he died. Ferrelo, his pilot, assumed direction of the expedition, and pursuing a northward course, is believed by Humboldt and others to have dis- DRAKE’s ExPLoRATIoNs. 53 covered Cape Blanco, in lat. 43°, to which Vancouver gave the name of Cape Orford. Spain claimed possession of the territory thus explored, in virtue of a papal bull conferring on Ferdinand and Isabella ‘ all the new world to the westward of a meri- dian line drawn a hundred leagues west of the Azores.’ The other portion was assigned by Alexander VI. to Portugal. When England renounced allegiance to the holy see she ignored the validity of any title preferred by the Spaniards to the countries they had discovered, based on ‘ donation by the Bishop of Rome,’ and asserted the right of British subjects to settle in any country not in the actual occupation of another Christian nation, and to open trade with any people that showed a disposition to become their customers. That policy being officially declared by the queen, Sir Francis Drake obtained her sanction to an expedition projected by him to the Western Ocean. Sailing from Plymouth at the close of 1577, with five vessels, the largest of which was only 100 tons burden, he brought them through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific 111 safety, when the frail squadron was assailed by a storm, and Drake left with but one small schooner and sixty men to execute his bold plans against the fleets of Spain that still held undisturbed control over the western coast of America. His courage unshaken by misfortune, the heroic privateer deviated not from his proposed course, and the amount of booty he realised from the capture of Spanish galleons is as surprising as his adven- tures were romantic. Apprehensive that the Spaniards might intercept him should he attempt a homeward pas- sage through the Straits of Magellan, he conceived the idea of searching for a north-east passage from the Pacific 54 VANCOUVER mama to the Atlantic by the channel which was then known as the Straits of Anian, but which is now thought ‘to be merely Hudson’s Strait, forming an entrance to Hudson’s Bay from the Atlantic. The precise parallel of latitude reached by Drake in his voyage up the north-west coast has been warmly dis- puted, particularly in connection with the question of the Oregon boundary. But the narrative written by the chaplain of the expedition, distinctly specifies ‘ the height of forty-eight degrees,’ as having been attained. We have no data on which to base an opinion as to whether he discovered New Caledonia, or entered the Straits of Fuca ; but there is no doubt that to him belongs the dis- tinction of being the first to lay claim to the country between 43° and 48°. On the ground of original dis- covery, Sir Francis Drake named that part of the coast New Albion. ‘It seems,’ says the narrative referred to, ‘ that the Spaniards hitherto had never been in this part of the country, neither did they ever discover the land by many degrees to the south of this place.’ When in 1587 Cavendish took and plundered a Spanish vessel trading between Manilla and Acapulco, there was among the crew a Cephalonian pilot named Apostolos Vale- rianos, better known since as Juan de Fuca. This Greek was the hero of an exciting narrative published in 1625 by Michael Lock, ‘ touching the strait of sea commonly called Fretium Anianum, in the South Sea, through the north- west passage of Meta Incognita.’ Mr. Lock, who was an Englishman, stated that when in Venice, in 1596, he met this veteran mariner. Mr. Lock learned from him that on his return to Mexico after the capture of the Manilla galleon by Cavendish, he was sent by the Viceroy with three vessels‘ to discover the Strait of Anian along the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify that strait to resist STORY OF JUAN DE FUCA. 55 the passage and proceeding of the English nation, which were feared to pass through that strait into the South Sea.’ This exploratory voyage having proved fruitless, De Fuca’s alleged narrative goes on to say that—- Shortly afterwards having been sent again in 1592 by the Viceroy of Mexico with a small caravel and pinnace, armed with mariners only, he followed the coast of North America until they came to the latitude of 47°, and there finding that the land trended east and north-east, with a broad inlet of the sea between 47° and 48°, he entered thereinto, and sailed therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometimes north-West and north-east, and north, and also east and south-eastwards, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sailing; and that at the entrance of this said strait there is on the north-west coast thereof a great headland . . . He being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already . . . he thought that he had well discharged his office . . . and returned homeward. Such is the story of the first reputed navigation of the gulf separating British Columbia from Vancouver Island. De Fuca imagined himself as he entered Queen Char- lotte’s Sound to have passed from the Pacific into the Atlantic, and accordingly claimed to be regarded as discoverer of that north-west passage the Search for which has only terminated in our day. Some of the statements in this narrative present an appearance of verisimilitude. But there are others that are at variance with fact, and calculated to awaken sus- picion as _to whether the reported voyage was ever per- formed or the hero of it ever existed. The Spanish Government, still impressed with the notion that a north-west passage existed, fitted out in 1774 an expedition, under command of Juan Perez, to 56 VANCOUVER IsLANo. examine these western coasts of the American continent. Though no oflicial report of this Voyage of discovery was prepared, satisfactory evidence has been adduced of Perez being the first white man to set eyes on Queen Charlotte’s Island, in lat. 54°. He was not successful, however, in accomplishing the main object of his mission. On the return of this navigator two Vessels were equipped by the Viceroy of Mexico, the one commanded by Bruno Heceta, and the other by Francesco de la Bodega y Quadra. From lat. 48° 26’ they commenced examining the shore southward for the supposed Strait of Fuca, placed in the charts of that day between 47° and 48°; but some of the crew of one of the ships having been massacred by the natives, and Others having fallen victims to scurvy, she returned toward Mexico. The vessel commanded by De la Bodega continued her voyage northward, and unexpectedly made land in lat. 56°, soon after discovering a portion of King George III.’s Archipelago. He also took possession of an extensive bay in lat. 50° 30’, which, in honour of the Viceroy, he named Port Bacardi. More than twenty years before this latter expedition was sent forth, the British Parliament offered a reward of 20,000l. to whoever should discover a practicable sea route between the two great oceans. Capt. Cook, who had already acquired a high reputation as a navigator and explorer, was commissioned in 1776 to conduct an expedition for this purpose. He was instructed to pro- ceed to 45° N. lat., and sail thence along the coast to lat. 65°, searching in his course for rivers or inlets that pointed toward Hudson’s or Baffin’s Bay. On March 7, 1778, Cook sighted the coast near 44°, and running northward a little beyond 48° he came BERKELEY—MEARES—VANCOUVER. 57 opposite to a small promontory which he named Cape Flattery,..in allusion to the improved weather he‘began to experience at that point. It has been mentioned that the alleged statement of the old Greek pilot placed the strait (said to communicate with the Atlantic), of which he asserted that he had been the discoverer, between the 47th and 48th parallels. This part of the coast there- fore was examined by Cook with strictest care, and, finding no indication of any channel such as was repre- sented to be there, he unhesitatingly pronounced the story of De Fuca to be fictitious. In again sailing northwards he passed the strait bearing that name unnoticed, and anchored near N ootka Sound, at a place which he called Friendly Cove, still supposing he was on the shore of the continent. - It is contended by some that Capt. Kendrick, an American, was the first white man who sailed through the channel separating Vancouver Island from the main- land. This exploration is said to have been made in 17 88. Capt. Berkeley, commander of an English mer- chant vessel, who was in that region about the same time, detected that some kind of passage existed north of Cape Flattery; but he did not explore it. Immediately after, Capt. Meares, who was engaged with Capt. Douglas in a voyage of discovery under the auspices of a Bengal mer- cantile association, on reaching those straits which owe to him their present designation, took possession of the' adjacent country in the name of his sovereign. He was the first Englishman to enter that channel. Having sailed up some thirty leagues in a boat, Capt. Meares was com- pelled to return, from attacks of the natives on the northern shore. In 1790 Capt. Vancouver, formerly a lieutenant serving ' under Capt. Cook, was despatched to meet a Spanish 58 VANCOUVER IsLAND. commission at N ootka Sound. The Spanish Government had some years previously seized a section of; country that was claimed as the rightful property of Great Britain, and placed certain restrictions upon British com- merce in the Pacific to which we declined to submit. The mission intrusted to the English officer was to effect a formal adjustment of the dispute, which menaced the ' peace of both powers. In addition to the diplomatic business with which he was charged, Vancouver was instructed to repeat the examination of the coast which had been made by Cook from the 35th to the 60th parallel, with the view of obtaining further satisfaction on the subject of a maritime passage connecting the Pacific with the Atlantic. Finding when he reached N ootka that the Spanish commissioner had not arrived, he resolved upon surveying the Straits of Fuca and Admiralty Inlet. After tedious and diflicult navigation he succeeded in guiding his vessels between the numerous islands in the Gulph of Georgia and through the strait named by him J ohnstone’s, coming at length into the Pacific 100 miles above N ootka. None will grudge to the gallant explorer the honour which so righte— ously attaches to his name in being associated with a colony that bids fair to become, as years advance, one of the brightest jewels in the British crown. The island remained untraversed by white men till 1843, when a detachment of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s em-ployés from Fort Vancouver in Oregon established an Indian trading-post on the shores of Victoria harbour, and another at the north end of the island. ' In March 1847, Sir J. H. Pelly, chairman of the com- pany, expressed to Earl Grey, then H. M. Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, their willingness ‘to undertake the government and colonisation of all the GRANTED To HUDsoN’s RAY coMPANY. 59 territories belonging to the Crown in North America, and receive a grant accordingly.’ His lordship did not feel at liberty to entertain so for- midable a proposal, and negotiations consequently were broken off. The desires of the company at length became more reasonable, and a request was made by them to the Government more moderate than the preceding one. The company was willing to accept that part of the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, or even Vancouver Island alone; in fact, to give every assistance in its power to promote colonisation. . . . In every negotiation that may take place on this subject (Vancouver Island) I have only to obserVe that the company expect no pecuniary advantage from colonising the territory in question. All moneys received for land or minerals would be applied to purposes connected with the improvement of the country—Letter from Sir J. H. Pelly, March 4, 1848. This modest and disinterested communication was ac- companied by a private one of a very different character, proposing that- The privileges possessed under the grant of Rupert’s Land, in which the company could establish colonies, governments, courts of justice, &c., be extended to the whole of the territories of North America, bounded by the 49th degree parallel to the south,- the Pacific Ocean, and the Russian possessions to the west, and the Arctic Ocean. ’ Earl Grey immediately determined to confine the grant to Vancouver Island, and a deed of grant was accordingly drafted, of date July 31, 1848. This document, after reciting the provisions of the va— rious Acts passed by Parhament, and treaties that had been negotiated between the Imperial Government and the company, proceeds :— And, whereas it would conduce greatly to the maintenance of peace, justice, and good order, and the advancement of colonisa- 60 VANCOUVER ISLAND. tion, and the promotion and encouragement of trade and com- merce in, and also to the protection and welfare of the native Indians residing within that portion of our territories in North America called Vancouver Island, if such island were colonised by settlers from the British dominions; and, if the property in the land of such island were Vested, for_the purpose of such colonisation, in the said governor and Company of Adventurers; . . . but, nevertheless, upon condition that the said governor and company should form on the said island a settlement or settlements as hereinafter mentioned, for the purpose of colonis- ing the said island; and, also, should defray the entire expense of any civil and military establishments which may be required for the’ protection and government of such settlements. The deed, then, having duly constituted the company absolute lords and proprietors of the soil, ‘in free and common socage, at the yearly rent of seven shillings,’ continues :— Provided always, and we declare that this present grant is made to the intent that the said governor and company shall establish upon the said island a settlement -or settlements of resident colonists, emigrants from our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or from other our dominions, and shall dis- pose of the land there as may be necessary for the purposes'of colonisation; and, to the intent that the said company shall, with a view to the aforesaid purposes, dispose of 'all lands hereby granted to them at a reasonable price, except so much as may be required for public purposes; and that all moneys which shall be received by the said company for the purchase of such land, and also from all payments which may be made to them, for or in respect of the Coal or other minerals to be obtained in the said island, or the right of searching for Or getting the same, shall (after a deduction of such sums, by way of profit, as shall not exceed a deduction of 10 per cent. from the gross amount received by the said company for the sale of such land, and in respect of such coal or other minerals as aforesaid) be applied towards the colonisation and improvement Of the island. . . . And we further declare that this present grant is made upon 6 DEED or GRANT. 61 the condition that if the said governor and company shall not, within the term of five years from the date of these presents, have established upon the said island a settlement of resident colonists, emigrants from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or from other our dominions; and it shall at any time after the expiration of such term of five years be certified to us, our heirs or successors, by any person who shall be ap- pointed by us, our heirs or successors, to enquire into the condi- tion of such island, that such settlement has not been established according to the condition of this our grant, or that the provi- sions hereintofore mentioned respecting the disposal of the land, and the price of lands and minerals, have not been respectively fulfilled, it shall be lawful for us, our heirs and successors, to revoke this present grant, and to enter upon and resume the said island, . . . Without prejudice, nevertheless, to such dispo- sitions as may have been made in the meantime by the said governor and company of any land in the said island, for the actual purposes of colonisation and settlement. And we hereby declare that this present grant is and shall be deemed and taken to be made upon this further condition, that We, our heirs and successors, shall have, and We accordingly re- serve unto us and them full power, at the expiration of the said governor and company’s grant or licence, of or for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians, to repurchase and take of and from the said governor and company the said Vancouver Island and premises hereby granted, in consideration of payment being made by us, our heirs and successors, to the said governor and company, of the sum or sums of money theretofore laid out and expended by them in and upon the said island and premises, and of the value of their establishments, property, and effects then being thereon. Conjointly with the grant of the island, a deed of settle- ment was executed, ‘ conferring on immigrants certain powers of local self-government.’ There was also a com— mission issued tothe governor appointed by the Crown on the presentation of the company, with directions to summon an assembly elected by the general votes of the inhabit- 62 VANCOUVER ISLAND. ants, to exercise in conjunction with himself and a council nominated in the usual manner, the powers of legislation. It is not generally believed that the company intended to yield literal compliance with the terms of the covenant agreed to between them and the Government. They could have no interest in promoting the colonisation of the island indiscriminately even by British subjects. A branch company was formed, composed for the most part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s shareholders, and managed virtually for the advantage of that company. This asso- ciation-_never legally incorporated—took up large tracts of land in the vicinity of Victoria, and hired workpeople in Great Britain to cultivate it. The promptitude of the company in this matter removed all distrust from the minds of general observers in England as to their good faith in fulfilling the contract into which they had entered with the Government. Really, however, their importa- tion of labourers and farm bailiffs was designed to keep the resources of the colony exclusively in their own hands, while practising a mild form of imposition upon the Im- perial authorities. N o settler was encouraged to remain in the island in the first instance, unless introduced under the auspices of the company. Instances occurred of per- sons from California desiring to take up their abode in the. country in 1850-51. But the system of petty despotism . and caprice exercised by the heads of the company, toge— ther with the attempted monopoly of the available land convenient to the town, filled those intending settlers with disgust, and repelled them from the colony. The first governor sent by the Crown, feeling his impotency, though invested with Her Maj esty’s commission, to grapple with the overwhelming absolutism then prevailing, was compelled to throw up the reins of office. The Right Hon. Mr. Labouchere (now Lord Taunton), INFLUENCE OF THE COMPANY. 63 at that time Her Maj esty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, obtained the consent of the Government of the day to an arrangement which helped to keep the colony sealed to the world, and from the effects of which it will be long before it recovers. It is not averred that the right hon. gentleman intentionally and from interested motives connived at the doings of the company in the scheme to which he was a party; but the issue of it was the advantage of the company at the cost of the progress of the settlement being retarded. I refer to the uniting of the two offices of crown agent and factor of the com- pany in the same person. Is it surprising that a gentle- man whose associations from earliest years had been interwoven with the business of the company, and whose income was still mainly derived from the profits of the company, should not give the duties he Owed to his sovereign precedence over the services due to his old employers P To confirm the illusion in the eyes of the British public —whose vague conceptions of the nature of the country rendered them peculiarly liable to be misled on the sub- ject—the semblance of free representative government was adopted, electoral qualification being fixed at 300l. in capital, or twenty acres of landed property. But how absurd a parody of political institutions this was will be evident when it is remembered that the inhabitants were almost entire y engaged in the service of the company, and their situations dependent upon their voting according to the dictation of their masters. The effectual manner in which the company maintained exclusive traffic in the island to the prejudice of its general colonisation may be inferred from the fact that the entire population, five years after the grant had been made, did not exceed 450. '64 CHAPTER III. THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1858, AND ITs INFLUENCE ON THE GROWTH OF VICTORIA. Rush of Immigration— Sudden rise in the Value of Land—Rival Cities attempted by the Americans—Unequalled Superiority of Victoria and Esquimalt Harbours—Return of faint-hearted Speculators to California, and their Maledictions—Struggles and Triumphs of Miners on the Fraser—Hardships on the New Route—Temporary Gloom of Victoria- Yield of Gold for the first four Months—State of the City in 1859- News from Quesnelle—Things looking up—The Letters of the Times’ Correspondent and the Immigration of 1862—Disappointment and Pri- vation of the Inexperienced—Description of Victoria as it now is—Beacon Hill—Government House—Streets—Public Buildings and Associations-— Newspaper Press—Religious Bodies -Colleges and Schools—Manu- factories—Joint-Stock Companies—The Municipal Council—Banks— Price of Town Lots-List of Trades and Professions. THE EXISTENCE of the precious metal in Queen Charlotte’s Island and British Columbia had been known to the company for several years before this period. The Indians had been accustomed to Offer quantities of this product at the fur-trading establishments, in exchange for articles of food and clothing. In 1857 a party of Canadians, impelled by the ‘Vague rumours afloat on the subject, started from Fort Colville, near the American boundary, and ‘prospecting ’ on the banks of the Thompson and Bonaparte rivers, on their way to the Fraser, were sufficiently encouraged to prose— cute the occupation of digging. Intelligence of their success soon spread through Washington territory and California. Between March and June, in 1858, Ocean RUSH FROM GALIPoRNIA. 65 steamers from California, crowded‘ with_ gold-seekers, arrived every two or three days at Victoria. This place, previously a quiet hamlet, containing two or three hundred inhabitants, whose shipping had been chiefly confined to Indian canoes and the annual visit of the company’s trading ship from England, was suddenly converted into a scene of bustle and excitement. In the brief space of four months 20,000 souls poured into the harbour. The easy-going primitive settlers were naturally confounded by this inundation of adventurers. Individuals of every trade and profession in San Fran- cisco and several parts of Oregon, urged by the insatiable auri sacra fames, threw up their employments, in many cases sold their property at an immense sacrifice, and repaired to the new Dorado. This motley throng in- cluded, too, gamblers, ‘loafers,’ thieves, and ruffians, with not a few of a higher moral grade. The rich came to speculate, and the poor in the hope of quickly becoming rich. Every sort of property in California fell to a degree that threatened the ruin of the State. The limited stock of provisions in Victoria was speedily exhausted. Flour, which on the American side sold at 2l. 8s. per barrel, fetched in Vancouver Island 6l. per barrel. Twice the bakers were short of bread, which had to be replaced with ship biscuit and soda crackers. Innumerable tents covered the ground in and around Victoria far as the eye could reach. The sound of hammer and axe was heard in every direction. Shops, stores, and ‘ shanties,’ to the number of 225, arose in six weeks. Speculation in town lots attained a pitch of unparalleled extravagance. The land-office was besieged, often before four o’clock in the morning, by the multitude eager to buy town property. The purchaser, on depositing the price, had his name put on a list, and his application was at— ' F 66 RlVAL cITIEs. tended to in the order of priority, no one being allowed to purchase more than six lots. The demand so increased, however, that sales were obliged to be suspended in order ' to allow the surveyor time to measure the appointed divisions of land beforehand. The first cost of ‘lots ’ rose from 10]. to 20l. The original extent of a town lot was 60 feet by 120 feet. Land bought from the company at from 10l. to 15l. was resold within a month at sums varying from 300l. to 600l. One case is recorded of a half-lot, bought for 5l., being sold within a few weeks for 600l. Parcels of ground centrally situated realised fabu— lous prices. Sometimes portions measuring from 20 to 80 feet in breadth, by 60 feet in length, rented at from 50l. to 100l. per month. One gentleman states that he was asked 20l. per front foot for a lot in a side street— that is, for a clay bank, 100 feet by 70 feet, 2,000l. was demanded. Sawn timber, for building purposes, could not be had under 20L per 1,000 feet. .The bulk of the heterogeneous immigration consisting of American citizens, it was not wonderful that they should attempt to found commercial depots for the mining locality in their own territory. Consequently, they congregated in large numbers at Port Townsend, near the entrance to Paget Sound and at Whatcom in succession. Streets were laid out, houses built, and lots sold in those places. But inconveniences of various kinds hindered their success. Semiahmo, near the mouth of Fraser River, was next tried as the site of a port; but this rival city never had existence except on paper. These foreign inventors of cities obsti- nately refused to acknowledge the superior natural ad— vantages of Victoria compared with the experimental ports they had projected. It is not speculators in new towns, however, but merchants and shippers that deter— mine the points at which trade shall centre; and it is only VICTORIA AND ESQUIMALT HARBOURS. 67 that harbour which combines the greatest facilities for commerce, with the fewest risks to vessels, which is patro- nised by them. Victoria, judged by these tests, was found most ehgible of all the competing places of anchorage in the neighbourhood. Besides a roadstead having good holding ground, the port of Victoria consists of an outer and an inner harbour. These united present a frontage of three quarters of a mile long, ‘ with a depth of water, at low tide, beginning with 8 feet at the south end near J ames’s Bay, and increasing rapidly to more than 25, feet at the north end.’ * Esquimalt, which has been described in the preceding chapter, having the larger harbour, it was attempted by some who bought land surrounding it in ’58 to make that place the site of the commercial capital. But the remarks of Mr. Douglas respecting it in 1842 have been endorsed by capitalists since :— Esquimalt is one of the best harbours on the coast, being perfectly safe and of easy access; but in other respects it pos- sesses no attraction. Its appearance is strikingly unprepossessing, the outline of the country exhibiting a confused assemblage of rock and wood. . . . The view is closed by a range of low mountains, which traverse the island at a distance of about 12 miles. The shores of the harbour are rugged and precipitous, and I do not see one level spot clear of trees of sufficient extent to build a large fort upon. . . . Another serious objection to the place is the scarcity of fresh water. The inference from this View is that Esquimalt is admirably suited for a naval station, and for the accom~ modation of vessels of large tonnage, but does not present conditions favourable for the erection of a great city. Nor is it desirable that the naval depOt and the com- mercial centre should be included in the same city. Most * Waddington. F 2 68 OFF To FRASER RIVER. of the heavy freight may eventually be discharged and stored there, but the counting-houses of merchants will remain in Victoria, and the business be transacted in the latter place. To return to the narrative. While the maj ority_com- prising Jews, French cooks, brokers, and hangers-on at auctions—stayed in Victoria for the purpose of ingloriously improving their fortunes, by watching the rise and fall of the real-estate market, several thousands, undismayed by dangers and hardships incident to crossing the gulf and ascending the river, proceeded to the source of the gold. When steamers or sailing-Vessels could not be had, canoes were equipped by miners to convey them to British Columbia; but this frail means of transit, unequal to the risks of the passage, sometimes occasioned loss of life. A monthly licence had to be taken out by all bound for the mines, and this gave them the right to take whatever provisions were required for individual use. At the out- set steamers on the river allowed miners 200 lbs. and subsequently 100 lbs. free of charge; but they preferred in general to join in the purchase of canoes for sailing up the river as well as across the gulf. The country drained by the Fraser resembles moun- tainous European countries in the same latitude, where streams begin to swell in June and do not reach their lowest ebb till winter. Those, therefore, who happened to enter the mining region in March or April, when the water was very low, succeeded in extracting large quan- tities of gold from the ‘bars’ or ‘ benches ’ not yet covered with water. The mass of immigrants not having arrived till a month or two later, found the auriferous parts under water. Ignorant of the periodic increase and fall of the stream to which I have adverted, their patience was soon exhausted waiting for the uncovering of the REAcTIoN 1N vIcToRIA. 69 banks. Not a few, crestfallen and disappointed, returned to Victoria. A gloomy impression began to prevail among the less venturesome spirits that tarried in this scene of morbid speculation. Gold not coming down fast enough to satisfy their wishes, thousands of them lost heart and went back to San Francisco, heaping execrations upon the country and everything else that was English; and placing the reported existence of gold in the same category with the South Sea bubble. The rumour took wing that the river never did fall; and as placer-mining could only be carried on on rivers, ‘the state of the river became the barometer of public hopes, and the pivot on which everybody’s expectations turned.’ This preposterous idea spread, was readily caught up by the press of California, and proved the first check to immigration. Another impediment was the commercial restrictions imposed by the Hudson’s Bay Company in virtue of the term of their charter for exclu_ sive trade in the interior not having yet expired. A few hundred indomitable men, calmly reviewing the unfavourable season in which they had commenced mining operations, and the difficulties unavoidable to locomotion in a country previously untrodden for the most part by white men, resolved to push their way forward, animated by the assurance that they must sooner or later meet the object of their search and labour. Some settled on the bars between Hope and Yale, at the head of navigation; others advanced still higher, running hair-breadth escapes, balancing themselves in passing the brink of some danger- ous ledge or gaping precipice encumbered with provisions packed on their backs. A new route was proposed via Douglas, at the head of Harrison Lake and Lilloet, that should avoid the dangers and obstructions of the river trial. But this did not at 70 HARDSHIPS ON THE NEW ROUTE. first mend matters; for the intended road lay through a rugged and densely-wooded country, and much time and money required to be consumed before it could be ren- dered practicable. Before the line for the Lilloet route was generally known, parties of intrepid miners, anxious to be the first to reap its benefits, tried to force their way through all the difficulties opposed to them. The misery and fatigue endured by them was indescribable. They crept through underwood and thicket for many miles, sometimes on hands and knees, with a bag of flour on the back of each ; alternately under and over fallen trees, scrambling up precipices, or sliding down over masses of sharp projecting rock, or wading up to the waist through bogs and swamps. Every day added to their exhaustion; and, worn out with privation and sufferings, one knot of adventurers after another became smaller and smaller, some lagging behind to rest, or turning back in despair. The only thought seemed to be to reach the river ere their provisions should give out. One large party was reduced to three, and when they came to an Indian camp where salmon was to be had, one of these hardy fellows made up his mind to return. So casting a farewell look from the mountain side on the valley beneath him, the valley which had been the goal of all his hopes, and to reach which he had endured so much hardship, he wished his companions good-bye. . . . Nor did the two others fare much better. My friend, during a fortnight’s stay among the Indians, lived on salmon when he could get it, and often on Wild fruit. Once he got a meal of horseflesh, but never tasted a spoonful of flour or even salt. On his journey back he had to live for three days solely on blackberries, and returned with his clothing tattered and torn like a scarecrow.* Nor was this case an uncommon one. Gold there was * Waddington’s Fraser River Vindicated, p. 23. THE TIDE REOEDING. 71 in abundance, but want of access prevented the country from being ‘ prospected ;’ and reckless men, without stopping to take this into account, condemned the mines and everything connected with them without distinction. If the commerce of the interior had been thrown open, and private enterprise allowed to compete with the natural difficul- ties of the country, these‘ would have soon been overcome. Forests would have been opened, provisory bridges thrown over precipices, hollows levelled, and the rush of population following behind, the country would have been rapidly settled, and the trader have brought his provisions to the miner’s door. Affairs in Victoria, meanwhile, grew yet more dismal. The ‘rowdy’ element that had assembled in the city, find- ing no legitimate occupation to employ their idle hands, were under strong temptation to create such disturbances as they had been accustomed to get up in Cahfornia. Losing, for the moment, that wholesome dread of British rule which that class usually feel, a party of them rescued a prisoner from the hands of the police, and actually pro- posed to hoist the American flag over the old Hudson’s Bay Company’s fort. But the news that a gunboat was on her way from Esquimalt to quell the riot, soon calmed alarm and restored peace. Large sums of money, sent up from San Francisco for investment, were shipped back again; and whole cargoes of goods, ordered during the heat of the excitement, were thrown upon the hands of merchants. J obbers had nothing to do but smoke their cigars or play at whist. Some ac- cused the company ; others complained of the Govern- ment; others sneered at ‘ English fogyism ;’ and others deplored the want of ‘ American enterprise.’ ‘ Croaking ’ was the order of the day. The Governor, seeing the tide of immigration receding, managed to control his prejudice against the ‘ foreigners’ from a neighbouring state, so far as to moderate the severe 72 BRIGHT PRosrECTs. restrictions he had put upon goods imported to British Columbia, and adopted more active measures in opening trails to the mines. But his tardy decision came too late to be attended with immediate benefit. At length, however, the river‘ did fall, and the arrival of gold-dust foreshadowed a brighter future. But sailing- vessels left daily, crowded with repentant and ‘dej ected adventurers, whose opposition to the country had become ‘so inveterate, that they could not now be made to believe in the existence of gold from Fraser River, though proved by the clearest ocular demonstration. The old inhabitants imagined that Victoria was about to return to its former state of insignificance. ‘Yet it is asserted, on reliable authority, that in propor- tion to the number of hands engaged upon the mines— notwithstanding the unequalled drawbacks in the way of reaching them—the yield during the first six months was much larger than it had been in the same period and at the same stage of development in California or Australia. Mr. Waddington, a gentleman who is proverbially cor- rect in all statistical matters, estimates the production of gold in California during the first six months of mining, in 1849, at $240,000. All the gold brought to Melbourne in 1851 amounted to 104,154 ounces, or at $16 per ounce, $1,666,464, while New South Wales gave for the first six months 45,190 ounces, or $723,000. _ The following is the amount sent by steamer or sailing- vessel from Victoria, between the end of June and the end of October,_1858 :_- ' June. . . . . $6,000 July . . . . . 45,000 August . . . . 45,000 September . . . . 164,000 October . . ' . . 283,000 $543,000 YIELD OF com. 73 But in this sum is not included the quantity of dust ac- cumulated and kept in the country by miners, nor that bought by the company or carried away in private hands. Mr. Waddington believes that this latter item will bring the gross total up to $705,000 or 14l,000l., realised be- tween June and September, against $240,000 in California, and $725,000 in New South Wales, extracted in six months. Yet this surprising wealth was taken almost entirely from the bed of a few rivers. ‘ Bank’ diggings were hardly known as yet. A very limited portion of the Lower Fraser, the Thompson, and the Bonaparte, was the ex- clusive sphere of operations. The ‘bars’ of the Upper Fraser, and the creeks issuing from the northern spurs of the Rocky Mountains, had yet to be explored. For a few intelligent and persevering men these facts and figures had weight. But amateur miners, romantic speculators, and ‘whiskey bummers,’ could not, by the most attractive representations, be detained in the coun- try, and it was wisely ordered that it should be so. For such scouts of civilisation—had the ‘ castles in the air’ which they built not been demolished—would have re- enacted in our colonies such scenes of riot and bloodshed as disgraced California nine years previously. It was well that we should get rid of all who wanted impossibilities and indulged exaggerated hopes. The few hardy and enterprising settlers who remained ceased to pursue Will- o’-the-wisps, and composed themselves to the sober realities of life. In September ’59, when I first set foot in Victoria, the process of depopulation was still going on, though it soon after reach ed its lowest point. A healthy relation between supply and demand in every department was being effected. The tens of thousands that had pressed into the city in -’58 were diminished to not more than 1,500, embracing 74 FRESH DISCOVERIES. ‘the waifs and strays’ of every nationality, not excepting a good many whose antecedents were not above suspicion. Apart from the Government buildings, two hotels, and one shop, all the dwellings and houses of business were at that time built of wood. Many stores were closed and shan- ties empty. There was little business doing, and no great prospect ahead. This stagnant condition continued with but little abatement till the close of 1860, when intimations came of eminently productive mines being discovered at the forks of Quesnelle, which at that time seemed- as difficult of access as the Arctic regions. A few scores of miners, arguing from the fineness of the gold dust found near Hope Yale and the forks of the Thompson, that it was washed down from some quartz formation in the north, penetrated to the spot just referred to. Language fails to describe the trials these men endured from the utter absence of paths of any kind, the severity of winter- climate, and often the scant supply of provisions. The theory by which the daring pioneers were guided was remarkably verified, and the toils of many of them were abundantly rewarded. Their return to Victoria with bags of dust and nuggets rallied the fainting hopes of the community, and they were regarded as walking advertisements that the country was safe. Business immediately improved, the value of town property advanced; some who had been hesitating about erecting permanent buildings caught inspiration, and at once plunged into brick-and-mortar investments. The few scores that had worked on Antler Creek in ’60 increased, in the spring of ’61, to 1,500. Some addition to our population in the latter year came from California, and every man who could possibly make it convenient to leave Victoria for the season went to the new diggings. Of those who went, one-third made inde- LETTERS IN THE ‘ TIMES.’ 75 pendent fortunes, one-third netted several hundreds of pounds, and one-third, from a variety of causes, ‘were unsuccessful. Some details respecting the early yield of gold will be given in the chapter on the mines of British Columbia. The letters of the ‘ Times” correspondent, published in 1862, excited great attention, and in that year several thousands were induced to visit the country from England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These communi- cations may probably have been open to the charge of containing couleur-de—rose descriptions. The writer may have presumed too much on the judgment of his readers to conceive for themselves the dark side of the picture—— the privations to be undergone and the risks to be borne in journeying to remote gold-bearing streams. Without having any interest in vindicating the ‘ Times’ ’ correspondent, I .do not hesitate to say that this gentle- man’s statements were substantially true as far as they went, though it is admitted that his representations would have been more complete had he dwelt more on the arduous nature of the route at the time he wrote, the probabilities of failure in the case of those without capital and unaccustomed to laborious employment. But nothing that can be said of this inadvertence on the part of the ‘ Times” correspondent can palliate the oversight of any so inconsiderate as to undertake a Voyage to British Columbia without counting the cost. Even had the immigration of ’62 been altogether of the class most adapted to the comparatively undeveloped state of the country at that time—which it was not-for all to expect _ instant success, not to speak of exemption from losses, would have been to try the colony by tests that would be deemed utterly absurd if applied to the richest country under heaven. Similar objections have been brought a 76 IMMIGRATION or 1862. thousand times against California and Australia by men whose temper has been ruflied by disappointment. Only a short time ago many of my fellow-passengers from San Francisco to New York were breathing vengeance against the former of these states as unfit for habitation, and letters ever and anon appear from persons in our colonies in the southern hemisphere expressing dissatis- faction with their new location there. But these countries advance, nevertheless, with giant strides; and so, in the face of all senseless clamour, will our possessions on the north-west coast of America. The chief misfortune connected with the influx of population at this period was that it comprised an exces- sive proportion of clerks, retired army oflicers, prodigal sons, and a host of other romantic nondescripts, who indulged visions of sudden wealth obtainable with scarcely more exertion than is usually put forth in a pleasure excursion to the continent of Europe. These trim young fellows exhibited a profusion of leather coats and leggings, assuming a sort of defiant air, the interpretation of which was, ‘ We are the men to show you “ Colonials” how to brave danger and fatigue 1’ But their pretensions gene- rally evaporated with the breath by which they. were expressed, and many that set out with this dare-all aspect were soon thankful to be permitted to break stones, chop wood, serve as stable-boys, or root out tree-stumps. The vague imaginations with which they left home were soon dissipated, when, on the termination of the voyage, they discovered that 500 miles lay between them and Cariboo -a distance which must be passed over muddy roads and frowning precipices, with whatever necessaries might be required for the trip strapped to their shoulders. Hundreds went half way to the mines, and returned in ,despondency; hundreds more remained in Victoria, and woman. 77 were only saved from starvation by the liberality of more prosperous citizens. A much larger number came than the country, with a deficient supply of roads, was prepared to receive. Still a considerable number made large amounts of money, and the majority of those who have possessed suflicient fortitude to bear inconveniences and battle against discouragements are in a fair way for speedily acquiring a competency. Description of Victoria. Starting from the corner of Fort and Government Streets, with a radius of three quarters of a mile, the town site covers two-thirds of a circle, stretching round the harbour. The streets in general are sixty feet wide, and cross each other at right angles, and from the sloping and undulating character of the ground there is no point from which the city does not look interesting.if A magnificent natural park, called Beaconhill, of large extent, with a high knoll in the centre, and fringed with pines and oaks, has been reserved for public use. On one side it reaches to the sea-beach, and from the eleva- tion referred to a lovely view is gained of the gulf in the direction of the Race Rocks, and of the mountain range in Washington territory in the other direction. This sub- urban enclosure is used as a race-course and cricket- ground, and is the favourite resort of the inhabitants when taking an airing on foot or on horseback; The variety and beauty of the walks and drives around Victoria are, in the opinion of visitors from every part of the world, matchless. The Government offices, Supreme * It is difiicult to form an exact estimate of the population of the city in consequence of its migratory character. I should think it would average, last winter, about 5,500. . 7 8 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE cITY. Court, and the hall occupied by the Parliament, form one pile of buildings, and are situated some distance from the chief thoroughfare of the town, on J ames’s Bay; although composed of only frame and brickwork, the coup deed of this structure, with the lofty pines in the background, is highly picturesque. The large building in the centre contains the rooms of the Governor, Colonial Secretary, &c. The Treasury is on the right, the Land Office on the left, and standing immediately behind are the offices of the Attorney-General, Registrar-General, Registrar of the Supreme Court, and the Chief Justice, the Court House, and the hall of the Legislative Assembly. Streets in which two or three years since the pedestrian sank knee-deep in mire, are now macadamised, and pro- vided with solid wooden footpaths. Large and substantial stone and brick warehouses, well stocked with goods, line the upper part of the harbour on the town side. Between 1861 and 1862 alone fifty-six brick buildings were erected, and since that period very rapid progress has been made in edifices of that character. Several spacious hotels, elegantly furnished, and supplied with every com- fort and luxury which the most fastidious could wish, have been built—one it is said at a cost of 12,000l., and another at a figure not much lower. Long massive blocks of building in Wharf, Store, and Government Streets, furnish every indication of prosperity and perma- nence. There are many residences in the vicinity that would grace a town fifty years old. Some of these are of brick and stone, and others of wood and cement, with a stone or brick foundation. The expense incurred in their erection varies from 400l. to 2,400l. The edifice in which the extensive business of the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany is carried on is the largest in the city. The greater proportion of buildings are still made of wood and plaster. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 7 9 'But as the trade of the town advances, solid buildings in the principal streets will become uniform. _ Among public structures is a hospital, sustained par- tially by Government, but mainly by public subscription. Hook and ladder companies have been formed for extinguishing fires, to which new towns on the coast are peculiarly liable; these have their respective halls and engine—houses. Into these volunteer bodies the male population of nearly every class throw themselves with great enthusiasm. When in active service or in proces— sion, the members appear in Garibaldi attire, with helmets. A theatre, capable of accommodating 400, is sometimes visited by-able and respectable dramatic troupes, though it is to be regretted that taste for the noblest form of the drama is not general in these parts. Drinking saloons, which abound vastly out of proportion to the wants of the population, often supply entertainments of a low and vicious order, and they are much patronised. The Police Barracks are situated inconveniently near the main street. They contain the Court rooms and oflices of the Police Commissioner, chamber of the Govern- ment Assessor and Sheriff, rooms belonging to the police force, the cells of prisoners, and a prison yard. It is not to the honour of the city, however, that lunatics should be placed under the same roof with felons. It is to be hoped that this reproach will soon be wiped out, and a suitable asylum provided for these unhappy creatures. The ladies of the town are exceedingly attentive to the wants of the sick and destitute of their own sex. A reading-room, well supphed with books and news- papers, is kept by an enterprising citizen, for admission to which there is a small charge. One of the greatest advantages to reading settlers is the ample and varied assortment of books and magazines sold by Messrs. 80 NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS. Hibben and Carswell, whose shop is the chief source of the supply of literary pabulum for both colonies; their stock‘con'tains the best as well as the most recent British and American literature. For ZZ. 168. per annum they deliver to subscribers American reprints of ‘ The Edinburgh Be- view,’ ‘ The Quarterly,’ ‘ The Westminster,’ ‘ The North British,’ and ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine,’ little more than two months after these works are published in England. Associations have been formed for purposes of be- nevolence, intellectual profit, and . amusement, on the ground of ‘community of taste, nation, or race. The Scotch, who are numerous in the city, are represented by a St. Andrew Society, established for affording relief to their needy countrymen, and the annual dinner connected with that institution is the most popular celebration of the sort in Victoria. The French perpetuate the remembrance of their nation and foster national predilections through the medium of a ‘French Benevolent Society.’ The Germans are united in a Singverez'n, and are always ready to render their valuable musical services for any charitable object. The coloured people, numbering upwards of 300, - have a volunteer rifle corps, and have spared no expense or pains to become efficient in the use of the rifle; they have a hall expressly devoted to the practice of instru- mental music and drill. The appearance they make on special occasions is highly creditable. The whites—espe- cially the more cultivated portion of young men in the city—also boast a rifle corps, which, under the command of its present talented and energetic captain, is quite a public ornament. By drawing together young men With- out family ties, and affording them healthful and useful exercise, such organisations occupy hours that might otherwise be spent mischievously. RELIGIOUS BoDIEs. 81 vThe Freemasons have a lodge, and a secret order of total abstainers, called ‘Good Templars,’ originated in the United States, are putting forth zealous efforts to combat the abuses of drinking. The newspaper press, for so limited a population, is singularly vigorous and well supported. There are four daily papers published in Victoria—the two principal ones being ‘ The British Colonist,’ and ‘- The Victoria Chronicle.’ The others are ‘The Evening Express,’ and the ‘ Van- couver Island Times.’ The leading religious bodies have places of worship, and are presided over for the most part by excellent clergymen and ministers. The Catholics were first in the field. They have a commodious church, and three extensive schools. Two of these latter buildings are of brick—the one. for boys, under the tuition of priests and freres, the other for girls, who are taught by sisters of charity: the attention these devout. women pay to poor and orphan children, does more to secure for them the respect and confidence of even Protestant families than a thousand volumes on polemical theology could do. The, behaviour of pupils in the Catholic schools. on the coast, at. least north of the border of Mexico, is unsurpassed by that of any Protes- tant educational institutions. There is a Roman Catholic bishop in Victoria who has toiled among the Indians nearly thirty years. It is said that a considerable por» tion of the means by which that Church is sustained comes from the Propaganda of Lyons. The episcopal church is unestablished by law. Its clergy in both colonies include a bishop, one or two arch_ deacons, and about a dozen priests and deacons. The diocese was founded with a magnificent endowment by Miss Burdett Coutts, amounting to 25,000l. The interest G 82 EPIscoPAL causes. of this, which is invested in the colony, goes to pay' the salary of the bishop, and to this sum have been added donations and subscriptions for the support of the clergy. A grant of twenty acres of land in the heart of the town site of Victoria was made to the pioneer church erected under the auspices of the Hudson’s Bay Company before the period of gold discoveries. This land, com- paratively valueless at the time it was given, has now become greatly enhanced in value, and promises, as the town increases, to render the Church a wealthy corpora- tion. Upon this ground stands the residence of the bishop. In addition to the Church reserve, the English Church bishop has secured large tracts of land in town and country districts by purchase. There are two Episcopal congre- grations in the city. One of these existed before the diocese was created, and the other has been gathered in connection with an iron church, sent out by the bishop ; the materials of which were provided by benefactions of friends in England. Up to the present time not more than one or two of the Episcopal congregations are self- supporting in either this or the sister colony.* * In an appeal which appeared in the Times a few months since in behalf of ‘ the spread of the Gospel in foreign parts,’ signed by the Archbishops of Canterbury, York, Armagh, and Dublin, there are quotations from the letters of colonial bishops, urging the necessity of aid being granted to extend their operations, by the ‘ Societyfor Propagating the Gospel.’ Among the claimants for assistance from the home branch of the Church is the Bishop of Columbia. Upon his position in this appeal, The British Colonist (of November 8, 1864) —the leading newspaper in these colonies —- makes the following animadversion :—‘ The Bishop of Columbia figures somewhat conspicuously in the demand for clerical aid—asking for no less a number than thirteen additional clergy and five catechists (with 4,000l. to support them). If we thought that Christianity would be in any degree forwarded by this whole- sale influx of ministers from England, we could not of course object to the NONCONFORMISTS. ' 83 The Congregationahsts have a place of worship, in which religious ordinances have been sustained for five years, partially with the assistance of the ‘ British Colonial Missionary Society.’ The Presbyterians have recently built an edifice, the minister being supported by the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. The adherents of their cause are chiefly settlers from Canada, where this denomination is numerous. The Methodists, who also have a church, are Canadians almost exclusively. The Jews have erected a synagogue, and are presided over by an intelligent and respectable rabbi. It is not to the honour of Christians that this should be the most costly religious structure in the place, and the only one that is built of brick ; the others being of wood only, of wood and plaster, or of corrugated iron. All the Christian congre- gations have Sunday schools attached to them. The Church of Scotland has recently sent a clergyman to Victoria, who has formed a congregation, but has not as yet any church?“: arrangement; but what Bishop Hills is to do with his “thirteen clergyinen and five catechists ” in a place so literally overrun by reverend gentlemen as this, is a mathematical problem we should like very much to see the bishop solve. A healthy competition in religion is as desirable as it is in commerce or trade, but we know of no superfluity in the market so injurious to all concerned as the clerical drug. At present we have more cleryymen in the country than can find congregations ; but we get such an inundation as the Bishop is bargain- ing for we are afraid a greater number will have to content themselves like Dean Swift, in his early career, with an auditory of one, and that his servant.’ When it is remembered that up to this date not more than 14,000 emi- grants are to be found in Vancouver Island and British Columbia collec- tively,—-and many of these are of a migratory description,—it must be con- fessed that these remarks administer a seasonable rebuke to one who calls for so lavish an expenditure of the Propagation Society’s funds. Besides, Dissenters are largely represented, and to their denominations most of the people belong. * All places devoted to Christian worship in North America are called churches without distinction of sects. o2 84 COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. The city is abundantly supplied with schools, in which is taught every branch of a superior English education. ‘ The Collegiate School,’ conducted by a principal, vice- principal, and assistant masters, is patronised and aided by Bishop Hills, and is connected with his denomination. Besides the elements of a plain education, instruction is given in the ancient classics, French, German, mathe- matics, music, and drawing; all these departments being under the supervision of competent masters. Under the auspices of the same Church there is also a Ladies’ College, in which several governesses labour with great assiduity. The fees in both these establishments are ll. per month and upwards, according to the number of subjects in which teaching is imparted. ‘ The Colonial School,’ under a master salaried by the Local Government, is designed for families unequal to the expense of a first-class education. There are not less than six private Protestant day-schools, kept by ladies and gentlemen respectively, most of which are carefully super- intended. It is expected that in a short time a bill will pass the Legislature for the establishment of what is known in Canada as a ‘ Common-School System.’ Under this de- sirable measure a tax will be levied upon the inhabit- ants for the erection and support of schools, in which the children of all bona fide settlers will be taught free of charge)“ * The clergy of the English Church have been loud in agitation for the introduction of the Bible into the proposed Common Schools ; but the bulk of the inhabitants are unwilling to accede to that arrangement in consequence of the mixed character of the community. There are individuals of every race, and members of every religious persuasion in the colonies; and it is maintained—as in Canada and the United States—that it would be unjust to Jews, Catholics, Buddhists, and Mohammedans, to adopt exclusively the text-book of any one religion. In order to avoid sectarian strife it is thought JoINT STOCK COMPANIES. 85 Every kind of useful article in the category of iron manufacture can now be made in Victoria. Already there are two foundries, one of which employs a large number of hands. Five breweries are at work, and produce porter, a light quality of ale, and lager beer. There are several saw mills, a tannery, and a sash and door manufactory. _ Among the occupations described in the half-yearly return,junder the ‘ Trades’ License Act,’ those under which rank the greatest number of names are carpenters and builders, grocers, merchants, clothiers, bakers, teamsters, and fruiterersfl" ‘The Victoria Gas Company ’ (Joint Stock, Limited) was formed two years since, and possesses a capital of 10,000l., which may by special resolution be increased to 20,000l. The half-yearly account of this Company to June 30, 1864, exhibits a highly satisfactory result. The cash balance in the bank, as certified by the auditors, was $9,817 700. A dividend at the rate of 15 per cent per annum for the half-year absorbed $6,562 500., leaving a balance of $3,255 200. to be carried to the reserved fimd for contingencies. Pipes are now laid in all the principal streets, and gas is preferred by shopkeepers as more economical than paraffin or any other sort of oil for lighting purposes. The following is a list of the Joint Stock Companies in Victoria, registered to August 1, 1864, under ‘ The Van~ couver Island Joint Stock Companies’ Act, 1860 :’——- desirable that to the instrumentality of Sunday Schools and parental effort should be intrusted the religious welfare of children. * Prices of provisions, clothing, &c., with rates of wages and rent, are given in the chapter on ‘ Emigration.’ 86 MUNICIPAL ooUNcIL. ‘ Company. When registered. Capital. Victoria Gas . . .- . . . Nov. 27, 1860 . . £10,000 Do. Market . . . . . . ,, 26, 1861 . . 8,000 BrigilsihingColumbia and Vancouver Island} April 8, 1862 . . 10,000 Bentinck Arm and Fraser River Road . . June 25, 1862 . . 6,000 Victoria and Esquimalt Railway . . . Nov. 21, 1862 . . 50,000 Bute Inlet Wagon Road . . . . Jan. 1, 1863 . . 60,000 Victoria Water-Works . . . . ,, 2 ,, . . 15,000 Soques Creek Silver Mining . . . Mar. 17 ,, . . 400 Skidegate Copper Mining . . . . Aug. 27 ,, . . 6,000 Sansum Copper Mining . . . . Jan. 6, 1864 . . 8,000 Muir Quartz . . . . . . ,, 26 ,, . . 2,200 Goldstream Quartz-Crushing Company . Mar. 28 ,, 2,000 Garibaldi Copper Mining . . . . April 4 ,, 12,000 Harewood Railway . . . . . ,, 4 ,, 8,000~ Parmeter Quartz . . . . . . ,, 17 ,, . . 4,200 Sooke Copper Mining . . . . . ,, 18 ,, . . 15,000 Alberni Mining . . . . . . May 17 ,, . . 7,200 Fuca Straits Coal Mining . . . . June 1 ,, 34,000 Spring Ridge Water-VVorks . . . Aug. 1 ,, 10,000 The last-named of these Companies has materially aug- mented the conveniences of the city by the introduction of excellent spring water in service pipes, thereby re- ducing much the cost of this essential of life to the inhabitants. Formerly it had to be conveyed in carts a long distance, at a charge of sixpence for every three bucketfuls. The city was incorporated in 1862; but some flaw in the Act of Incorporation has for a time occasioned a sus- pension of municipal authority, and interrupted the action of the corporation. This legal defect, however, will soon be remedied by a new Act of Parliament. City revenue is raised by a trading license, and a tax of one fourth of one per cent on the current value of real property. It is not improbable that some difliculty may yet arise to exercise the skill of the municipal body in regard to the sewage of the place. While it is small no incon- venience is felt, but the entire absence of a river for the CHARTERED BANKS. 87 purpose of draining Victoria may involve the necessity of adopting some costly expedient for carrying the drainage beyond the harbour. Perhaps, however, before this diffi- culty presses means may be devised—as in London at present-for utilising this valuable manure. Another want there is which can be more easily sup- plied. In the original plan of the town no open spaces were reserved for public squares—aptly designated by Burke ‘lungs’ of great cities. There are two chartered banks in Victoria—a branch of ‘the Bank of British North America,’ and another of ‘ the Bank of British Columbia.’ The latter has started prosperous agencies in N anaimo, New Westminster, Yale, Cariboo, and San Francisco. The substance of the report of an adjourned meeting of the shareholders, held in London on September 2, 1864, will show what progress this institution is making: ‘ The meeting was held in the London Tavern, Mr. Kay in the chair. By resolutions passed August 17, respecting the new charter, it was deemed expedient that the Company should be autho- rised to estabhsh banks of issue and deposit, and to carry on the general business of banking in such cities, towns, and places on the western coast of America, and in the adjacent islands, as Her Majesty should be pleased to allow ; and it was resolved, among other things, that the directors should be authorised to apply for and accept a supplemental charter. On the motion of the chairman, the resolutions were confirmed. A general meeting is called for the 26th inst. The report which is to be pre sented at this meeting, states that the profit at the end of the half year, ending June 30, 1864, was 11,105l. 16s. (id; but of this sum the directors propose to appropriate 5,000l., for a dividend of 8 per cent per annum, free of income— tax. 4,000l. is to be added to the reserve fund, which is 88 VALUE or TOWN PROPERTY. thereby increased to 6,00%, and 2,105Z. 16.9. (id. is carried forward to the current half year.’ Attached to the Bank of British North America there is an assay office, where gold—dust is melted and valued by qualified and trustworthy officials. These banking-houses are allowed to issue notes on condition of retaining in their safes specie to the value of one third the notes circulation.* A few illustrations of the augmented value of town property may be adduced, as an index of the prosperity of Victoria. A gentleman intimately known to me was offered a ‘lot,’ at the close of 1859, at 1,000l., with an extension of time to pay for it. That property '(60 feet by 120 feet) was leased for thirty years in 1860 at 15L per month. In a short time afterwards the lessee was in the receipt from it of an income, free of all taxes, amounting to 50L per month. Lots in Fort Street, that were bought in 1858 for 10L or 20L each, are now assessed at 1,0001. and up- wards. Two brothers invested 800l. in town property in the spring of that year, and in little more than six years their land is assessed at more than 12,0001. A ‘corner lot on Yates and Government Streets, that cost the present proprietor 1,100l., now rents for 505. per month; another, belonging to the same gentleman, for which he paid 600l., now brings him 16L per month; and another still, pur- chased at 1,200L, now yields a rent of 18!. per month. There is a person luxuriating in England at the present moment who went to the island as a poor ship carpenter. When the rush of immigration came in 1858, he and his * The firm of Wells, Fargo, and CO., an American house, does a large banking as well as express business. They have special messengers to con- vey treasure, parcels, and letters between Victoria and San Francisco. They also sell drafts on the principal towns of the United States and England. TRADEs AND PRoPEssIoNs. 89 wife were living behind the bar of a small. public-house— the resort of sailors. He bought about 40l. or 60l. worth of property after he arrived, which now’brings him the handsome income of 4,000l. per annum. Another in- habitant, with whose history I am familiar, brought to the country in 1857 60l., and the land he purchased with that amount now realises to him 80L per month. A piece of land which at the close of 1859 was purchased for a church, is now estimated to be worth at least 1,000l. A friend of mine bought 100 acres in the suburbs in 1861, at 20l. per acre, the purchase-money to be paid in instalments extending over a twelvemonth. He paid down 4l. to legalise the transaction; and, in a fortnight afterwards, cut up the estate into lots of five acres each, and resold it at an average advance of 12l. per acre. These are only casual instances of successful investment in property, out of many that might be enumerated. It must be acknowledged that’city property has been subject to fluctuations. Still, there is no probability of its ever being lower than it is at present. A LIST OF TRADES AND PROFESSIONS IN VICTORIA. Auctioneers . 7 Bankers . . . 4 Agents .. 7 Billiard halls 17 Assayers . 2 Bowling. alleys 3 Accountants, &c. . 2 Biscuit—baker. 1 Architects .. ._ . 4 Bricklayers . 2 Builders and contractors 18 Brass-founder . 1 Bootmakers . ._ . . 13 Blind-maker . 1 Boarding-houses . 7 Commission merchants. 7 Butchers 9 Cabinet-makers 3 Bakers 23 Carpenters 14 Brickmakers 5 Coal dealers . 3 Brewers 3 Coaehmakers 4 Bookseller 1 Clothiers . . 11 Bag and tent-makers 2 Chemists and ,druggists . 9 Broker _ 1 Cigar dealers . 4 Barristers 5 Cowkeepers . 5 90 TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. Cutlers . . . . . Coffee and spice merchan Coffee dealers . . . Coopers . Charcoal dealers . . . Carrier . . Confectioners . . Dealers in dry goods . . Draymen . . . Drapers, mercers, &c. . Dentist Dealers in grains . Dressmaker . . . . Dealer in toys . . Dealer in glass and crockery . Express men and agents . Engraver . . . . Estate agents . . . Fruiterers . . . . Fishmongers . . Furniture dealers . . Furrier General dealers Grocers . . . . Gasfitter . . . . Gunsmiths . . . . Greengrocers ,. . . General trader . Hatters . . . . Hairdressers . . . Hotel-keepers . . Hosiers and g-lovers Haberdashers, &c. Hackman . Innkeepers .- . . . Indian traders .- Iron merchants Insurance agents . . . Jewellers . . . . Livery stable keepers . Lime-burner - . . Locksmith .- . . Lumber merchants . . Mantua-makers . - . . Merchants . . . . Mill owner .- . . ' Mattress-maker . ., . tor- oa pl-w-dh-wl-IQoiwooh-luommww H CO l—ll-JCOCDIPP—IHIPIPNJNJKIt—tl-JHWCRWNJHNJNDl-JCOCDHQDCDOWH H p-I Machinists . Milliners, &c. Masons . . . . News agents . . Oyster-room . Outfitter . . . Painters . . . . Provision merchants Pastrycooks . Photographers Porters . . . Paperhanger . Plasterers . . Printers . . Poulterers . . Provision dealer . Pork butcher Plumber . Restaurateurs Scrivener Stove dealers Stonecutters . Storekeeper . Scourer, &c. . Saddlers . Shipping agent Sailmaker . . Syrup and soda-water manu- facturer . . . . Shipbuilder . Stationers . Solicitors .- Surveyor Tobacconists Tailors . . Tinsmiths .- . . Turners and carvers . Traders . . Tea-dealers . . . . Upholsterers ~ .- . . Undertaker . . . . Washerwomen and laun- dresses .- . . . Watermen Wagon maker . . Watchmakers . - . . Wood dealers . . . y_I l—‘NLQCONDFPGJKTI-JCRNJl—‘l—l l-Jl-T‘NDEdi-‘LORDl—lgr—ll-dl—lclfiNJFPl—‘NDPGQQOD'Qk—Jh—lK-DNJOQhk 91 CHAPTER IV. VICTORIA AS A FREE PORT. Principal Free Ports throughout the World—Results of the Free Port. System in Hamburg, the Channel Islands, and Hongkong—Importance , of guarding Victoria against the Introduction of Customs Duties—Pro- posed Union with British Columbia as affecting the Free Port Arrange- ment—Comparative Prospects of New Westminster and Victoria—Reso- lutions of the Island Legislature in regard to Union—Imports—Number and Tonnage of Vessels—Exports of Gold from 1858 to 1864—Exports of British and French Goods to Sitka—WashingtonTerritory—Oregon-s-Cali- fornia and Mexico—Commanding Position of Victoria as a Free Port, and the powerful Inducements it offers British Merchants for opening up Trade with the Coast of Western America—Facilities offered by Vancouver’s Island for Return Cargoes to China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand —-Californian Opinion of Victoria as a probable Rival of San Francisco— Description of Goods suited for the Victoria Market—Rapid Increase of Population in Puget Sound—The proposed Erection of Esquimalt into the chief Naval Station of the Pacific, the Construction of a Sanitarium for invalided Naval Men, and the bearing of these Events on the Growth of Victoria. VICTORIA is a free port in the strictest sense of that term.’ With the exception of Labuan and Hongkong it is the only place in the vast category of British depots for ocean commerce in which no customs duties are leviable. In addition to this city and the two localities above-mentioned, the principal British free ports throughout the world are Singapore, Malta, Gibraltar)‘ and the Cape of Good Hope. In many of our colonies, as in the United States, the popular opinion seems to be that the imposition of high ”“ This is free for English goods only. 92 vIOToRIA As A FREE PORT. duties is the sure path to high prosperity. At Prince Edward’s Island wine pays 23 per cent duty ; machinery, 20 per cent; and clocks, 25 per cent. Canada charges from 10 to 100 per cent on all staple articles of import, and only admits free a few of a minor descriptionfi'i Most of. the other British possessions have framed their scales of tariff after the English model. In other European countries the great mercantile centres of this character are Heligoland, Bremen, Odessa, and Hamburg. In the West Indies, St. Thomas is free, and ranks as the banking house of that part of the world. Odessa carries on' both a foreign and internal trade very much like Victoria. In Hamburg, the mart and port for Germany, there is a uniform half per cent ad valorem duty. But the British commercial capital of the North l/Vest Coast of America, hearing the name of the Sovereign, has the honourable dis~ tinetion of being perfectly free. Thus, as was remarked by the ‘ Times,’ we are enabled to feed the hungry and clothe the naked in neighbouring states ; and the New York cor— respondent of that paper, in a letter published in September, said :——‘ British goods paying no duty pour from Victoria in Vancouver Island into California, whose citizens are thus enabled to clothe themselves in purple and, fine linen, without paying tribute to the Washington treasury.’ It is unquestionable that free ports, though usually established in districts comparatively non-producing and not eminently favourable for the pursuits of agriculture-— but chiefly depending upon foreign and internal trade—- are among the most flourishing cities in the world. A modern writer says in regard to Hamburg, where trade is almost entirely free :— * Gaspy, in Canada, is in the anomalous position of being nominally a free port; but is so surrounded by restrictions that an outlet for goods from it is impossible. HAMBURG AND OTHER PoRTs. 93 Its transactions consist partly in agency, but chiefly in purchase and sale for merchants who buy the commodities of Great Britain, France, Spain, and the United States, and supply with these all the countries on the Elbe and the Rhine, and a great part of the Prussian and Austrian dominions. Hamburg was established as a free city less than 100 years ago, and with that freedom she has prospered in population and wealth, and now her vessels entering and leaving number some 20,000 annually, with a tonnage of two millions. The Channel Islands are another illustration of the same advantage. Only a few duties are levied there, and in pro- portion to the area of these islands and their opportunities of extending local commerce there is no spot on the globe where more trade is done or where property rules at such a high value. Land, which on the opposite coast of England fetches 30s. per acre, in Jersey brings an annual rental of from 5t. to 40l. The prodigious increase in our trade with China dates from the opening of Hongkong as a free port. ‘ Customs duties cramp commerce like the iron shoes on the feet of Chinese girls. Our cry in London now is, No turnpi/ces, and they are fast being demolished; but there is little chance of our losing our Custom-house turnpike. A free port is the merchant’s paradise, the sailor’s haven, and the mart of mankind. Should any one propose a tariff for Victoria they should be sent to—Hongkong I’ ’* Our infant city has a claim upon the attention of capitalists and politicians as the most interesting of British commercial centres in which that grand idea of modern political science—for which we are mainly indebted to the late lamented Mr. Cobden--is destined to be carried to its fullest development. This liberal fiscal system as applied to local commerce "‘ Letter from the London correspondent of The Victoria Chronicle. 94 vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. is the foundation of the present and prospective prosperity of Victoria. It has attracted to the colony the bulk of our population, and enriched our landlords. In its tendency to augment the number of consumers—as examples of free ports elsewhere illustrate—it will furnish a large and remunerative market for farming produce. The agricul- turists of the colony who send men to represent them in the Legislature for the purpose of obtaining a protective tariff had need to pause before committing themselves to a policy so suicidal. Its adoption is the certain insertion of the thin point of the wedge and the admission of a principle that, under pressure of financial necessity, our colonial authorities might be tempted to extend to general imports. The time for protection is gone. That article in the creed of Conservatism is expunged for ever, and duties are no longer levied in England but as a source of revenue. N o precedent should be sanctioned in Victoria that would entail the difficulties and annoyances of Custom-houses, the paraphernalia of bonded warehouses, the inconvenience and expense of revenue service officials, inducements to fraud and speculation, and the necessity of withdrawing goods from bond‘ at stated intervals. Bays, inlets, and other entrances, with which our coast is indented, are so numerous as to ofl"er peculiar facilities for smuggling, and necessitate a vast army of tide-waiters that might be prevented. Import duties would drive away foreign ship- ping, close our stores, and inevitably call into existence some rival port in the neighbouring American territory by which our commerce would be ruined. But not only would tampering with the present immaculateness of our free port ultimately result in the depreciation of real estate, the decay of commerce, and the diminution of the public revenue, but also in the decline of agriculture and the ruin of the farmer. Not RELATIONS OF VICTORIA AND WESTMINSTER. 95 only does our existing immunity from Customs’ charges contribute to the rapid extension of population, but it enables the farmer to purchase manufactured imports at much less expense than he could do under a protective system?‘ In the discussion which has been agitating the colonists of British Columbia and Vancouver Island both in and out of the Colonial Legislature, on the question of the organic union of these two colonies, the problem which has com— plicated the proposed scheme is, how, in the event of both dependencies being placed under one governor and electing one Parliament, the distinct modes of raising revenue which now obtain in the Colonies respectively could be maintained. It is argued that British Columbia being the larger colony and likely to contain the larger population, its representatives in the Legislative Assembly would sooner or later outnumber those of the island; in which case British Columbian interest must predominate in the Parliament. Victoria is regarded by some persons in the sister colony as antagonistic to New Westminster, the latter mercantile depot being burdened with a Customs’ tariff which constitutes the main source of the revenue of British Columbia. It is apprehended that even should the people of that colony consent to union with Vancouver Island at present on condition of preserving Victoria as a free port, those who are interested in attempts to draw commerce to New Westminster and inflict injury upon Victoria would eventually bring influence to bear through the more numerous electoral constituencies of British Columbia, unify the mode of levying taxes in both colonies, and thus demolish the free port system. These fears, however, seem to me to be without founda— * This point is put more fully in the Chapter on ‘Agriculture in the Island.’ 96 . vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. tion. The free port, upon which a portion of the citizens of New Westminster are disposed to look with obvious suspicion and jealousy, will be increasingly felt as time advances to be a public advantage to British Columbia in common with the entire Northern Coast of America in the Pacific. I believe the union desired by Vancouver Island to be practicable on the proviso of the colonies regulating their methods of taxation separately as they now do, and agreeing to pay a proportion of the general income of the local Government to be fixed according to the revenue of each. This last article in the Constitution would probably call for an adjustment of the Legislative representation that would leave Vancouver Island with a minority of members in Parliament. But if the commercial status quo of that colony be immovably established by the instrument of union, all other details connected with the joint adminis- tration of both colonies might be very easily, amicably, and permanently settled. The greatest physical advantages with which the island has been endowed are its harbours ; situated in convenient proximity to the ocean, which point out for the southern part of the colony a high commercial destiny. There are no such capacious places of anchorage between San Francisco and the Russian possessions of America. The natural advantages conferred upon a country indicate the direction in which its interests should be developed with the greatest care. Had England been preeminently adapted for agricul- tural operations it would have been preposterous that commerce and manufactures should receive supreme at- tention from British capitalists. Vancouver Island having capabilities of a similar nature to those of the parent country—there being greater inducements presented for ‘the extension of commerce than for farming—we should be infatuated to protect farming at the expense of arresting UNION OF THE COLONIES. 97 the influx of commerce. For we should thus sacrifice what nature designed should be our prime interest for one which nature with equal clearness intimates must always hold a secondary place. The same argument applies to the subject of union. That object is sought with a view to securing strength and economy, as there would then be but one government and one staff of leading oflicials. But if it were found, on calm deliberation, that the free action of the commerce of Victoria were likely to be in the slightest degree eopardised by the union, all thought of it should be abandoned. Let the union, however, be successfully inaugurated, with Victoria as a port kept free, and in ten years the opposition which has been waged by certain lotholders in New Westminster against our rising port would be counterbalanced by the masses of British Columbia pro- testing against any attempt on the part of their political representatives to meddle with existing fiscal arrange— ments in Victoria. The advantages of the free port to British Columbia are plain. That colony is furnished with whatever foreign commodities she may want at a far cheaper rate than she could otherwise procure them. The merchant there is enabled to purchase, in Victoria, his goods in such assorted quantities as suit his limited market, and then he saves the'outlay and risk attending large direct importation from Europe and Asia. The comparative prospects of Victoria and New West- minster are set forth in the following extract from an article that appeared in ‘ The British Colonist,’ from my pen, in September 1863, when, through the unfortunate intervention of my friend, the Hon. Malcolm Cameron of Canada, the colony of British Columbia received from the Duke of Newcastle a separate government. H 98 VICTORIA As A FREE PORT. ‘ The gratifying prospect of obtaining the services of a governor exclusively devoted to the protection of the interests of that colony, and the anticipated inception of representative government by a corps le'gislatif, have com- bined to revive in the merchants and landowners of New Westminster the long-cherished hope of undermining the prosperity of Victoria, and centralising the commercial activity which now distinguishes this port in that rival city. Earnestly do we trust that the auspicious epoch about to be inaugurated in the adjacent colony may bring peace to the spirits of certain of its inhabitants, so long chafed by the spectacle of a neighbouring city striding in advance of New Westminster with provoking rapidity. Sincerely do we desire that the favourable condition soon to be introduced may offer advantages corresponding to the utmost expectations of our fellow-subjects, for the trial of that fond and ambitious experiment by which it is attempted to transfer the crown of mercantile prece¢ dence from Victoria to New Westminster. The more complete the opportunity afforded of ascertaining how far that project is practicable, the sooner will our irritable neighbours be induced to relinquish it as Utopian, and concur with all sane populations on this coast in acknow- ledging Victoria as the grand port for ocean shipping, and the unrivalled emporium for the distribution of English imports throughout British and American territory on the shores of the Pacific. During the last four years and a half the prevailing sentiments indulged by owners of stores and lords of the soil in the capital of British Co- lumbia towards. the inhabitants of Victoria have been of a cantankerous description, and singularly inappropriate between citizens of colonies ruled by one sceptre, and indissolubly interwoven in the network of common ma- terial interests. Vituperation has been lavished profusely COMPARED WITH NEW WESTMINSTER. 99 upon the Executive of J ames’s Bay, by the press of the Queen City of Fraser River. The leading representatives of trade, including the Hudson Bay Company, and persons- among us found convicted of investing money in real estate in Victoria, have been anathematised as conspirators against the progress of New Westminster. Any respect- able inhabitant of this place, who has possessed sufficient courage to visit that city, has usually been suspected of malicious espionnage, and exposed to forms of address hardly calculated to sweeten his recollections of the trip. When, with becoming meekness and fervency, we have entreated our indignant neighbours to accept assurances of the goodwill of the people of Victoria, they have only waxed more perverse, and illustrated the expressive lines of the Satirist—— They joined in one harmonious grunt, We wunt, we wunt, we wunt, we wunt. ‘ We had thought that the celebrated fable of “ the Fox and the Grapes” would cease to have any application to them, and that their exaggerated hopes of attaining pre- eminence in trade would ere this have been abundantly sobered down by past ineffectual exertions to reach that coveted position. But with heroic purpose and aug- mented infatuation they are again rallying their energies to grasp that dazzling object on which their aspirations have been unquenchably set. ‘ The contemplated separation of the two colonies is viewed as removing one important barrier that formerly opposed the satisfaction of their wishes. The residence of the new Executive of British Columbia in New West- minster, it is believed, will present fascinations whose splendour will tempt merchants to abandon those spacious warehouses hning our harbour, and beg the privilege of erecting substitutes on the banks of the Fraser. It is 000 .0 o 0'0 C I.’ 0 00000 a... ... .0... 112 100 vIoTORIA AS A FREE PORT. with regret that we have to burden the sense of propriety in our readers still further, by informing them of a pro- phecy current in oracular circles, in the charmed city, that (mi-rabile diotu !) in four years from the establishment of the new administrative re'gime, statistics will demon- strate New Westminster, in respect of wealth and popu- lation, to be triumphant. The issue of the question con- cerning the comparative prospects of these rival cities is not left to be determined, however, by the will of even those representatives of commercial and political wisdom who preside over the destinies of New Westminster. There are inflexible laws controlling the growth of mer— cantile centres, against which all the force of their col- lective intelligence, and all the sagacity and magnificence of their improved government cannot prevail. The pas- sion of caprice or personal aggrandisement may impel individual pioneers in an infant country to select a par- ticular location for the founding of a sea-port. But unless the choice made turn out to be in obvious harmony with public interest, competitive enterprise, which in the aggregate cannot be ultimately satisfied without the at- tainment of the utmost possible advantage to the greatest number, will speedily set that choice aside. It were therefore an Outrage upon the natural instincts of the community, to imagine that trade in the Gulf of Georgia should be permitted to radiate from Victoria as the chief commercial centre in preference to New Westminster, unless the topographical superiority of the former place had plainly commended it to the approval’ of our whole- sale importers and minor traders generally, as the depot most compatible with the widest public advantage. The situation of Victoria is so remarkably adapted for the purposes of extensive commerce, that the natural circum- stances by which it is in this respect peculiarly favoured must be ascribed expressly to providential arrangement. COMPARED WITH NEW WESTMINSTER. 101 It is convenient to the ocean, and extends to shipping the double protection of its ample harbour, which is not only far removed from exposure to the tempests that assail the open sea-coast, but at a safe distance from the stormier parts of the Gulf. It is contiguous to the yet more commodious harbour of Esquimalt. It is accessible to vessels at all seasons, and, as the mineral and timber products of this island and Puget Sound continue to be developed, the various loading points can be approached hence with expedition and safety ; so that, even had the two cities under consideration been ushered into existence simultaneously, the conclusion is irresistible, from the facts that have been adduced, that the commanding position enjoyed by Victoria would have infallibly gained for it' commercial supremacy. But that inference is confirmed beyond dispute, when it is remembered that the prt more richly endowed with natural advantages is also greatly the senior of its querulous rival. It is as unrea- sonable to expect that the former can be overtaken by the latter, as that one steed of superior mettle to another and having the start of that other, should be beaten on the turf. So extensive has been the amount of capital expended on mercantile appliances in Victoria, so remu- nerative have those sources of wealth proved, so powerful is the connection formed by our importers with great shipping firms in England and other parts of the world, and so incomparably rapid has been the general progress of the city, that the colossal dimensions into which it is destined to expand are already unmistakably foreshadowed, as the leading mart on the sea-board north of San Fran— cisco. Nor would it be astonishing were it to outmatch in future ages that renowned entrepét of California. ‘ But among the elements of its prospective greatness, freedom from restrictions imposed upon the operations of commerce by Customs’-duties should not be omitted. The 102 vIcToEIA As A FREE PoRT. convenience inseparable from that untrammeled condition is liberally appreciated by purchasers from adjacent loca- lities. The free-port system has secured for us the lion’s share of trade with British Columbia; it occasions con- siderable illicit and irregular traffic with Washington Territory of a profitable description, and attracts increas- ing orders for supplies of English goods from Oregon and California. ‘ But while the local advantages of Victoria combine with the analogy of the leading city in a neighbouring gold-producing country, to indicate the towering impor- tance that must ever distinguish this port as compared with New Westminster, we must not be understood as sympathising with insinuations sometimes to be met with respecting alleged dangers in the navigation of the Fraser, and the consequent impossibility of inducing vessels of heavy tonnage to clear at foreign ports for the capital of British Columbia. The position of Montreal on the St. Lawrence, of Philadelphia on the Delaware, and of Wash- ington on the Potomac, offers no impassable barrier against the approach of large ships to those cities. The immense tract of country navigable by the Fraser marks out that river as the principal and indispensable channel of communication with the interior of British Columbia; and with the ingress of population, and the multiplication of inland towns, the growth of the port of entry will be inevitable. As the wealth of resident merchants increases, they will enjoy the gratification for which they long, in witnessing ocean shipping alongside their wharves. The expanding trade of the colony may eventually summon into requisition the further accommodation offered by Bur- rard Inlet. An extended system of lumber-mills may probably offer facilities for the supply of valuable return cargoes. But the inflated hopes of our neighbours in‘ reference to the accomplishment of that happy consum- g.. to. ‘.0. o ‘. .:'.. Q Q Q PROSPECTS OF NEW WESTMINSTER. 103 mation, are not according to discretion. Years must elapse before it can be reahsed. Invincible forces are in opera- tion, arising unavoidably out of geographical and com- mercial relations with Surrounding localities, to render the advancement of New Westminster slow and insignificant in comparison with that of Victoria. Financial inabihty must prevent the chief proportion of merchants in the sister-capital from opening, for a considerable time, ac- counts with English, or even San Francisco, houses. They will therefore be compelled, until circumstances favour their forming a connection with firms at a distance, to accept such fare as Victoria may provide. It will be long before the business of any single merchant in British Columbia can justify him to engage in importation direct from the parent country, and when a company of mer~ chants are prepared to join in that undertaking, arrivals at New Westminster from England, or even from countries less remote, will for a great while be infrequent. During the tedious interval in which those experiments are being tried, the spreading pinions of this island-emporium shall have grown so powerful that She will have soared infinitely above the reach of New Westminster—defying for ever the competition of all immediately surrounding rivals. There is certainly nothing in the past history of com- mercial enterprise in New Westminster to augur bril- liantly for the future. After the convulsive struggles of our neighbours to shake off dependence on Victoria, their bravado has only been Sustained by the advent of a couple of vessels to their shores in four years. The merchants of New Westminster cannot afford to receive any consi- derable freight direct from a distance, till the demand from the upper country in their market is suy’iciently brislc to guarantee their turning over the amount of invoice within such limited period as is commensurate with their obtain- ing a remunerative interest upon outlay. While small 104 vIOToRIA As A FREE PORT. packages are most suitable to the wants and the means of traders, the inconveniences will be much fewer in procur- ing small stocks from Victoria, than in their uniting to charter a vessel to bring their wares from a distance. It is unnecessary to dwell on this part of the subject. It has been maintained that the charges in freight, storage, and commission, incurred by the transit of goods to New Westminster via Victoria, cannot longer be endured, and that the saving in those items accruing from direct ship- ments would enable the merchants of New Westminster to undersell those in our port. But that assertion simply amounts to saying, that the importers of Victoria gain such enormous profits that they could easily afford to reduce them, and that any attempt at competition in New West'- minster would at once make them resolve to do so. The only source of custom we can see open to the port of entry on the Fraser River consists of the smaller traders in Yale, Douglas, and similar places in the interior, whose finances do not admit of their buying in quantities large enough to make a shipment from Victoria worth while. But, dir'ectly their resources improve, they will naturally purchase where they can have the largest scope for selec- tion. Still the number of third-rate traders in the upper country will always be sufficient to insure a quiet, steady, and advancing trade to New Westminster. We regard the relation subsisting between Sacramento and San Fran- cisco as definitely illustrative of the position just discussed. ‘ Finally, it should not be overlooked that the transport of provisions to the northern mines is likely to be much less expensive by the coast routes via Bentinck Arm and Bute Inlet, than by the existing mode of conveyance via Fraser River. Should that prediction be verified, a con- siderable amount of traflic will unquestionably be diverted from the present chief port of British Columbia, that would otherwise fall to its lot. But every rival depot in that RESOLUTIONS oN UNION. 105 colony, while tending to check the commercial predomi- nance of New Westminster, will open an additional market for the merchandise of Victoria. So that, while the dis- tribution of wealth and population in that colony will determine for New Westminster a very circumscribed position as compared with Victoria, the latter will keep adding innumerable strings to its already powerful bow, and absorbing, as it now does, a ratio of inhabitants equal to one third of the entire population of both colonies. We would invoke the industrious citizens of the emulous port with which our remarks have been concerned, in the name of concord, amity, and common sense, to lay aside all unjustifiable bitterness toward their more fortunate neigh- bours on this side the gulf, and resign themselves to their destiny.’ ' Subjoined are the resolutions passed by the Legislature .- of Vancouver Island in October last, in reference to the proposed union :— 1. Resolved, That this House is of opinion : 1. That there should be a Federal Union of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. 2. That the Federal Government should be vested in the Governor and Federal Legislative Council. 3. That the Legislative Council be composed of an equal number of persons from each colony. 4. There shall be one Governor for both colonies. '5. That the Governor and Legislative Council shall have jurisdiction over all public questions in which both colonies have a common interest. 6. That each local Legislature should have a right to deter- mine the mode of taxation within its jurisdiction for federal as well as local purposes. 7. That the Crown Revenues be the property of the Federal Government. 8. That all laws, usages, and liabilities of each colony, except where altered by Act of Federal Union, remain as they are, till changed by the the Federal or Local Legislature respectively. 106 vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. ' II. Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be respect- fully requested to enter into negotiations with His Excellency the Governor of British Columbia, with the object of establish- ing a Federal Union of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, based on the provisions of the previous Resolutions. III. Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be respect- fully urged to submit every question of difference, not affecting our free trade policy, between himself and His Excellency the Governor of British Columbia respecting the proposed Federal Union, to Her Majesty’s principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, for final decision, binding on both colonies. IV. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to explain the views of this House, as embraced in the foregoing Resolutions to His Excellency the Governor. V. Resolved, That the foregoing Resolutions be transmitted to His Excellency the Governor. The value of imports to Victoria from all quarters in 1863, amounted to about 7 70,000l., showing an advance, as compared with the imports of 1861, of about 368,000l., and with those of 1862, of about 260,000l. Total Amount of Imports into the Port of Victoria, Van- couver Island, for the years 1861-63. 1861 lst Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter , s s s s San Franclsco . 331,731 315,013 234,956 271,713 Portland . 47,188 54,040 25,189 42,874 Puget SOHIld 29,257 45,278 51,564 50,346 British Columbia -— 1,605 14,171 1,507 Honolulu . 11,328 6,999 11,419 12,735 China —- —- -— —- Melbourne —— —— -—- — Valparaiso -— —— —— -— England . 164,350 45,547 57,530 191,084 583,854 468,482 395,829 570,259 Total value of imports for 1861 $2,018,424 IMPORTS. 107 1862 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter _ s s s s San F rancisco . . 417,847 867,345 563,812 540,857 Portland . . . 14,788 24,934 22,330 13,318 Puget Sound . . 57,144 58,914 38,727 69,998 British Columbia . 13,100 1,200 9,635 8,489 Honolulu . . . 47,134 32,695 26,361 5,918 China . . . -— — — 22,268 Melbourne . . —- — 32,170 - Valparaiso . . -— — 17,000 -- England . . . 162,479 49,239 288,511 204,019 712,492 1,034,327 998,546 804,877 Total Value of imports for 1862 . $2,550,242 1863 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter ~ 4th Quarter ‘ _ $ 3 $ 3 San Francisco . . 596,486 411,207 523,149 410,585 Portland . . . 24,975 39,242 38,440 18,607 Puget Sound . . 101,317 69,980 34,356 65,389 British Columbia . 3,998 7,745 21,043 38,991 Honolulu . . . 12,918 35,380 25,092 40,096 o o o _ _ Melbourne . . — —— — —— Valparaiso . . — —— —— -— England . . . 372,370 256,383 628,890 38,360 1,112,061 819,937 1,315,404 613,028 Total value of imports for 1863 . $3,860,430 Imports for the six months ending December 31, 1859, $1,090,090 ‘ June 30, 1860, $1,405,801. 77 77 It will be seen from the following tabular return of tonnage, that the number of vessels was greater in 1862 than in 186 3, while the amount of tonnage in the latter year was larger than in the former. The excess in the number 108 vIcToRIA. As A FREE PORT. of vessels for 1862 is accounted for by the unusually ex- tensive immigration which took place in that year. Comparative Return of the Number and Tonnage of Vessels of each Nation, entered at the Port of Victoria, during the years 1861-63. ‘ 1861 1862 t 1863 Nationality. I No. Tonnage No. Tonnage No. Tonnage Colonial . 425 16,756 414 56,781 607 62,722 British . 53 9,026 14 8,425 20 11,542 American 598 75,974 728 152,723 585 104,585 German . —- ~ — 1 346 1 523 Danish —- - 1 351 — — Hanover . —- — 1 363 - -— Prussian . -—- —- 1 261 -- —— Total . 1,076 101,756 1,160 199,250 1,213 179,372 It will be seen from the summary of imports for October 1864, that it exhibits a much larger ratio than the table of the preceding year does. $ From England . . . . . 125,497 ,, California . . . . 181,015 ,, Oregon . . . L . 17,838 ,, Puget Sound . . . . 25,237 ,, British Columbia . . . 2,973 ,, Sandwich Islands . . . 6,745 Total . . . 359,305 Up to the close of December 1864, there was an actual increase of imports from England, as compared with those of1863, of $112,773. EXPORTS OF GOLD. 109 Exports of Gold from 1858 to 1864. Shippers 1858-1860 1861 1862 1863 i 3 3 $ 3‘ Wells, Fargo & Co. 2,459,719 1,340,395 1,573,096 1,373,446 Macdonald & Co. . (includ. in 1861) 1,207,656 335,379 — Bank of British Co- lumbia . . -— — -- 824,876 Bank of British North America . — -— — 585,618 H. B. Co. and other shippers (approxi- mate calculation to the end of 1862) . —- -- Hudson Bay Co. . — -- Other shippers — —— 19,49,000 - - 55,232 -_ 85,000 2,459,719 2,548,051 2,257,475 2,935,172 Recapitalation. $ Wells, Fargo & Co. (total shipments to 1863) . . . 6,746,654 Macdonald & Co. do. . . . . 1,543,035 Bank of British Columbia, do. . . . . 824,876 Bank of British North America, do. . . . . 585,618 Hudson Bay Co. and other shippers, do. . . . . 500,000 10,200,183 This statement does not include the quantity of gold taken from the country in private hands. It is be- lieved by those qualified to form a correct opinion on the subject, that $5,000,000 is a very moderate average of the value of the precious metal that passed through Victoria to foreign parts in the years indicated above, otherwise than in connection with banks and shipping ofiices. The gross sterling value exported to the end of 1863 is thus brought up to about £3,000,000. ' This amount may seem insignificant to those who are accustomed to examine the gold export tables of Cali- fornia and Australia. But when it is remembered that 110' vIcToRIA As- 'A _ FREE .PORT. till 1862 there were not 3,000 men engaged in mining, and i that since that period .there have not been a larger number, the value presented, viewed in proportion to the number of miners at work in British Columbia, will bear most favourable comparison with the amount pro- duced from the countries just specified. Indeed, when the extraordinary difficulties are considered that for some time impeded access to the mines, the result must be regarded as splendid, and furnishing strong inducements to men of capital and enterprise to follow in the steps of those hardy pioneers who have so successfully proved the richness of the country. It is little more than three years since the first package of European merchandise was exported from this place to American States, on the coast. Till within the past year our stocks of goods were not assorted and selected so carefully with a view to the opening of trade with foreign neighbours, as they ought to have been. We have had several commission agents in Victoria, receiving consign- ments from the home; market, but as yet have not been favoured with the presence of more than two or three real mercantile establishments of any consideration, and even these larger firms have not hitherto directed that energy to the development of trade with foreign countries on the coast, which the magnificent encouragements bursting upon us would justify. But notwithstanding the meagre extent and variety of goods We have exposed suitable for the markets of the Pacific, and the limited amount of capital, mercantile talent, and enterprise we have brought to bear, buyers from Rus- sian America, Oregon, California, the Sandwich Islands, and Mexico, are waking up to the incalculable advantages afforded them by our geographical position, and free- dom from the inconveniences of bonded warehouses and Customs’ duties. TRADE WITH SITKA AND MExICo. 111 Advices from Vancouver Island, dated October'1864, inform us of the merchants of Sitka having opened large negotiations with Victoria: The brig ‘ Shekelofi',’ Captain Hanson, arrived yesterday morning from Sitka. . . . The brig belongs to the Russo- American Fur-trading Company, and has come for a cargo of assorted merchandise, having been attracted hither by the low rates at which goods can be purchased in this market. Another vessel (a steamer), belonging to the same company, is expected to arrive here in a few days from the Same station, on a similar errand. The Supercargo is a gentleman who occupies a position equivalent to that of a chief factor in the Hudson’s Bay Company. Hitherto the bulk of the trade with Sitka has been enjoyed by San Francisco and the free city of Hamburg. From the latter port a vessel freighted with goods for the Russo- American Company is Sent out each year, and San Francisco vessels, seeking cargoes of ice, have carried forward to Sitka cargoes of general merchandise. The present diversion in favour of Victoria will prove, we think, instrumental in opening Sitka to our commerce, and eventually securing us the whole of that important trade. With Washington Territory, Oregon, California, and Mexico in the south, and British Columbia and Sitka in the north, knocking at our doors for goods, there would seem to be a bright future in store for our city. The ‘ Shekeloff ’ made the run down in eight days. N o effort has as yet been made to acquaint our Mexican neighbours with the inducements which our market offers. About twelve vessels annually arrived at Guaymas, in Sonora, laden with goods from England. Acapulco, Mazatlan, and Manzanillo also receive English shipments direct. Subsequent pages, however, will demonstrate that an immense Saving of interest upon Outlay is effected, and that orders for British goods are most expeditiously fulfilled by being sent to Victoria. At length this valuable com- mercial secret is dawning on merchants in Mexico. A few months since a large buyer from that country paid a visit to 112‘ VICTORIA As A FREE PORT. Victoria, and selected the first parcel of goods ever sent , thither from our port. His purchases amounted to 8 30,000. It is in the power of any large Victoria mercantile firm who will employ agents, and distribute catalogues of their stocks in the new Empire, now, I trust, becoming rapidly consolidated under its first sovereign, to build up a trade corresponding to that carried on by the great English houses in Hongkong. The following Table sets forth Exports of English Goods, or American Goods exported after Importation, but all liable to Duty in American Ports, for the Sim M onths' ending I December 1863. Port of destination July August SeptemberI October November December _ s s s s s 9 San Francisco 20,673 25,015 16,650 28,112 23,217 25,456 Fort Angelos (win) 0,969 6,804 6,187 8,668 8,988 10,412 Astoria . . 944 1,727 687 4,208 2,587 361 New York . . — 349 — —- —- — Total for the Six Months. 7%‘ San Francisco . . . . 139,123 Port Angelos . . . 42,023 Astoria . . . . . . 10,464 New York . . . . . 349 Grand total . . 191,959 The next table is submitted to show, for the satisfaction of merchants in Great Britain, the description of goods sought for re-exportation from Victoria to the various parts mentioned above, and also how powerful was the impulse received by our export trade during the past year. In 1863 the monthly exports averaged at the rate of $400,000 per annum, and the following table for one month in 1864 exhibits a ratio of $850,000 per annum, or more than double the ratio for the preceding year. Exports from the Port of Victoria, V. 1., to Foreign Ports [Per favour of Messrs. J anion, Green, and Rhodes] Canvas . Sundries Paper Dyed plaid Perfumery Cheese . Oilmen’s stores Salad oil Currants Copper . Oilmen’s stores Preserved meat Salt Paint Red lead Nails Sheet iron Corrug. iron . Gal. iron Glassware , Earthenware . Tacks, screws, &c . Sardines Sieves . Paper hangings Trunks and boots . Sherry . Sherry . Port Claret . Claret . Champagne . Hollands Cognac . Rum Rum 33 08k» 10 08kt . 20 ca . 50 c: 15 csk: . 3 c: 2 bdln . 28 . 2 bls 1 trunk . 1 cs 10 bls 10 bls . 4 bls . 4 bls. . 6bls 299' . 1 gal . 1 pkg 1 cs . 1 tin 1 cs . 1 cs . 6 cls 4 bdls 12 cls 6 cl 6 cs 500 20 bars 16 bdls . 1 roll . 1 csk 1 cs 1 cs EXPORTS. during the month of October 1864. Whisky. TO SITKA. 7 pkgs 3 pkgs 3 pkgs . 1 pkg . 2 cs 2 cs 3 cs 5 cs 1 cs . 3 cs . 24 cs . 10 cs 2 bbls 1 cask . 6 kgs 46 kgs 25 bdls 1 cs 3 cs 1 cs . 1 crt 1 cs 2 cs 1 cs 1 cs 6 cs 23 qr. casks . 4O cs . 10 cs . 10 cs 5cs . 130s . 330s . 20 cs 3pkgs . 50 cs 12 csks i Whisky Whisky Ale . . Whisky Porter . Porter . Hams Grindstones . Red wood planks . Carpets . Sundries Cruet stands . Tar Pitch . . Black varnish Bright varnish Coal tar Iron pots Copal varnish Soap Coal oil Coal oil Lamp black . Yellow ochre Man. rope Cord Man. rope . _ Wire rope Axes Fire bricks Iron . Iron Lead Lamps . Lamps . Chemicals Oil and turpentine. 2 cs 114 VICTORIA AS A FREE PORT. Chalk , . 1 csk Champagne . Gun flints 1 cs Salad oil Stoves , , . . . 1 CS _ Sundries . Lamps . . . . . 1 cs Arrow root . Tobacco , , . 14 pkgs Pickles . Figs, &c. . . . . 3 cs Sago Axes . . 11 bxs Porter . Plough . . . . . 1 Cheese . Soap . . . 40 bxs Gin (green) . . Soap . . . 42 bxs Tobacco Boots and shoes . . 31 cs Pepper . Pepper , , . . - . 2 csks Iron pots . Glue ' . . . . 1 bag Kettles . Jars 1 cs Cofi'ee machine 4 . Paper . . . 1 roll Stove . . Paper . . . l parcel Iron kettles . Stationery . . . . 1 box Shovels and spades Bunting . 1 parcel Forks . Potatoes 85 bgs Lanthorns Onions . . . . 5 bgs Lanthorns Prunes . . . . 14 bxs Lamps . Nuts’ . 8 bgs Stationery Pine apples . 1 cs Stationery Sugar . 2 kgs Flour Bitters . 1 cs Boots Chairs . . . . 1 doz Tumblers Capers . . 1 cs Paint Chocolate 2 cs Belting . Ale . . . 1 csk Iron Porter . . . . . 1 csk Cir. saws . Butts . . . . 132 Perfumery Cheese . . . . 1 pkg Coal , Bricks . . . 8 M Com. bricks . . Sherry . . . 89 csks Dry goods . Whisky . . . 15 qr. csks Blue . Whisky . . . 49 qr. csks Total value $27,671 To SANDWICH IsLANDs. Coal . . . 108 tons Spirits . . Iron tanks . . . . 8 Do. . . Porter and ale, 117 csks 10 hhds Champagne . ‘ and 261 cs Wines . Cider . . . . . 20 cs Brandy . Syrup '. ' . 10 cs Bitters . O 4 cs 3 cs 1 cs 1 cs 2 cs . 2 cs . 2 csks 2 es .162 cs . 3 cs . 2 bgs . 7O . 2 doz 1 . 1 . 4 doz . 4 doz 2 . 2 cs . 1 csk 1 cs 1 cs 1 parcel . 6 bgs . 19 cs . 1 csk . 7 tins . 1 roll 6 bars 1 bx . 1 cs 97% tons . 2 M 1 cs 1 parcel . 22 qr. cks 14 pkgs 6 bskts 6 cs 1 cs .5cs1hhd EXPORTS. 115 Potatoes 98 bags Steel . . . 2 bxs. Merchandise . 9 bales Oils 10 bbls and 10 cs Dry goods and merchandise . 38 cs Biscuits . . . . 2 cs Blankets 10 bales Hams . . . . 25 bbls Stationery . . . 1 cs. Pig iron 10 tons Iron 229 bars, 71 bdls Total value . . . $17,115 00 To CALIFORNIA. [Compiled from the books of the United States Consulate] 00 55 14 00 10 53 Bullock hides, 19; calf hds, 7; deer slfins, 5 bales . . . Shirts and beaver hats, 1 cs . Skins, marten, mink, 222 . Polished shells, 1 cs Japanese cabinet, 1 153; 35 Green hides, 80 50 Fish, 12 hf bbls 40 $15,690 18 To OREGON. 80 Pig iron, 2 tons 24 $6,388 04 $ Skins, 139 marten . 417 Dry goods, 6 cs . 2620 Wool, hides, and skins . 264 Cranberries, 114 pk 1162 Mink skins, 776; mar- tens, 202 1400 Rope, 1 bale; mirrors, pins, comforters . 676 Skins, marten, mink, and Beaver . 7640 Deer skins, 6 bales 112 Yams, 50 baskets; melon seeds, 3 do. 38 Total value 3 Assorted merchandise 5111 Sugar, 12,960 lbs. . 1134 Total value 3 Iron boiler plates and rivets 276 Iron . 28 Sacks 30 Ale and porter, 2 cs 32 Hardware and castings . 151 Bricks, 15 M . 105 Am. Brandy, 2 bbls and 4 cs . . 140 Gin . . . 172 3 111 303 630 100 127 41 51 50 20 00 00 50 90 TO WASHINGTON TERRITORY. Total value 29 62 25 91 00 Iron castings . . . Sugar . . . Iron, sugar, and grind- stone fixtures . . Castings, 1061 lbs. Iron bars, 98 . English merchandise Groceries, 8 pkgs . English hardware . Shingles, 11,000 $3,680 67 48 155 30 87 350 17 7 6 117 129 57 46 46 76 38 90 l 5 13 60 12 116 vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. 3‘ To Sitka . . . . . . . 27,671 95 To Sandwich Islands . . . . . 17,115 00 To California . . . . . . 15,690 18 To Oregon . . . . . . . 6,388 04 To Washington Territory . . . . 3,680 67 Grand total . . . . . $70,585 84 This sum is exclusive of large exports to British Columbia. For the quarter ending June 1864, goods were sent from Victoria to New WVestminster to the value of $606,535 110. Were British capitalists alive to the commanding geo- graphical position of Victoria as a free port in relation to the neighbouring Coast of Western America on the one side of the Pacific and to China and Japan on the other, I venture to believe that they could, in a short period, render this city a worthy rival of San Francisco. Persons accustomed to judge by the present infancy of Victoria will probably be disposed to smile at so bold an assertion. But it will not surprise those who have given attention to principles affecting the growth of commercial centres should this prediction be accomplished within the present generation. There are many articles, it is well known, in which the United States cannot compete successfully with England, in consequence of the higher price of labour and other circumstances in the former country. Large and suitable assortments of such goods stored in great warehouses at Victoria would secure a ready sale to wholesale and retail dealers in Washington territory, Oregon, California, and the various ports on the Mexican seaboard. The only houses established hitherto among us, capable of carrying on business on the extensive scale these remarks propose, are the Hudson’s Bay Company, and perhaps two others. This end cannot be achieved by mere ITS CAPABILITIES. 117 commission agents, who have little interest in furnishing the class of merchandise precisely suitable to foreign markets south of Vancouver Island; their chief concern being to make storage and commission out of consign- ments. Large quantities of goods sent for sale on com- mission, but assorted in England without judgment, are here, as in other foreign parts, often sacrificed at auction. There are, however, commission firms in Victoria, not a few, who might be depended upon for advising their English correspondents conscientiously, as to the sort of goods that would be salable. But the houses required for carrying out the high com— mercial enterprise now advocated ought to be of a primary character. Their stocks should be purchased direct from British manufacturers by buyers who possess a thorough knowledge of the wants of the markets on the coast. When these establishments are prepared to com- mence operations, let them be inaugurated by exten- sive trade sales duly advertised beforehand throughout the countries stretching southward. Agents, as already suggested, should be appointed to travel through the principal centres in those countries, and, in due course, vast and lucrative custom is certain to be attracted. The results at first might be comparatively slow, but in the end they would satisfy the most ambitious and sanguine wishes. The grounds on which these statements rest have only to be stated to meet with acceptance. Many traders in the places just mentioned are obliged to have supplies of such English manufactures as cotton and woollen fabrics, hardware, spirits, ales, &c. French articles, too numerous to specify, are also in requisition by them. Their orders are mostly sent to agents in New York, as they are not themselves in general sufliciently known in Europe to be 118 vICToRIA AS A FREE PORT. table to form a connection in that quarter. This indirect method of importation necessitates an allowance of profit or commission to New York houses with expense attending wharfage, drayage, and storage in that city. To these charges must be added the cost of extra freight in trans-shipment from New York to San Franciso or some other point on the Pacific. Much the greater part of these items merchants who can import direct from Europe are able to save. But it can be shown that there are costs and inconveniences more embarrassing still upon even direct shipments from England to San Francisco, for example, which would be immediately avoided by buyers in that city transferring their purchases of British and French merchandise to the great wholesale ware- houses that are being called into existence in Victoria. The merchants of San Francisco that may be in a position to obtain wares direct from Europe are compelled when getting shipments to order larger supplies than are needed to meet present demands. Packages not required for instant use must lie in bond to escape the immediate payment of customs’ duties upon them. Besides the expense of bonded storage annoyance is sustained from free access to the goods being denied while in bond. There is yet a worse feature of the case. According to existing customs’ regulations in California, duty must be paid upon all goods in bond within three months of their being deposited in the bonded warehouse, whether they be taken out or not. Now consider the incalculable loss thus suffered. The average rate of interest on money in California and adjacent countries ranges from one and a half to two and a half per cent per month. Should a merchant under these circumstances have certain small orders to execute—say to the extent of one third of a heavy package of British or French articles—he can only meet these orders by DEPOT FOR EUROPEAN GOODS. 119 paying duty on the entire package so as to relieve it from bond. Then it may be months before the remainder of that package is disposed of. So a still longer period may elapse before the sale of all his imported stocks be effected, upon which duty has to be paid three months Subsequently to their being conveyed from the Ship to the bonded store. While the duty-paid goods are unsold he loses at the very least the amount of interest which the sum laid out in customs’ duties would have brought him. But in yet another way does the Californian merchant work at a disadvantage in importing direct from England on the supposition of a British free port being at hand to Supply him with goods in broken or unbroken packages as he may desire. Since exporters in England have suffered so mischievously from the fluctuations of the markets in gold countries within. the last fourteen years, large advances in most cases, have to be made upon the invoice before goods are shipped. A great part of the goods thus covered may lie upon the hands of the California importer unremunerative, for many months after arrival, and may occasionally have to be sold at a loss owing to a period of glut in the market. Could the importer devise some expedient by which he might profitably employ the capital he must forfeit the use ofin this manner during the interval between his sending orders to England and realising returns upon the stock imported, he surely would gratefully avail himself of such an advantage. That expedient is gained by a large British emporium being brought so near that his orders could be executed three weeks after being despatched, instead of as at present his patience being tried by a delay of eight or ten months from date of order to Europe. Buying in Victoria, he would not require to import a heavier stoclc than his custom immediately demanded ,- he would save the time of 120 vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. a tedious voyage round the Horn,- he would escape the restrictions and expenseof the bonded warehouse; he would lihewise save the interest now lost to him on goods while undisposed of. What merchant on the American side of the boundary contiguous to us would not rejoice in the advantage held out by such an’ important commercial centre as Victoria might be made with an intelligent employment of British capital and enterprise? But it may be objected : ‘ If Californian merchants can ill afford to lose heavy interest on invoice advances and customs’ duties entailed upon them by the existing condi- tion of things, how should English capitalists afford to hold immense stocks, awaiting purchase for an indefinite period in Victoria? They too would be losers to the extent of, at least, interest on the value of their goods while unsold.’ True: but, by supposition, the firms being gradually originated on the present theory are composed of British shareholders, and the whole secret of their being able to carry on such a business as has been alluded to, consists simply in the difi’erence between 5 per cent per annum, the average rate of interest in England, and 1—12— or 212- per cent per month, which money is worth in gold-producing countries on the North Pacific. So that such companies as have been named could better aford to await returns for a twelvemonth, than could the American or other merchant working with Californian capital to lie out of his money for three months. There is unquestionable foundation for the conviction that com— panies embarking in the investment I have described would, in half a dozen years, find it yield immense divi- dends. A paid up capital to each company of 200,000l. would be, ample to start with. When the colonies of, Vancouver Island and British Columbia shall have awakened in England the attention to which they are HIGH TARIFF 1N SAN FRANCISCO. 121 justly entitled, many such large mercantile partnerships will be established in Victoria. In reference to the beneficial effect upon the trade of Victoria of the increasing Customs’ restrictions in San Fran- cisco, a French newspaper, ‘ L’Echo du Pacific,’ of October 30, 1861, remarks as follows :— Heretofore goods might remain in bond three years without paying duties; now the term is restricted to three months, and as consignees are not always disposed to pay the large amount of duties they would be called upon to advance, the above restrictive measure will have the efiect of throwing this business into the hands of parties in some other place where the laws are more liberal. Commerce has neither country nor affections; all ~it wants is freedom. If that is taken from it in one place, it will seek it in another. For this reason it would appear that Victoria, a free port, will profit by what San Francisco will lose, as the shipper will find there the advantages which are refused to him here, and there (Victoria) will be the depot of the Pacific Coast. There are few countries offering such facilities in the matter of return cargoes as Vancouver Island does. Statistics of our resources, to be given later on, will show how valuable are the timber and fish with which our forests and rivers respectively abound, for this purpose. Large commercial firms projecting those grand enter- prises, for the organisation of which their situation in Victoria would be favourable, should have sawmills and fisheries as complementary auxiliaries in the expansion of their business. Our erect and gigantic pines, growing in both these colonies in exhaustless profusion, enables a mercantile company to build its own ships cheaply.* Again, the * Notwithstanding the high price of skilled labour in these places, I am informed by an experienced resident shipbuilder that vessels can be built in the island for one third less than in England, from the inexpensiveness of building materials. 122w VICTORIA As A FREE PORT. demand for timber in China advances at a marvellous rate, being required for the erection of houses, repairing and building of steamers and sailing vessels. The .extent to which the Yangtse and Amoor Rivers and the Chinese coast - generally are navigated, and the promise given of the magnitude which trade is destined to reach in that direc- tion, would seem incredible to one unacquainted with the subject. The havoc caused periodically to shipping by the typhoon calls for a steady supply of spars. ‘ The influx of Europeans to cities on the coast and in the inte- rior of China occasions the extensive building of new dwellings, and creates an increasing market for the con- sumption of sawn timber. The Chinese themselves may be supposed to be becoming assimilated, however slowly, to European habits of living. From this cause also will trade receive a vigorous impulse. When an article of European or American production is favourably introduced in China, the social and imitative character of the people secures for it an augmenting and endless popularity. This is rendered evident by refer- ence to the statistics of the two exports of flour and lumber (timber) sent from San Francisco. Not to speak of the latter article, the Chinese (apart from European residents in China) having acquired a taste for the former, the imagination is overwhelmed in attempting to conceive how immense will be the trade between the opposite coasts of the Pacific, in the future years, from the export of flour alone, to meet the wants of four hundred mil- lions. , 1861 1862 1863 Flour (barrels) . 10,524 21,451 50,955 Lumber (feet) . 868,982 2,659,190 2,709,733 FACILITIES FOR RETURN CARGOES. 123 San Francisco houses have an undoubted advantage over us in the article of flour as an export, and in this we can never compete with them. But the vessels which convey lumber fi‘om American consigners to China are obliged to come up in ballast from San Francisco to load in Puget Sound—a distance of 800 miles, unless they happen to procure freight for Victoria. This involves a great deal of trouble and outlay to be sustained for the sole object of loading at the sawmills. N 0 such difliculty would have to be borne by the Victoria exporter of lumber, for his cargo is close at hand. It will be perceived therefore that a large Victoria house, having the important accessory referred to, would gain on the freight, the vessel having been built by themselves, and being their own property. They would gain on the cargo, which would in this case be shipped at their own mills. A further gain would accrue on the supposition of the return cargo, consisting of silk, rice, preserves, &c., being paid for in the way of barter. The vessel, having thus changed one cargo for another in China, could then proceed to England and bring out to Vancouver Island European goods adapted for this market. Similar advantages will be eventually derived from our exports in opening up a trade with J apan* when that * A letter from Japan to the New York Journal of Commerce says:— ‘ The trade between England and Japan has doubled in the first six months of the year 1863 compared with the year 1862, despite all the embarrass- ments suffered ; the future prospect is considered exceedingl’sy hopeful. The return of trade at the single port of Kanagawa for the year gives an aggre- gate of seventy-four foreign arrivals against thirty-three one year ago, and a tonnage of 25,000 instead of 15,000. The value of goods imported in the same time at Kanagawa exceeds $500,000. Then it should be observed that the Japanese readily ascertain what commodities are most in demand for export, and at once address themselves to the work of producing them. The growth of silk, for example, so highly prized on account of its fine quality, especially when the supplies from Italy and France are partially cut 124 vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. country shall have somewhat relaxed its traditional exclu- siveness. Even if our cargoes of timber and fish were not salable in Japan at present, it would amply repay a vessel, could she not secure a freight thither from China, to run up and load for England. The rich and delicate manufactures of Japan would all find a ready sale in the parent country. Besides boxes of camphor-wood, baskets of rattan, sets of drawers, jewelry caskets, tea and cofl’ee services, vases, and every sort of lacquered work, we have occasional ar- rivals on our coast, from that comparatively sealed country, of isinglass, rice, sweet potatoes, peas, leaf tobacco, and rapeseed oil. The last named of those articles is in general use in Paris for lamps. Many other products will yet be forthcoming from Japan, which merchants in Vio- toria with the appliances proposed may obtain for ship- ment to Europe on favourable terms, so that return cargoes of British and French goods may be advantageously brought to Victoria for wholesale export. Turning from China and Japan, where our salmon, cod, halibut, and smelt might also be introduced, Mexico and the other Roman Catholic countries, as far as Cape Horn, furnish an inviting market for both our lumber and fish. Australia and New Zealand are in the same posi— tion. All these countries can be supplied more reasonably and expeditiously with the two articles of exports under consideration from us than from the Atlantic. As for Australia, it is well known that a premium has long been offered by the Government to anyone who off, has yielded a surplus for export from Japan during the present season to the value of nearly 2,500,000l. sterling. So of cotton. In 1862 the crop yielded nothing for export, but this year’s contribution to the manufacturers of Europe already amounts to about 9,000 bales. The fact to be noticed is that, notwithstanding the declared hostility of the Japanese Government to foreign traffic or intercourse, the people at large eagerly avail themselves of the Opportunity to profit by the exchange of merchandise for gold.’ RETURN CARGOES. 125 should succeed in introducing a live salmon into the country; and not until the mode of artificial spawning was discovered could imported salmon exist there. At length, in May last year, the birth of the first salmon was announced?‘ New Zealand is not bountifully supplied with timber for building purposes, and cargoes of that material are being shipped from our neighbourhood to that colony. The commercial relations of Vancouver Island to the several countries enumerated, arising out of the diversity of their respective resources, are pointed out as illustra— tive of the numerous facilities afforded to establishments in Victoria for return cargoes to intermediate destinations between this colony and England, and the consequent opportunity of procuring goods for the supply of the market on the north-west coast on most favourable con- * The following lines on this event appeared in an Australian paper :— Auspicious great event To write an epigram on-- Australia news has sent About her first-born salmon ! The earliest of his kind That Austral waters swam on, Let’s hope he’ll leave behind A mighty race of salmon. The digger, when he hears, The news expends a dram on— The stockman gives three cheers To hail the first-born salmon. And I confess that I— This subject while I am on— Don’t mean to keep it dry—- Let’s wet the little salmon. So now, here goes! The toast We’ll have a glass of ‘cham ’ on: Long may Australia boast The plenty of her salmon! 126 VICTORIA AS A FREE PORT. ditions. Firms saving on all sides, on the principle here set forth, must eventually compel buyers on the coast to replenish their stocks of European and, in part, Asiatic goods from their warehouses. Our wide-spread copper lodes, too, will, in course of time—like the Burra-Burra mines of Adelaide—without doubt furnish a valuable article of export to Great Britain, in the way of return cargo. The following remarks of the late able correspondent of the ‘ Alta California,’ published some years ago, exem- plify American sentiment in regard to the prospects of Victoria as a probable rival of the city of San Francisco : That England has great purposes to effect in this part of the world, is no doubt true; that she has grand projects on foot, looking to a union of her North American Colonies, and the opening of a highway from ocean to ocean, she does not seek to disguise. That these new settlements are yet to become com- petitors for the trade of the East, if not the commercial supre- macy of the Pacific, it were useless to deny. Entrep6ts are soon to spring up on these hitherto undisturbed waters; there will be shipyards and fisheries, and to these lands will a nume- rous people go to dwell and to mine beyond a peradvent-ure. . . . But however it e may regard the advent of England upon our shores, or whatever estimate we may set on the value of her possessions in this quarter, one thing is certain, we have now got to meet her on this side the globe as we have met her on the other; and encountering her enterprise and capital, her practical patient industry and persistence of purpose, dispute with her for the trade of the East and the empire of the seas. There are other circumstances that may be briefly stated here bearing on the prospects of Victoria as a free port. The augmenting population of Oregon and Washington territory multiplies the number of consumers of goods imported into those parts from our city. In 1850 the ITS RELATION To ESQUIMALT. 127 census shows the inhabitants of Oregon to be 13,000, and of the adjacent territory to be only 1,200. There are now between 80,000 and 90,000 in the former State, and 16,000 in Washington territory. When the iron-road via Utah is constructed, it is proposed to make a branch line from Walla-Walla to Seattle or Olympia. on Puget Sound. This latter section of railway, when formed, will convey the bulk of the produce to the ocean from the region through which it passes by the Straits of Fuca, except, perhaps, the crops raised on the banks of the Columbia and near the mouth of the Willamette rivers. It is inconceivable how large a population these changes will bring upon the shores of the Sound, and how exten- sive the tide of commerce they will attract to Victoria. Another fact foretokening the prospective importance of that city is, that it is but four miles distant from the capacious harbour of Esquimalt—the rendezvous of H.M. Pacific Squadron. It was stated in the ‘ Times’ of March 15, 1860, that it was the intention of the Imperial Government to elevate that place into the naval depot for the Pacific. Nor could any selection be better. It is the only convenient British place of anchorage in that ocean, to which H.M. ships can repair to coal, refit, pro— vision, and concentrate for war. From this point our fleets can have a more complete command of that ocean, and proceed more readily to any part of it, than if Hong- kong or Australia were headquarters. In the ‘ Times ’ of June 25, 1860, the argument in favour of Burrard Inlet, near New Westminster, as a naval depot, is effectually exploded by the letter of a correspondent : If all that is required for a naval station be so much water for so many ships to float and anchor in, and so many acres of land for docks in a wilderness, these essentials are obtainable in 128 vicToRIA As A FREE PORT. Burrard Inlet. . . . But as the naval station placed in that locality involves the navigation of a portion of the Straits of Fuca, of the whole of Canal de Haro (under the guns of the American batteries if San Juan be given up), together with the crossing of the Gulf of Georgia, often a tempestuous sea, as well as the other waters which intervene between Burrard Inlet and Esquimalt and the ocean, all of which navigation would be an‘ addition to a voyage long enough already, and which would be avoided by leaving the squadron to rendezvous at Esquimalt where the ships now lie, most competent judges prefer Esqui- malt for the headquarters of the squadron. Esquimalt is near the ocean, easily accessible by day and night, now that a light- house is placed at its entrance. . . . Besides these conveniences, it possesses great facilities for fortifications over every other harbour in the Pacific Ocean. It could be made impregnable at less cost than any other harbour in these seas could be rendered partially secure ; and it is well situated for supplying ships to defend the entrance into the Straits of Fuca—a measure to the accomplishment of which ‘Port San Juan,’ situated on Vancouver Island, near the entrance, possesses important facili- ties in having a. harbour three miles long, and capable of anchoring a fleet in safety. From this port one or two ships could blockade the entrance and make Fuca Straits a British lake, while Esquimalt is close at hand to afford supplies and all necessary assistance. . . . At Victoria, the men-of-war get all they want. . . . Vancouver Island will be the point of attack, if an attack is made on one of these colonies by any hos- tile power, as it must be secured to make the Continent tenable if taken. , SO that if Burrard Inlet were made the naval station, it would involve this anomaly—that while the head-quarters were over there, the ships would always be stationed here. The naval station must be at Esquimalt. The question, moreover, has of late been occupying the attention of the Admiralty as to the most eligible location for building a sanitarium for the accommodation of in- valided naval men. Sydney, the Cape Colony, and other positions, have been under consideration for this object. PROPOSED SANITARIUM. 129 But none appear to combine so many advantages as the vicinity of Victoria and Esquimalt. The mildness of the temperature, the beauty of the scenery, and the very low proportion of mortality in the vessels on the station, are recommendations of this locality which cannot fail to have weight with the Government. On this vital question, the opinion of an experienced naval surgeon is decisive. Dr. Battray, B..N., says :— The hospital accommodation on this station (the Pacific) has long been unsatisfactory; and Valparaiso, the former head- quarters of the Pacific fleet, and Callao, were the only ports to which invalids might be sent for treatment, or sickly ships be transferred to recruit the health of their crews. . . . The con- venience of ample hospital accommodation at the head-quarters of the squadron, and on British soil, and in a climate where salubrity is unsurpassed on the entire station, is therefore evident. Esquimalt thus supplies a want long felt on this station. The unhealthiness of the climate of China, and the sickness and mortality which usually prevail in the China fleet, when contrasted with the great salubrity of Vancouver Island and the fineness of its climate, make it a question of great importance Whether or not Esquimalt --with its hospital accommodation, its convenience as a naval harbour, and its comparative proximity to China, with which communications both naval and mercantile, will soon be more frequent than at present—might not become the recruiting station and sanitarium for the China as Well as for the Pacific squadron; and whether the healthy climate of the Eastern Ocean of the North Pacific might not be made available to counteract the unhealthy influence of that of its Western coast. The heavy sick-lists of ships stationed along the coast of China, the large percentage of invalids sent home, and the great mor- tality, are often unequalled, even on the once so sickly and still much dreaded coast of Africa. The following table will con- trast the large sick-lists of ships on that station with those of Esquimalt. K ‘130 vIcToRIA As A FREE PORT. Ship. Average Average Percentage sick-list. crew. of sick. H.M.S. Nankin (50), China Station, 1855- 1858 . . . . ; . . 42 443 94 H.M.S. Topaze (51), Esquimalt, Vancou- ver Island, 1860-1861 . . . . N) is;- 482 2 oils Dr. Rattray proceeds to show that out of an average crew of 443 men, 39 (or 1 in 11) died of dysentery, diar- rhoea, and periodic fevers ; 64 (or 1 in 7) were invalided ; and 187 (or 1 in 219;) were sent to the hospital from the same causes. In all 290, or 65,12- per cent of the entire crew, either lost their lives or were disabled from malig- nant disease. Now, surely there is urgent need for de- vising means to reduce this mortality, and avoid much of this suffering. The ‘ ship ’ hospital at Hongkong has many disadvantages. It is badly ventilated, and confines those who remain for treatment in the very focus and centre of an unhealthy climate, thereby increasing mor- tality, and retarding the cure of patients. By occasional visits to Vancouver Island, the efficiency of crews would be better preserved and sickness in a great degree pre- vented. This arrangement, when fully carried out, will exercise a profitable influence on the trade of Victoria. 131 CHAPTER V. GENERAL RESOURCES OF VANCOUVERv ISLAND. TIMBER: Exports of this Article—Profits realised on it—Advantages over Canada and New Brunswick—Timber more remunerative to the common Carrier than Gold—Trade in Export of Railway Sleepers—Prices aof Spars, Masts, &c. GOAL: Mines at Nanaimo—Immense Consumption of Coal on the Coast—Chemical Comparison of Vancouver Island Coal with other Varieties—Imports of Coal to San Francisco—Prices—Thick- ness of Seam—Conveniences for Loading—Vancouver Island Pioneer Coal— mining Company—Quantities shipped from N anaimo—Report of First Annual Meeting of Directors—Other Coal Companies. COPPER: Queen Charlotte Island Mine—Inspection of a Vein—Want of British Capital to develop this Source of Wealth eiIectually. MAGNETIC IRON ORE—- LIMESTONE—SANDSTONE— BLUE MARBLE—BLUE CLAY. GoLD: First found in Queen Charlotte Island—Gold Stream—Gold discovered at Sooke—General Character of the Region-‘ Prospects’ obtained—Mining ‘Claims ’ and ‘Yields.’ FISHERIES: Herring—Hoolakan—Salmon—Trout - Sturgeon—Halibut —- Haddock — Rock - Whales— Walrus —-Foreign Markets to be Supplied. . TIMBER. IT is now universally admitted that Vancouver Island and British Columbia produce the best qualities of timber to be found in the world. The following table shows the principal varieties :— POPULAR NAMES. SCIENTIFIC NAMES. The Douglas Pine or Oregon Red Pine . Abies Douglassii. Spruce Fir . . . . . . Abies Menziesii. Yellow Fir . . . . . . Abies grandis. Balsam Fir . . . . . . Abies balsamifera. Hemlock Spruce . . . . . Abies canadensis. 132 GENERAL RESOURCES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. Wild Cherry . . . . White Pine or Weymouth Pine Yellow Pine . . . . Cedar—the Oregon Cedar Yellow Cypress Arbor Vitae Yew . The Oak . The white, or broad-leaved Maple . Vine-leaved Maple . Cerasus mollis. Pinus Strobus. Pinus ponderosa. Thuja gigantea. Cupressus nutkatensis. Thuja plicata. Taxus brevifolia. Quercus Garryana. Acer macrophyllum. Acer circinatum. The Oregon Alder . Alnus oregona. Oregon Dogwood Cornus Nuttallii. Arbutus . Arbutus Menziesii._ Of these the .wood that has chief economic value is the Douglas pine. This tree is in great demand for spars; and for strength, lightness, elasticity, erectness, beauty of grain, and height, it cannot be surpassed. The bark at the base of the tree, and for some distance up, is often a foot thick. The colour of the wood, which depends usually upon its age and the situation where it is grown, is in general yellow, but sometimes reddish. A spar of this description, more than 200 feet high, is erected in Kew Gardens, London, and sections out from a tree 309 feet long were sent to England for the Inter— national Exhibition of 1862. A careful examination was made of one of these sec- tions, to ascertain the tree’s age and rate of growth. From the result, which was published in the ‘ Gardener’s Chronicle,’ it appears that: The diameter is 6 feet, viz. :—34 inches on one side, 38 on the other. Its rate of growth on the 34-inch side has been as follows :— The first 2 inches across were made in 7 years. n second n n n 9 n 7: third 2: n n 12 n n fourth n n n " 19 n n fifth ’ n n v 17 n 2: Sixth n n n ' n ,, seventh ,, ,, ,,- 16 ,, TIMBER. 1 33 The eighth 2 inches across were made in 17 years. 7; ninth n n n 14‘ v 2’ tenth n n n 18 n v eleventh n n n 24 n v twelfth n n n 21 n ,, thirteenth ,, ,, ,, 24 ,, 7; fourleenth n n n 24 n n fifteenth n n a) 31 n ,, sixteenth ,, ,, ,, 36 ,, ,, seventeenth ,, ,, ,, 42 ,, -__0 Or 34 inches in semidiameter in 354 years. It is as well to remark that this British Columbian fir, although three centuries and a half old, and although for the last forty-two years it increased little more than l-lOth of an inch in diameter yearly, is perfectly sound to the heart. Foresters will understand the importance of this fact?“ Little or nothing was known of this tree till about 37 years ago, when it was brought into notice by the Horti- cultural Society, which was favoured with seeds from it by the eminent collector whose name it bears. The cul— tivation of it has been attempted in Great Britain, where a congenial temperature gives encouragement to hope that it will succeed. Dr. Lindley informed the gentleman from whose work the above particulars have been quoted, that he had hadtwo planks of this wood, 20 feet long each, in one of the rooms of his house, where there was constantly a fire, since 1827, and that neither of them had warped or shrunk in the least since they had been placed there. Another important testimony to the high character of masts made of Douglas pine is derived form M. du Per— ron, a leading engineer of the French dockyard in Toulon. A comparison was instituted by him between the flexibility, resistance, and density of spars from Riga and of those from this colony. * Mayne, p. 410. 134 GENERAL RESOURCES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. The principal quality of these woods is a flexibility and a tenacity of fibre rarely met with in trees so aged ; they may be bent and twisted several times in a contrary direction without breaking. Several poles of the greatest length, having the end at the foot and the top of the tree cut off, were tried, compara- tively, with poles of the same dimensions, cut from a Riga spar of first class, and the following results were found :— M_ _ d f b d_ b f Vancouver Island. Riga Pine. ' aximum evree 0 en 1110‘ e ore rupture at the foot D Om 025 Om 028 At the head . . . . . O 019 O 016 0 022 O 022 Charge of rupture (per centimetres) squared at the foot . . 23k 75 21k 00 At the head . . . . . 16 11 19 68 19 93 20 23 Density of the wood at the foot of the tree . . . . . 0 636 O 7'26 Density at the head . . . O 47 8 O 532 0 557 m The experiments give a. mean almost identical for the bending and breaking of the two kinds of wood, while the density defers notably to the advantage of the Vancouver wood. Th: only question still undecided is that of durability. The masts and spars of Vancouver are woods rare and exceptional for dimensions and superior qualities, strength, lightness, absence of knots and other grave vices.—Tonlon, September 21, 1860. As yet, there is only one firm in the island (Anderson and Co.) that has been engaged in the export of timber upon a scale commensurate with the importance of this trade and the inexhaustible nature of this department of our resources. With the neighbouring coast of the sister colony, Vancouver Island offers facilities for the establish- ment of numberless companies of this character. The house referred to had been practically conversant with the lucrative nature of the business for many years before TIMBER EXPORTS. 135 building their own saw-mills, having been accustomed to send profitable shipments of timber from Puget Sound to various foreign ports. They only commenced operations at Barclay Sound in 1861, and the extent to which they have supplied vessels with return cargoes, plainly indicates how ripe is the field for the introduction of vigorous competition. Comparative Statement of Exports of Lumber, cfca, rom Alberni Mills, during the years 1862 and 1863. Description 1862 1863 Increase Sawn Lumber (N0. of feet) . 7 ,490,000 11,273,000 3,783,000 Spars . . . . . 990 1,300 400 Salt Fish (barrels) . . . 370 470 100 Fish Oil ,, _ . . . 193 239 46 Skins and Furs (packages) . 11 33 22 The shipments of lumber from Alberni, coastwise, amounted in 1863 to 1,000,000 feet, and were conveyed to Victoria in the steamer ‘ Thames,’ and schooners ‘Alberni ’ and ‘ Meg Merrilies ; ’ the first making during the year five trips, the second eight, and the third one. Besides supplying the French, Spanish, and Sardinian Government dockyards with spars, they are doing a large trade in sawn lumber for building purposes. I notice among the destinations to which they have sent this freight, Callao, Honolulu, Sydney, London, Coquimbo, Adelaide, Victoria, Shanghai, Batavia, Lima, Melbourne, Hongkong, Otago, Valparaiso, Manilla, Italy, &c. One or two other small firms carry on an increasing trade in lumber, but their exports are chiefly coastwise. Lumber received Coast/wise for Consumption in Victoria, Vancouver Island, during the year 1863. Feet. From Alberni Mills (Anderson & Co.) . . 1,000,000 ,, Cowichan Mill P. Sayward) . . 1,666,000 ,, Sooke Mill (Michael Muir) . . . 100,000 Total number of feet . . . 2,766,000 136 GENERAL REsoURcEs 0F VANCOUVER ISLAND. A considerable number of saw-mills have been at work in Puget Sound for ten or fifteen years, and in every in- stance in which proper management has been observed the proprietors have, in course of time, realised princely fortunes. The Fort Gamble and Utsalady companies started with but little capital, and the property of the one is said to be now over $1,000,000. A partner of the other I know personally, and can testify that the returns of his firm have been very great. One of these firms purchased a vessel, second-hand, some time ago, capable of containing a million feet of lumber, and I am informed that she cleared herself in one trip. Shippers have assured me that 100 per cent has often been realised by them upon cargoes to China. The captain of a British‘ vessel once stated in my hearing that, having discharged his freight from Eng- land in Victoria, he loaded his ship with sawn lumber in the vicinity of the colony at a cost of from 2l. Is. to 2l. 108. per 1,000 feet, and sold it in Foochow, after a voyage of two months, at from 13l. 118. 10a’. to 14l. 13s. 4d. per 1,000 feet. Merchants devoted to the lumber trade in the Pacific need be at no loss in acquiring an exact knowledge of the markets in that ocean. They have but to ascertain the proportion of vessels loading at the various saw-mills, bound for given destinations. Spars from the North- American shores of the Pacific will always command a high price in Spain, France, and Englandfi“ and building- lumber need not fail of being readily and profitably dis- posed of in Australia, New Zealand, South America, China, and eventually Japan. The minds of immigrants hitherto attracted to the colony have been so absorbed in the pursuit of gold, and * It is probable that iron masts will now become more general for ocean steamers, but spars will continue to be required for sailing vessels. NEW BRUNSWICK AND CANADA. * 137 the merchants of Vancouver Island and British Columbia have directed their attention so exclusively to the business of general importation, that the valuable article of export with which these remarks are concerned has been signally lost sight of. Still, unless wealthy and enterprising com-— panies enter briskly into this sort of exportation, it is hardly necessary to say that the balance of trade will be increasingly against the colony. Our advantages for going largely into the lumber trade, and especially into certain kinds of ship-building, are far beyond those by which New Brunswick is distinguished. Yet from timber, almost its sole exported product, that province has grown and flourished; so that nowit con- tains a population of 300,000 directly or indirectly sus- tained by the lumber traflic. How much more brilliant a career is open to Vancouver Island—of whose manifold resources this is but one—provided those latent elements that are capable of enriching the colony are not sufl‘ered to remain unproductive? In Canada, logs and spars—- exhausted in most instances near the banks of the St. Laurence—have to be rafted hundreds of miles down rivers and lakes, and through canals, before they can be brought. to ports for shipment to distant countries. In New Brunswick, too, these products have to be rafted down the St. John, Miramichi, and other rivers. Then, from the thinning process to which forests in these Atlan- tic colonies have been subjected, the timber is obliged to be felled in winter, and hauled long distances to streams, whence it is floated to its final place of shipment on the breaking up of the ice in Spring. In the colonies of which I write, hundreds of spots might be selected where, for years to come, the necessity of rafting would be superseded, the timber being found near the water’s edge and close to the ocean. This con- 138 GENERAL RESOURCES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. sideration more than counterbalances the higher rate of wages paid on the Pacific as compared with the Atlantic coast. This is a branch of trade, at least in Vancouver Island, that requires not to pass through the early stages of infancy and childhood, but may with safety be ushered at once into full-grown stature; and a large concern engaged in it would secure more prosperity than a small one. The reasons are obvious. Large associated capital could at present command extensive tracts of forest, convenient to points suitable for transportation. Such houses could avail themselves of the most efficient machinery for economizing labour. Their position would enable them to watch the markets surrounding the Pacific, to correspond with every timber-producing region, and learn the character and destination of every shipment; also to obtain from foreign markets reports of consumption, stock in hand, and arrivals. Allusion has already been made to the saving to owners of saw-mills arising from the building their own ships. Timber being so bulky, employs a great amount of tonnage in transportation. In this respect it differs from gold, which is comparatively unremunerative to the common carrier. To transport the precious metal as freight may add 2 or 3 per cent. to its value. To carry timber a similar distance might enhance it 100 or 200 per cent, or even more The difference between its value in Van- couver Island and in the market to which it is sent is the cost and profit of carrying or freight. An article so bulky, and yet in such great demand, will create a commerce of itself, which gold cannot do. The value of a dozen large ‘cargoes of timber could in gold dust be conveyed in a single cart. Moreover, whenever the demand for timber ‘ RAILWAY sLEEPERs.’ 139 in the Chinese and other markets shall grow to such a degree that the freight of that commodity alone will pay to keep vessels solely engaged in the trade, we shall then be able to obtain return cargoes from Asia at freight so cheap that we shall be able to compete with San Fran- cisco for the supply of even Chinese goods to the entire west coast of the American continent. San Francisco has no article of export—not excepting flour—so bulky that she can procure, in return for it, the commercial advan- tages just specified. An excellent opening exists also for an export trade in ‘ railway sleepers’ to different parts. It would be difficult to mention a part of the world touched by civilization in which the ‘locomotive’ is not in use. India, Australia, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and several of the South American republics—not to speak of European countries ——vie with each other in extending lines of railway. The day cannot be far distant when China and Japan will, in this respect, follow in the march of advanced nations. I know not where the railway companies in Asia, the opposite shores of the Pacific, and in our colonies of the southern hemisphere, could go to procure this part of rail- way appliance on more favourable terms than Vancouver Island. Large quantities of ‘sleepers’ now imported to India are chiefly sent from England, after having been brought from Canada or the Baltic. To render them proof against the destructive action of a torrid sun, they are satu- rated with a preparation of creasote—a substance which happens to be largely inherent in the pines of our island. The following list of spars, masts, &c., with the prices attached, has been prepared expressly for my use, and I think it not unlikely that it may be found serviceable to those interested in this subject :— 140 GENERAL RESOURCES OF vANooUvER ISLAND. Prices of Masts and Spars. Diameter taken 4,; from the butt in round or four-square spars; diameter taken at the partners in eight-sided masts and spars. Partners in eight-sided masts and spars are supposed to be a} from butt». Round Spars. 4, 5, & 6 inches diameter at 5 cents per running foot 72 8) & 9 n 8 n ’ n 10 & 11 ,, 10 ,, ,, 12 n 13 n n 13 n 15 n n 14 v 17 :7 n Four-squared to the Partners. 15 inches diameter at 22 cents per running foot 16 2: 29 n n 17 n 33 n n 18 n 38 n :7 , 19 v 43 a: n 20 v 48 n v 21 n 52 n n 22 ,, 57 ,, .- 23 n 62 n n 24 v 64 n v Four-squared to the partners, or eight-squared the whole length if required, at an additional charge of 10 per cent on the prices below :— 25 inches diameter at 71 cents per running foot 26 n 74 n a: 27 n 81 v v 28 n 85 n n 29 n 95 n n 30 ,, 1.05 ,, ,, 31 n 1'14 n n 32 ,, 1.23 ,, ,, 33 n 1'33 n n 34 n 1'42 v n 35 ,, ~ 1.54 ,, ,, 36 n 1'66 n n COAL. 141 And any larger sizes in proportion to the above schedule. An addition of 10 per cent. to the above prices for eight-sided masts from 24 inches diameter and upwards. All the above spars to be delivered alongside the vessel. Length of spars, three to five feet for each inch in diameter at the partners, or longer if required. Ship and deck plank of Puget Sound fir, commonly called Douglas pine, of the following dimensions :—-3, 3%, 4, 4;, 5, 5% inches and upward in thickness; 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 inches and upward in width; 25 to 70 feet in length; not to exceed 35 feet average, at $15 per M* superficial feet. Square timber 10 to 14inches at $14 per M feet ,, ,, 15 ,, 18 ,, $16 ,, }25 to 80 feet long. 77 77 77 77 77 not to average more than 35 feet in length. Ship beams, 17 by 17% inches or larger, 35 to 45 feet long, at $16 per M feet. Assorted sawn lumber, consisting of scantling, joists, deals, boards, and square timber, from 16 to 40 feet long, at $12 per M feet. Tongued and grooved flooring, and surface clear lumber at $20 per M feet. COAL. This mineral is found extensively ‘distributed in the North and South Pacific. Formosa Island, Labuan, Bor- neo, Australia, New Zealand, Chili, New Grenada, Cali- fornia, Oregon, Washington Territory, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island, all contain coal formations of more or less value. ' The coal mines of N anaimo, in the colony’ last named, however, happened to have been the first opened and worked in this section of the northern hemisphere; and so much capital and labour having already been expended in their development, they naturally possess an advantage on this ground, even if on no other, over all coal-mines that have since been discovered on the coast. There are no colliery companies in the vicinity, up to the present, that have appliances for getting out this mineral, corresponding * M‘ stands for thousand. 142 GENERAL RESOURCES oE VANCOUVER ISLAND. to those of the Nanaimo establishment. There is one firm on the American side of Fuca Straits, whose coal so far is superior. But the seam of the latter concern has not yet been fully tested. Still, what is known of it affords hopeful signs of its becoming valuable. The consumption of coal on the North Pacific is im- mense. San Francisco alone consumes probably upwards of 168,000 tons a year. In connection with the Panama Railway, on both sides of the isthmus, it is estimated that more than seventy steamers ply. The American, Russian, and British squadrons have also to be supplied. The western coasts of North and South America are said to produce only 10 per cent of the entire quantity consumed, and by far the most of that proportion comes from Chili, the yield of the mines on the northern coast being, up till now, too inconsiderable to receive notice. Coose Bay and Mount Diablo, with one or two other places in California, send a small contribution of coal to the San Francisco market. In Bellingham Bay, Washington Territory, there is a field consisting of four beds, cropping out on the coast, and dipping north at an angle of 1 in 2. But none of the coal from these American seams is worthy to be compared with that produced in Vancouver Island. Anthracite coal of excellent quality has been found in Fuca Straits, as already described, and for the supply of Portland and San Francisco that coal has an ad- vantage over a foreign import, being admitted ‘duty free. But all the mines on the coast hitherto worked, put toge- ther, are unequal to the wants of that great and increasing city alone. The only coal that can compete with ours in the Californian market, upon a large scale, is that which comes from Newcastle, New South Wales. The table that follows shows a chemical comparison of Vancouver Island coal with other varieties :— STATISTICS or COAL. ‘ 143 - I . Specific _ _ -_ S _ Per- Locahty or Name of Coal grfaérgtay Carbon dggen trlggen ptfir ‘Oxygen Ash (eergglgg \Velsh Coal . . 1.305 90.94 4.28 1.21 1.18 0.94 1.45 85.0 Van Diemen’s Land — 70.40 4.20 1.11 0.70 9.27 14.38 none Sydney, N.S.W. -— 82.39 5.32 1.23 0.70 8.32 2.04 ,, Formosa Island 1.24 78.26 5.70 0.64 0.49 10.95 3.96 ,, Borneo, 11 ft. seam 1.21 70.33 5.41‘ 0.67 1.17 19.19 3.23 ,, Conception Bay, Chili 1.29 70.55 5.76 0.95 1.98%1324 7.52 ,, Vancouver . - 66.93 5.32 1.02 2.20] 8.70 15.83 ,, It will be seen from this analysis that our coal, which is in the main bituminous, leaves behind when burned a large residuum of ash ; but the specimens examined were taken from near the surface, and already the quality im- proves as the vein is penetrated. The kind now produced is held in high estimation, for the purpose of generating gas; ‘and there is every reason to hope that our mines will yet yield coal vying with the best now known any- where for steam uses. The following statement, given by Dr. Rattray, of the imports of coal into San Francisco, in 1861 and 1862, shows how largely that city is dependent upon supplies from a distance, and the consequent opportunities afforded to coal mining companies in this colony to dispose of their exports :— Variety Dcgii‘til’il, ‘10861 fillffiié'fig Tons Tons English . . . . . ' 24,895 5,036 Cumberland . , . . . 2,662 2,876 Chili . _ . . . . . 12,254 — Sydney . . . . . 12,304 3,942 Japan . . . . . 25 125 Coose and Bellingham Bay (imported free of duty) . . . . 16,183 2,535 Anthracite (New York) ‘ ‘. . 26,291 5,176 Vancouver Island (Nanaimo) . 5,204 4,235 144 GENERAL REsOUROEs OF vANooUvER ISLAND. Comparative List of Prices of Coal at Vancouver Island and San Francisco. Variety Price at the Mines Price at Victoria Pgfacnzgi’sggn $ 3 $ Nanaimo Coal . 6 to 7 11 12 to 15 Chilian . . . ' —— -— 12 to 15 English . . . — -—- 15 to 20 New South Wales . -— -— 12 to 13 The duty on foreign coal in San Francisco is, I believe, 24 per cent. ‘ 9 Two seams examined by practical mining engineers at N anaimo, are reported to average from 6 to 8 feet in thick- ness. The coal is described as ‘ a soft black lignite, of a dull earthy fracture, interspersed with small lenticular bands of bright crystalline coal, and resembling some of the duller varieties of coal produced in the South Derby— shire and other central coal-fields in England. In some places, it exhibits the peculiar jointed structure, causing it to split into long prisms, observable in the brown coal of Bohemia.’ Sometimes there occurs a floor of clay, but more generally of sandstone, and a roof consisting of a fine conglomerate bed, about 60 feet thick. The roof of one seam is sometimes of iron-clay shale. Out-crops have been discovered at various distances from the shafts already sunk, supposed to be continuations of the beds now worked. These beds lie nearly horizontal, with sufficient dip towards the south and west for drainage, and are worked within 50 or 60 feet of the surface’, In’ the commo- dious harbour of' N anaimo excellent'wharves are erected, and vessels can be loaded within a fewifeet of the pit’s month. One vessel has taken in as much as 150 tons per day, and a number of vessels might, without inconve- nience, be loaded together. STATISTICS or COAL. 145 The coal interest at Nanaimo was owned, till within the last few years by the Hudson’s Bay Company, but that trade being foreign to their accustomed investments, it did not receive from them the attention required to make it profitable. The mines were therefore purchased from them by an English joint-stock concern, styled ‘ the Vancouver Island Coal Mining and Land‘ Company,’ for 40,000l. The property includes 6,193 acres of land, 100 dwelling-houses, stores, workshops, machinery, steam-engines, wharves, barges, saw-mill, &c. The new company have subscribed 100,000l., in 10l. shares. Upon a capital of 50,000l. (says their prospectus), which, after providing for the purchase and first outlay, will amply suflice to work the coal-fields, so as to keep pace with the in- creasing demand, the directors can with certainty calculate on a profit of not less than 20 per cent. One thousand tons weekly could be raised by this expenditure, and could be readily sold at 258. per ton. Mr. Nicol, the present manager, calculated the cost of raising and shipping the coal, on the average of several years, at 168. per ton,—-viz. raising the coal to the surface, 108.; shipping and agency, 58.; and taxes, 18.; this, at the present price of 25s. per ton, will give a profit of 98. per ton; and a sale of even 500 tons weekly would, therefore, insure a profit of 225l. a week, or nearly 12,000l. a year, upon the estimated ex- penditure of 50,000l. ilfi % ill‘ at it‘ a! San Francisco alone consumes 14,000 tons a month, the greater portion of which has hitherto been brought from Eng- land or the eastern coast of the States, and has been sold as high as 5l. per ton. The following table represents the total quantity shipped from Nanaimo from the opening of the mines till De- cember 1863 :--- 146' ._GENERAL RESOURCES 0F VANCOUVER ISLAND. 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 Tons rll‘onsr Tons I Tons , Tons January . . 2,127 1,007 1,813 1 1,877 February . ,5 1,188 1,157 709 1,675 March . pg 908 1,508 956 ' 1,330 A ril P‘ 1,220 1,979 1,163 1,061 ' 1V ay :3 1,298 1,013 647 1,159 June ‘El 1,099 184 738 1,557 July . g 328 224 1,347 1,313 August 0 717 1,035 1,114 1,008 September . Z 543 395 1,332 1,581 October . . 2,262 1,528 3,926 2,966 November} 1,291 1,207 1,153 1,777 2,516 December . 698 1,350 2,591 a 2,596 3,302 Totals . . 1,989 14,247 13,774 18,118 21,345 Total number of tons shipped from November 1859 . . . 69,473 Total number of tons shipped from October 1852 to November 1859 25,398" Whole quantity left Nanaimo . 94,871 ' There were 7,697 tons more shipped in 1864 than in 1863. At the first annual meeting of the directors,held in March .1864, the Hon. C. W. W. Fitzwilliam,M.P., in the chair, a report was submitted, extracts from which indicate how far the hopes of the company, as expressed in their pro- spectus, were realised. ‘ The directors are able to congratulate the shareholders on the position of the company and the progress of the works at . Nanaimo, The locomotive, the first which has been introduced into the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, is now in full working order, and has already tended to reduce the cost of loading and shipping the coal; and Mr. Nicol re- marks that he still thinks when he gets the appliances required (additional rails and wharves), and has time to get them into working order, and the output and the demand ‘increase to his expectations of no less than 3,000 tons a month, that the total cost of railing and loading the coal will be below his estimate of 16s. per ton, as set out in the prospectus. . . . The shipments have exceeded Mr. Nlcol’s estimate by nearly 1,400 tons. . . . The advance would probably have been greatly increased but for NANAIMO COAL COMPANY. 147 the difficulty of obtaining vessels at San Francisco at moderate rates of freight. In order that this obstruction to the local trade should be removed, the directors have recently given instructions to at once charter, on the company’s account, two vessels of about 600 tons each, for the purpose of furnishing a continuous supply to the San Francisco market. . . . Mr. Nicol says that the de- mand is always increasing. The San Francisco market would take 30,000 tons of their coal if they could reduce the price. The approval of the coal by the engineers of Her Majesty’s ships is a guarantee that all future supplies for the naval depots in the Pacific will be taken from N anaimo. Dr. Forbes esti- mates the coal within an area of 800,000 square yards, or about 165 acres, at 3,000,000 tons—a quantity practically inexhaus- tible. As this is the pioneer coal mining company in our island, and still the only one engaged in the export of the colo- nial product under consideration (though other companies are setting 'to work in earnest), the reader will excuse a brief additional space given to details. An extract from the last report of the directors submitted in London, N ovcm- ber 29, 1864, further proves how strong are the induce- ments offered for the formation of many rival companies, for the eaportation of coal from the colony. Since the issue of the last report, the directors have received from their manager information of the continued progress of the works in connection with the colliery, and the most satis- factory accounts of increasing settlement on the property of the company. The output of coal for the first six months of 1864 has been increased to nearly double that for the same period during the previous year. . . . The character of the company’s coal and the facilities afforded for shipment are now becoming so well known that the directors have no fear for the future. The recent discovery of gold about thirty miles from Victoria, on the Sooke River, will add very materially to the prosperity of Vancouver Island, giving an impetus to trade by the immi- L2 148 GENERAL REsouRoEs 0F vANcouvER ISLAND. gration of the labouring population from California, which has been so long required. . . . ' The manager thinking it desirable to test the value of the land at Nanaimo, arrangements were made for the sale at Vic- toria, in the month of May last, of certain lots by public auction, and accordingly at such sale 100 lots were disposed of. . . . The sum for which the lots were sold amounted to 4,607l.; and the sum of 5,040l., which appears in the profit and loss account as the amount of those sales, together with other sales of town lots to the employés of the company at Nanaimo during the first six months, will be carried to the credit of the land mort- gage account. ' '_ The test which has thus been afforded of the value of the town site offers an assurance that Nanaimo will continue to hold her present position as the second city in the colony, and justifies the anticipation expressed in the prospectus that the estate of the company, independently of the coal seams, will eventually realise the whole of the purchase-money. . . . Nanaimo is a port of entry; the harbour has been carefully buoyed, and is available at all tides; and a commodious wharf is nearly completed, giving greater facilities for the loading of ships of deep draught. In the balance-sheet submitted, the profit upon the coal trade and other sources, for the half year ending June 30, 1864, is shown as amounting to 4,126l. 13s. 5d.; and adding to this 4,032l. 2s. 4d., the balance of profit and loss carried over at the end of the past year, after paying a dividend of 5 per cent, and reservingthe sum of 600l. as a depreciation fund for the steamer ' ‘ Fideliter,’ and also writing offthe sum of 447l. 48. 4d. from pre- liminary expenses account, will leave a balance of profit, exclu- sive of sales, of 8,158l. 138. 6d. . . . The directors ‘feel they have every reason to congratulate the shareholders on the present position of the company’s property, and that they have been enabled, within a period of two years from the date at which the transfer was completed, to realise all that was set out in their prospectus. In the comparative statement of shipments of coal, the MARKETS FOR COAL. 149 quantity removed in 1863—64 is shown to be 15,522 tons. ' Besides the markets for coal already specified, another of some importance was opened at the end of last year. Late advices from Victoria inform us that the Russian steam propeller, ‘Prince Constantine,’ took to Sitka 350 tons of N anaimo coal,_as a trial shipment. It was reported that she should be followed by a large Russian ship which was being refitted for the express purpose of proceeding to our colony for a cargo of coal. There are always several Russian steam-ships of war cruising in the Pacific, and there is little doubt that in future most of them will coal in Vancouver Island. The coal found in the Russian possessions is a sort of inferior lignite, and can be burned with difliculty. The seams, which are very thin, have been worked for many years by the Russians at con- siderable loss. Last summer, when the recently appointed governor of Sitka was on his way north, he passed a few days in Victoria, and, observing the excellence of our coal, lost no time in ordering two of the vessels under his direc- tion to load with it. _A company, supported by some large British capitalists, among whom I believe are noblemen, has been formed to work an important coal mine, situated not far from the premises of the N anaimo firm. An Act has passed the local legislature to enable them to construct a railroad through the lands of the other mining company, for con— veying the product of the mine to the loading place. The new concern takes its name from a noble lord who is said to be largely interested in it, and is known as ‘ the Hare- wood Coal Mining Company.’ The following communica- tion, addressed to ‘ The British Columbian’ newspaper by one familiar with the inspection of mines, conveys some account of this promising vein ze— 150 GENERAL REsoURcEs or vANcoUvER ISLAND. SIR,—The Victoria papers are too much occupied with their prodigious gold discoveries at Sooke to pay any attention to their coal mines, which are much more important. They have cer- tainly got a very fine coal field in Vancouver Island. As there is at present a good deal of animation in this town about coal and coal mines, I beg to lay before your readers a few facts which I noted when I was at N anaimo on Saturday last. I went over the Harewood Mine with Mr. Robert Dunsmuir, the agent, and another gentleman. I have had a good deal of experience in coal mines, and, according to my ideas, the Harewood Mine offers more facilities for working than any other mine on the Pacific coast. The seam runs due north, sloping up from the sea. This slope is of very great advantage, for two reasons, as the company can tunnel instead of sinking a shaft, and so can draw their coal out instead of raising it; and again, they can drain a very large extent of ground, a mile and a half by three miles, from one opening, without being obliged to use pumps or any engines whatsoever. A tunnel is much safer for men to work in than a shaft, and this is a better tunnel than ordinary, for above the seam of coal is a good sandstone formation, which obviates the necessity of using any timber to hold the top. Not that timber is dear in this country, but then labour is. As far as ' I could judge by a cursory inspection, the coal is of an excellent quality, with very little sulphur in it, and I think that it is very good for making steam. Much credit is due to Mr. Dunsmuir, for his skill in tracing the seam. He has not been sinking holes here and there as a less experienced man might have done, but he has followed the lead most perseveringly and to a suc- cessful issue. Hoping that this may interest some of our present coal explorers, who I hope will meet wit-h luck, I conclude with, Yours truly, JoHN REES PRIGE. The largest portion of the east side of the island may be described as a huge coal bed. This mineral, has also been found cropping out at various points on the west coast. The geological map printed for the use of the y COPPER. 101 Parliamentary committee appointed to examine the affairs of the Hudson’s Bay Company, in 1857, presents a great coal district on the mainland, running parallel with that traced on the island. As might have been expected, workable seams have been discovered in Burrard Inlet and at Langley. A gentleman, who has resided about two years on the north-west coast of the island, states that he saw at Kos- keemo five seams, varying in thickness, one of these being about‘ 3 feet 10 inches, and another, about 6 feet 2 inches in width. The entire section of country lying between Koskeemo and Port McNeil, a distance of sixteen miles, abounds more or less in valuable mineral. At the latter place, which is about twelve miles‘ south of Fort Rupert, four good seams are visible. The mine at Fort McNeil has been opened ; the first output consisting of some 50 tons of very superior quality. Copper.-—This metal abounds in the colony. The first lode of any consequence that was discovered came under public notice in a casual manner. An Indian was passing the office of an assayer in Victoria, in 1860, with specimens of copper ore in his hand. The gentleman examined them, and almost immediately a company was formed to explore the region where the native said the original of the ore was to be found. The lode was traced across certain small islands contiguous to Queen Charlotte Island, and up to this date probably £10,000 may have been expended upon the working of it. When it is borne in mind that there are properly no capitalists in the company, the result may be deemed not discouraging. A professional copper-mining engineer, sent out from the parent country by a wealthy English company to‘ explore for minerals, inspected the property of the Queen Charlotte Island Mining Company, and drew up an elaborate report, 152 GENERAL RESOURCES OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. from which it appears that he found the following favourable indications in those parts of the company’s land immediately accessible :— No. l. A vein of copper clearly traceable for 700 to 800 yards along the shore of Burnaby Island, from the east point, beyond the house, along the ‘SSE. shore, towards the house. No. 2. A cross copper vein, from where No. 1 is lost, under the sea, running NE. and SW. across the promontory towards Blue Jay Harbour. . N o. 3. A very strong quartz vein on the north side of Blue ‘Jay Harbour; clearly visible. N o. 4. A small horizontal vein, to eastward of No. 3.——Iron and copper, and mixed with quartz. No. 5. .A clear and well defined out-crop of a copper vein on Skincuttle Island, runningNN E. and 'S'SW., but cut off by a dyke. No. 6. A twisted and mixed outcrop of a copper vein, on opposite or NE. side of Skincuttle Island. No. 7. A large quartz vein on George Island. No. 8. A large quartz vein vat NE. end of’ George Island, seen from canoe, but not visited. No. 9. A quartz vein at W. end of J effray Island, which crosses the island and meets No. 10. No. 10. A copper vein rich in green carbonates, running SSW. and NN E. N o. 11. A vein of copper and iron, on mainland, at the entrance to Harriet Harbour, on south side of Sockalee Harbour. Quantities of this ore have been shipped to England and the eastern States of America. Chapter 11. contains a list of joint-stock companies formed in Victoria, among which are most of those engaged in copper mining. In company with a gentleman experienced in directing copper mines in Wales, I had an opportunity some time since of inspecting a vein in the island, which extended a great distance. The description of ore picked up at the mouth of the‘ shaft, was the ordinary pyrites of copper. MAGNETIC IRON oRE.’ 153 But I have seen excellent specimens of peacock ore, red and black oxides, and green carbonate, brought from other local mines. The average percentage of metal yielded by the copper ore of the island is 25 per cent. It is said that 8 per cent is deemed a paying ratio in the ore of Wales and Cornwall. If the value of the colonial ore is properly calculated, there is certainly a sufficient margin left to pay freight and charges, together with a handsome profit. Mr. Pemberton states that he saw specimens of copper nearly pure taken from Deer Island, in the neighbourhood of Fort Rupert. As it is not my intention to enter specifically into any of the metallic resources of British Columbia, except gold, it may be mentioned here that I have seen pieces of pure copper taken from Stickeen River, where the natives prepare it for useful and ornamental purposes. In a population so small and of such limited ability as that which inhabits our colony, it is hardly to be supposed that capital enough should be found to develop this branch of our resources satisfactorily. This expensive labour is only to be performed efficiently by extensive associated capital, and a more inviting prospect for wealthy British companies does not exist in any other section of British territory. The present stockholders, who are for the most part unable to bring the copper enterprise to great issues, should be relieved of their shares at a reasonable ~ bonus, and displaced by those who possess the means of introducing the appliances requisite for bringing the mines to a prosperous condition. Veins are freely distributed in most parts of the island and on the opposite side of the Gulf of Georgia. Magnetic iron ore from the north of the colon‘ , contain- ing 70 per cent of iron and a little copper, was exhibited at the World’s Fair, in London, in 1862. 154 GENERAL RESOURCES or vANcoUvER ISLAND. Limestone is every where abundant; so is sandstone, which is of excellent quality for building purposes. Blue Marble is also found on the coast, often intersected with veins of white as much as nine inches thick. For this material San Francisco offers a good market. Quanti- ties of it are imported annually from Vermont vitt New York, and thence shipped. It is also brought from Italy, and costs ll. per square foot in the rough. It is used for making monuments and mantelpieces. San Franciso is said to pay for the article between 15,000l. and 20,000l. ,a year. Blue- Clay, suitable for the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and coarse pottery, is diffused over a portion of the island, often near the surface. Gold—The existence of gold in the island has been known since 1850. ‘ In 1852,’ writes Mr. Pemberton, ‘I broke off, almost at random, pieces of gold-bearing rock in various places within 'a walk of Victoria.’ In the same year, the Hudson’s Bay Company despatched the ‘ Una’ to Queen Charlotte Island with a party of miners provided with every requisite for blasting gold-bearing quartz on a large scale. The historian of the expedition says :— Anchored in Mitchell Harbour, on the western side of ‘the island, a valuable quartz vein was soon discovered. It was 7 inches wide, was traced for 80 feet, and contained 25 per cent of gold in many places. For Several days the vein was worked with but one bar to their success, and that a serious one. At ‘every blast the natives scrambled with the miners and - with one another for the fragments. As neither side was armed, these arrangements were conducted with perfect good humour. By way of episode to the general engagements, both parties occasionally paused to witness a fair wrestling match between some sturdy Scotchman who had the science, and any Indian that was ambitions to distinguish himself ; and the miners them- selves afterwards admitted that nakedness and fish oil often carried the day. At length the vein was abandoned, anchor GOLD IN THE ISLAND. 155 weighed, and the ‘ Una’ wrecked and burnt on her way back to Victoria. The heaviest specimens of pure gold as yet obtained from Queen Charlotte Island weighed from 14 to 16 ounces. The first appearance of gold in Vancouver that excited special notice was found in 1863, in a district about four- teen miles from Victoria, now known as ‘ Goldstream.’ Here the precious metal was extracted from quartz rock, there being no placer ‘ diggings." In a short time the auriferous ground was staked out, and ten companies were formed to work it, which they did with varied success. The Parmeter Company, in order to test thoroughly the rock which they had blasted, sent half a ton of it to San Francisco to be crushed and assayed. A bar of amalgamated silver and gold was the result, giving an average 325 to the ton. This may be pronounced a hopeful return from quartz at a depth of 50 feet from the surface. It is stated that the famous ‘ Comstock’ lead at Washoe did not begin to pay richly till a depth of 200 feet had been reached. Other quartz mining companies engaged in the same‘ neighbourhood, though invariably finding fairv ‘ prospects,’ have not been so suc- cessful as the Parmeter; but the chief obstacle to progress, as in relation to the development of other resources, has been the want of adequate capital to pursue operations. Many thousands of pounds have been sunk in mining speculations in California and elsewhere with much less certainty of a profitable issue. A new and important era has just dawned on the gold- mining interest of Vancouver Island, that will be im- perishably associated with the name. of the present talented and popular representative of Her Maj esty— Governor Kennedy. His predecessor, though often urged to adopt vigorous measures for the exploration of the colony, invariably declined to comply with the entreaties 156 GENERAL REsOUROEs oF vANcoUvER ISLAND. of the public in reference to this object. But the first oflicial act of Captain Kennedy, after his accession to the seat of government, was to suggest that the citizens of Victoria should raise subscriptions for the purpose of sending out an exploring party, His Excellency promis— ing to supplement largely the contributions of the people, from funds which the estimates for the year authorised 'him in devoting to the purposes of exploration. The liberal and thoughtful ofifer of the Governor was taken up warmly, and without delay. An eflicient committee was appointed to cooperate with the Government in the matter, and a number of volunteers, including some ex-Royal Engineers, presented themselves for the acceptance of the authorities, and were approved. Mr. Brown, acting as collector for the British Columbian Botanical Society of Edinburgh, was appointed commander of the expedi- tion; and the fourth despatch of that gentleman, dated July 21, 1864, brought news of the discovery of gold about twenty-five miles from Victoria, that created intense excitement. The sequel proves that the statements of Mr. Brown were not exaggerated. He writes :— The discovery which I have to communicate is the finding of gold on the banks of one of the forks of the Sooke River, about twelve miles from the sea, in a straight line and in a locality never hitherto reached by white men, in all probability, never even by natives. I forward an eighth of an ounce (or there— abouts) of the coarse scale gold ‘washed out of twelve pans of dirt, in many places 20 feet above the river, and with no tools but a shovel and a gold pan. The lowest prospect Obtained was three cents to the pan; the highest 81 to the pan, and work like that with the rocker would yield what pay you can better calculate than I can, and the development of which with what results to the colony you may imagine. The diggings extend for fully 25 miles, and would give employment to more than 4,000 men. Many of the claims would take eight to ten men. DISCOVERIES AT SOOKE. 157 to Work them. The diggings could be wrought with great facility by fluming the bed of the stream. The banks and benches can be sluiced or rocked. The timber on the banks will supply to the whipsaw all the timber that can ever be required for the miner’s purposes. The country abounds with game, and the ‘ honest miner ’ need never fear but that he can find food enough without much trouble. Asaw mill could be erected at the head waters (or say at the forks of Leech River), and lumber for flumes, pumps, wheels, sluices, etc., ' floated down to the miners, and on the whole the value of the diggings cannot be easily over-estimated. I may add that there is any amount of ‘ five cent dirt,’ and with proper tools the average prospect is about one bit to the pan. The gold will speak for itself. Mr. Foley, an intelligent member of the expedition, gave, in substance, to the committee the following parti- culars of the new auriferous region. From the Indian village at the mouth of Sooke Harbour, and to the right approaching the river, to the head of canoe navigation, is about two miles. A trail takes the traveller, after a journey of some half-dozen miles, to a canon. ‘ Prospects ’ are to be had along the river below the cation. A man living " near this place told Mr. Foley that he had once obtained a nugget worth fifty cents on a little creek not many yards from his hut. The general character of the country, from the harbour to the cation, is open; the timber being valuable and the land much richer than between Cowichan and San Juan River. It is almost free from underbrush, and contains, for a quarter of a mile, on both sides, abundance of grass and wild lupine. The general bearing of the river at this part is about south-east. The ‘ prospects’ here were found by Mr. Foley to average three or four cents to the pan. The ‘ prospects ’ taken on the large bar immediately above the cation were estimated to average, to an ex- 158 GENERAL RESOURCES or VANCOUVER ISLAND. perienced miner with a rocker, $7 or $8 a day. The length of the bar is about 300 feet, and the breadth, as far as the ‘ pay dirt’ can be traced back, 25 feet. The gold is of a coarse kind, and very good in quality. From the cafion to where Leech River debouches into the Sooke River is about seven miles. The general course of the river between these two points is SSE, and will pay, from ‘the canon to the forks, handsomely. Mr. Foley made about sixty ‘ prospects ’ on the way up, and not one of the washings was without some result: the highest was fifteen cents to the pan. These diggings comprise three branches; those on the river could only be worked by fluming the stream ; the banks can be ‘ rocked,’ and the benches ‘ sluiced.’ The stream averages 100 feet wide, and though in summer it has not ‘more than 1,000 inches of water, according to miners’ reckoning, in the winter it is a large river. It rises between 25 and 30 feet, and when full must be more than 200 feet wide. The travelling is not difiicult, as the country is of an open character. In ad- vancing, the party came to the stream named after the second ofiicer of the expedition, Leech River. Mr. Foley Saw some quartz here, which, on trial, turned out to be comprised principally of silver—the calcareous base on which gold is chiefly found. The timber continued to be superior, and the country level and open. Here a lake was met with, that probably no white man had ever‘ visited vbefore. Captain Grant had seen it at a distance more than ten years ago, from one of the mountain peaks. Its length is ten miles, and its mean breadth two: the latitude of the southern extremity of the lake is N. 48° 30’ 49". The lower part is covered for‘ three or four miles with beaver dams, and these animals are to be seen in great numbers; the game, never having been previously disturbed by white man or Indian, is exceedingly tame. THE SOOKE MINES. 159 The ‘ prospects ’ from the mouth of Leech River, which empties into Sooke River, averaged about eight cents to the pan, but some reached as high as forty-nine cents, and in one case nearly $1 to the pan was obtained. Leech River is about 60 or 70 feet wide, and from its mouth to the first cation is about two miles, which space can be easily flumed : the bed-rock is talcose slate. The channel, banks, and benches will afford employment for a large number of men. Mr. Foley continued ‘ prospecting’ till in ascend- ing Leech River he had advanced twenty-two miles from Sooke Harbour. As he ascended, the quality of the gold found grew coarser, yielding twenty-five cents to the pan. The ‘ prospects ’ became richer, and the gold yet coarser, as he travelled along the north fork of Leech River. Here, then, was an extent of river twenty-five miles long, all of it auriferous, and giving ‘ prospects ’ which miners would not have slighted, even in the palmy days of California. In all his long experience in that State and in Cariboo, Mr. Foley never saw a more promising mining country than the one through which he passed. Another gentleman, who, with the one just named, is personally known to me, made a tour through Sooke district, and thus writes :— The whole number of (mining) licences taken out up to 8 o’clock yesterday morning (14th August, 1864) was 227. . . . Dean, Thorne, & Co’s claim was reached. They were preparing to drive a tunnel into the hill, as they had found excellent prospects, as high as 20 cents to the pan, on the top of the first bench, which is 100 feet high! The claim-owners stated positively that they never washed any dirt from the benches without obtaining gold. . . . They were very sanguine of getting splendid pay in the bed-rock, and believed that millions of dollars would be found in the bed of the river. On coming to the claim of the Wake-up Lake Company, Mr. Fell was shown the prospect of their day’s labour in a tin cup, amounting to 160 GENERAL REsoURcEs OF vANcoUvER ISLAND. nearly $100, and consisting of beautiful coarse gold. One com- pany had borrowed a rickety old rocker, and had got out $25 that day, expecting to make it $40 by nightfall. Some distance above this the Balaclava Company picked up off the rocks nug- gets of values varying between $5 and $10. Mr. Fell sends home very fine nuggets found without ‘ washing.’ From the point where our informant now was, a grand view up the river for two or three miles was obtained. The bed of the stream is here filled with enormous boul- ders : a long line of stakes, marking off the claims taken up, are visible as far as the eye can reach. At 5 RM. the traveller retraced his steps down the stream, when his olfactories were assailed perpetually by the savoury smells of the miners’ evening meal. Five fellow-travellers were met with, having a large boulder for a table, engaged in the task of appeasing voracious appetites. After dinner a song was started, and was taken up by camp after camp of miners, the melody rolling far away up the recesses of the river, till its echoes died out in the distance. The travellers then rolled themselves in their blankets, with a flour-bag for a pillow, to sleep, till the tramp of upward— bound miners should wake them at sunrise. An overland trail, about twenty-five miles long, is now in use by man and beast from Victoria to the digging, one important effect of which is to cheapen provisions _ conveyed to the miners. Another correspondent, addressing his brother, says :— Leech River, Tuesday. DEAR HENRY,—We arrived last night and started a prospecting. We have joined Bill Nixon, for we had been out of grub, having left it behind at the mouth of the river. There is plenty of gold here. Booth took out a piece of 5 ounces in weight, which you will see. If you think of coming, come early. I have not taken up a claim for any one, as the Gold Commissioner will YIELD OF THE MINES. 161 allow only 72 hours to hold it Without being properly repre- sented. We have struck 3 cent dirt this afternoon which we have taken up. Two of the party go up to-morrow morning, four remain here, and three go back for grub. Tell Godsoe to come. If you come, come with grub by the steamer, and if you can, get an Indian to pack ; but the diggings, I think, will beat Cariboo. Tell Reed, the ferryman, there is a claim for him. Enclosed is a prospect from one pan. In the month of August, Thain & Co’s. claim was paying about 2 ozs. (or 5‘ 34) per day to the rocker. A nugget worth $70 was found about two miles above the mouth of Leech river ; another company took out 3 ozs. in eight hours by crevicing. Mr. Nixon, a compositor from the’ ‘ Chronicle’ office, and company, started the first rocker on the creek, and made at the rate of $10 a day to the hand. One man obtained a 3 5 nugget from a pan of coarse dirt ; a claim owned by coloured men paid from 8'10 to $20 per day. Mr. Keyser’s company, in four hours’ digging and ‘ rocking,’ cleaned up 342, among which was a piece weighing $7, another $4, and two or three valued at $1 each. The gold was pure ore. Jim Williams took out, with a pan, in four hours’ work, about $7. This claim is located about 1%,— miles above the mouth of the river. Marvin and Adams washed, from one and a half pans of dirt, five or six dollars. This rate of success was not, of course, uniform. A large proportion of those who first arrived at the mines, having had no experience in a mining country, after stopping a day or two, and not flndin g lumps of gold visible .to the naked eye, returned to Victoria discouraged, without ever strik- ing a pick in the ground. Instances could be pointed to, of men glancing over the district superficially for a couple of days, without having brought pick, pan, shovel, or muscular power into requisition, and then retreating in M 162 GENERAL REsoURcEs or vANcoUvER ISLAND. a state of disappointment and indignation I This is usually the class distinguished for writing stormy letters to the English newspapers in denunciation of the country which has unrighteously to bear the blame of every idle and thriftless vagabond’s failure. Active and fortunate miners have no motive for seeking the notoriety of cacoethes scri- bendi. In October last a new gulch was discovered on the east side of Leech river, emptying into the latter at Bacon bar. It was ‘ prospected’ by a Cariboo miner named Water- ford, who picked up a piece of gold valued at 81.25. He went to work next day, and realised from $10 to 812, and about twenty men at once took up claims, and built sluices. The discoverer had been sceptical of the produc- tiveness of the diggings, saying he would not give 3 5 for the whole country. Now he would not take a large sum for 100 feet. Late intelligence reports a nugget worth $50 to have been found in the .Alberni claim, and another worth 833, by the Industry Company. The former nugget contained quartz to which the gold clung in fantastic shapes. N o more proof can be needed of the richness of a district that has only been known to the world and ‘ pro- spected ’ by a few hundred miners, for two or three months. The golden Wealth to be disgorged when labour and enterprise are more widely applied, in that and other parts of the island, is incalculable. Jordan river was discovered in the fall of 1864, and presents romantic features resembling those of Sooke and Leech rivers. Travelling here, as in other directions throughout that picturesque neighbourhood, is rendered diflicult by the timber being dense and the path often precipitous. In crevicing on the Jordan, parties obtained good specimens of scale and shot gold. Further accounts inform us that a man named Weine FISHERIES. f 163 had found a $35 nugget, which he washed out in the second pan; that the Crate Company were taking out with rockers nearly an ounce a day to the hand. The Last Chance Company were making about the same amount. The Scandinavian Company divided 81,000, and the Bacon-bar Company 31,7 00, accumulated respectively in one week. The first day Allen & Co. ran their sluices they took out in two hours an ounce and a quarter. It is estimated that $30,000 was taken out of the mines by a limited number of hands in little more than a month. The occurrence of freshets in the fall, and a period of frost in winter, will necessarily interrupt the energetic prosecution of mining labour at Sooke; but when the mines are more fully opened, tunnelling and bench diggings may be followed all the year round. These mines are not to be compared, for the present at least, with Cariboo, in respect to extent of yield. But they will afford occupation for the winter months to the miners of British Columbia, who have been in the habit, in too many cases, of spending that season in idleness and its attendant follies. FISHERIES. The seas, bays, and rivers of both these colonies teem ’ with domestic resources of this description in endless variety. Herrinys, which make their appearance in our bights and harbours in March, may be mentioned first in order. On the coasts of Vancouver Island these fish are large, and admirably adapted to make bloaters. H oolalcans ascend the streams in April in dense shoals. Their approach is indicated by the presence of sea-gulls swooping down to devour them, and causing the banks of the river to echo with their screeching. This species are N 2 164 GENERAL RESOURCES 0F vANooUvER ISLAND. about the size of a small herring, and are so fat as to ‘ bafiie ordinary methods of cooking to prepare them for the table. Oil is pressed from them by the Indians on the coast, and disposed of to tribes in the interior. It possesses a medicinal value, and cannot fail to be useful where any hydrocarbonaceous food, such as cod-liver oil, is pre- scribed. Mr. Duncan, missionary to the natives, near Fort Simp- son, in a letter to the Church Missionary Society, gives a description of the primitive process of extracting adopted by the Indians. In a general way I found each house had a pit near it, about 3 feet deep and 6 or 8 inches square, filled with little fish. I found some Indians making boxes to put the grease in, others cutting firewood, and others (women and children) stringing the fish and hanging them up to dry in the sun; while others, and they the greater number, were making fish grease. The process is as follows :——Make a large fire; place three or four heaps of stones as big as your hand in it; while these arev heating, fill a few baskets with rather stale fish, and get a tub of water into the house. When the stones are red hot, bring a deep box about 18 inches square (the sides of which are all one piece of wood) near the fire, and put about half a gallon of the fish into . it, and as much fresh water, then three or four hot stones, using wooden tongs. Repeat the doses again, then stir-up the whole. Repeat them again, stir again; take out the cold stones and place them in the fire. Proceed in this way till the box is nearly full, then let the whole cool and commence skimming off the grease. While this is cooking, prepare another boxful in the same way. In doing the third, use, instead of fresh water, the liquid from the first box. On coming to the refuse of the boiled fish in the box, which is still pretty warm, let it be put into a ‘rough willow basket; then let an old woman, for the purpose of squeezing the liquid from it, lay it on a wooden grate sufficiently elevated to let a wooden box stand under ; then let her lay her naked chest on it, and press it with all her weight. On no VARIETIES or SALMON. 165 account must a male undertake to do this. Cast what remains in the basket anywhere near the house ; but take the liquid just saved and use it over again instead of fresh water. The refuse must be allowed to accumulate ; and though it will soon become putrid- and change into a heap of creeping maggots, and give out a smell almost unendurable, it must not be removed. The filth contracted by those engaged in the Work must not be washed off till all is over, that is, till all the fish are boiled, and this will take about two or three weeks. All these plans must be carried out without any addition or change, otherwise the fish will be ashamed and perhaps never come back again. So think and act the poor Indians. When dried, the hoolakan is often used by the natives as a torch, and, when lighted, it emits a brilliant light. The Indians catch this species of fish by impaling them on rows of nails at the end of a stick, about four feet long, and so thickly do they swarm, that every time this rude implement is waved in the water, two or three of them adhere to it?‘ Various species of salmon proceed in succession up the rivers from March to October. In the Fraser especially, the periodic arrival of distinct kinds may be calculated upon with remarkable certainty, and half a dozen different species have been observed to pass up that river in one year. The hook-bill and silver or spring salmon are known to swim up a thousand miles from the mouth, battling successfully with the current, and pressing through swift cations, and over falls, impelled by the natural instinct to propagate. But while many of them succeed in depositing their spawn at the head waters of great rivers, not a few are exhausted in the struggle and die. An oflicer in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who resided on the * Put up in the form of sardines, hoolakan would soon become popular in Europe and America. 166 GENERAL REsouRcEs OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. Columbia river (Oregon) for many years, states that on a sudden falling of the waters, the numbers of salmon left on the banks are so immense as to cause the river to stink for miles. The advent of the spring or silver salmon, which is the most valuable, because the most wholesome, occurs about the end of March or the beginning of April ; and in June it is caught in abundance. Its weight rangesfrom 4 to 72 lbs. The species which arrives between June and August is small and tender, averaging from 5 lbs. to 6 lbs. The third kind comes in August, and weighs 7 lbs. The humpback species appears every alternate year in August, and remains till winter. It is most suitably cured by drying and smoking. The hook-bill arrives in September, and is so called from having a bill like a parrot’s. It has small sharp teeth. Its flesh is white, soft, and flabby, and, in the male, is alto- gether unpalatable. Salmon is one of the chief sources of Indian revenue. The natives are active in hawking it in the white settle- ments, and for Is. one may, any day during the season, purchase what in the sparsely supplied markets of England would cost two or three pounds sterling. The prices cur- rent of Melbourne show the cost of imported salmon pre- served in lb. tins to be from 1s. 6d. to 1s. 8d. per lb. (whole- sale). To a large firm going into the business of catching and exporting salmon in our part of the world, the cost of the stock would simply consist of the labour of fishing. Yet no house of importance has yet embarked in that lucrative enterprise. At certain times the canons (or gorges) of the rivers are so crowded with salmon, that the navigation of canoes is virtually impeded. The Indians catch them with a pole, attached to one end of which is a transverse piece of wood. Into this are stuck tenpenny nails. Lean- STURGEON—HALIBUT. 167 ing over the gorge, they strike the nails into the fish, im- paling one or two at each descent of the pole. Trout are found in the waters of both colonies, and often weigh from 4lbs. to 6 lbs. In the numerous lakes and streams of Vancouver island, as well as in those of British Columbia, trout are to be met with of excellent flavour and are caught in winter with the utmost case In Lake Okanagan they may be taken out with nets in wagon-loads, and by wading in the water one may catch them with the hand without dif- ficulty. A superior kind of trout abound in the lower Fraser, weighing 7 lbs. or 8 lbs, and another of a smaller descrip- tion in the tributaries of that river. Mr. Brown states that twenty mountain-trout were recently caught in a stream near Hope, whose aggregate weight was 146 lbs., and two of them weighed 11 lbs. each. In regard to the sturgeon, which is found in the rivers and lakes of British Columbia, the same gentleman informs us that it sometimes attains a weight of from 100lbs. to 500 lbs. and upwards. From a female sturgeon killed in the Fraser some time ago, a bushel of caviare was taken. From the swimming bladder of this fish, isinglass can be made, equal to that so extensively shipped from the Eastern States of America. This portion of the fish is also used for fining malt liquor. Caviare manufactured from its roe is a favourite dish in Southern Russia, and might be made an article of large export. Halibut are caught in immense numbers round the entire coast, but especially off the straits off Fuca. Their size is often enormous, and it is asserted by an oflicer of the Hudson’s Bay Company that, in 48 hours’ fishing, a vessel of 600 tons might be laden with them. The smelt, which enters the Fraser early in spring, may be captured in hundreds. The haddock and whiting exist, and the doyy‘ish teems ‘168 GENERAL REsouRoEs 0F vANOouvER ISLAND. beyond conception. Dr. Forbes reports that as much as 2,000 gallons of oil have been obtained from this latter fish, in the season, by a very small tribe of Indians in Clayoquot Sound. Considerable quantities of this liquid are exported_ annually by the Hudson’s Bay Company.‘ A certain species of sea perch is found in abundance, often reaching from 61 lbs. to 81 lbs. in weight. Roch, shate, bass, anchovy, and flat fish, may be added to this list. Shrimps and prawns, too, are extensively caught in the neighbourhood of Victoria. Cod * banks are said to exist in Plumper’s. Pass and close to the north end of the island. A certain kind of seal is found at the mouth of Fraser River. In summer it is constantly to be met with drifting down with the current, seated on a log of wood. Another variety of this animal visits the coasts of Vancouver Island, and is shot by the Indians who trade in seal-skins. ' I have seen in the month of September whales innumer- able sporting in the Gulf of Georgia; but the most valuable species are found in more southerly ‘ latitudes. Specimens of oil from the whale, seal, dog-fish, and hoolakan were sent from the island to the Great Exhibition of 1862. The ‘ right whale’ '1‘ fishing ground in the North Pacific ' extends from lat. 30° N. The ‘sperm’ whaling ground * There is no cod in‘ the ‘waters of California, and a fishmonger in San Francisco told me that a ready market would be found in that city, at- the rate of 18. per pound, for as much of this article as might be exported thither. . 1' The Indians capture the whale with much ingenuity. Attached to their harpoon is a seal-skin, prepared so as to be air-tight. The head of the harpoon can be detached from the staff with a short rope made of cedar- bark. After the whale has been struck he soon makes his appearance above water, when the natives attack him with spears, and thus complete his destruction. _ _ FACILITIES FOR FISH—CURING. 169 lies between lat. 20° S., and lat. 20° N. From the latter point to our colony whalers would have a safe and easy run, with the favouring influence of trade winds and an open sea. The mo-rse or walrus exists in denser profusion than in any part of the world, in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands and Behring Straits. This is a branch of the Pacific fisheries that would prove very remunerative from the amount of ivory it is capable of yielding. These places could be reached in fourteen days’ sail from Vancouver Island. The facilities possessed by both these colonies for catching and curing fish are pre-eminent. The indented character of their coasts signally adapts them to become important in the exportation of this article. Port San Juan, Barclay Sound, N ootka, Hespod, Koskeemo, Sooke,- Esquimalt, Victoria, N anaimo, and many other bays may be enumerated, including the inlets on the coast of British Columbia, 450 miles long— all convenient to extensive fishing grounds, and peculiarly adapted for sheltered fishing stations. The present rendezvous of North Pacific whalers is San Francisco and Honolulu, because those following this occu- pation on our coasts are for the most part Americans. But when the same British enterprise that has developed the fisheries of the North Atlantic is introduced in this ocean, whaling fleets will make their head-quarters in British territory. The salt springs existing on Admiralty Island and at N anaimo, have already been referred to in this volume. A gallon of water from the latter place, when analysed, produced a pound of salt, while sea-water only yields 4%- ozs. The spring on the island is capable of supplying a gallon a minute, the specific gravity of the water being 10'60. ‘ 1.70 GENERAL RESoURcEs or vANcoUvER ISLAND. What portion of the globe could be better situated for an export trade in fish, with respect to foreign markets? To say nothing of California, with its rapidly increasing population, Mexico, Central America, and all the countries on the west coast of South America,* would immediately become customers were our fisheries entered upon with capital and vigour. European residents in China and Japan would swell the demand. The natives of these countries, who are proverbial for their consumption of dried and salted fish, would themselves gladly take from us as Inuch as we could, for many years, conveniently dispose of. Nor is it unlikely that, as the commercial relations of these colonies with India become more intimate, large markets will spring up in that direction. Australia and New Zealand will not be able to provide for their wants in this particular for fifty years - probably never. These southern colonies, therefore, present another field for the competition of future fish merchants in Van- couver Island and British Columbia. Notwithstanding the matchless inducements presented by the fishing wealth of this country to capitalists, scarcely a single individual or a company has as yet assayed to grasp the prize. The population of Newfoundland, which amounts to about 150,000, is sustained almost wholly by its fisheries. How magnificent must be the future of our colony of which the product now described is but one of manifold resources! In proof of the importance attached by France to this source of national trade, it is well known that she pays from 530,000 frs. to 540,000 frs. a year to encourage it. Between 1820 and 1851 the Americans also paid $8,000,000 in bounties on fish, and the same policy is still “‘ Catholic countries are said to be great consumers of fish. FISHERIES on THE ATLANTIC. 171 pursued by them. To Show the extent to which money is put in circulation by the fishing trade of the maritime provinces of British North America adjacent to the St. Laurence, it may be mentioned that the exports from these parts, beyond their own consumption of fish, are valued at about eight and a half million dollars per annum. Newfoundland, 1862 . . . . $3,7 60,010 Nova Scotia, 1860 . . . . . 3,094,499 New Brunswick . . . . . 750,000 Prince Edward’s Island . . . . 900,000 $8,504,509 , 172 CHAPTER AGRICULTURE IN vANooUvER IsLANI). Remunerative Character of Agricultural Pursuits in the Colony—Climate— Soils—Farming Districts—Yield of Crops—Prices of Produce and Stock- Relation of the Free-Port System to the Question of Markets—Expense of Farm Labour—Times of Clearing, Sowing, Reaping, &c.--Terms of Agricultural Settlement. THERE is no branch of industry more strikingly neglected in this colony than agriculture. Yet it would be difficult to name an industrial pursuit more indispensable to colo— nial prosperity, or attended with larger ultimate remune- ration. The community can scarcely be said to have a basis of permanence while dependent so extensively on foreign neighbours, even for the common necessaries of life. The prevailing impression at a distance seems to be that our insular settlement is a forbidding aggregate of rock, mountain, swamp, and forests—almost unrelieved by a single patch of arable land—and that whatever insigni- ficant portions contain the elements of fertility, are so densely wooded as to render the task of clearing them at once unprofitable to capitalists, and impossible to those of narrower means. The hand of nature, it is admitted, has placed at human disposal, in this and the sister colony, a much smaller extent of bounteous soil, in proportion to gross area, than has been conferred upon the adjacent and more favoured CLASS 0E FARMERS WANTED. 17 3 States of Oregon and California. But past explorations—- and those now in progress in the interior, limited though the space gone over has been-justify the persuasion that there are large tracts of land in the several districts of the island possessing qualities that would abundantly reward cultivation, and capable of sustaining a population of mil- lions. With the knowledge of these facts, taken in con- nection with contiguousness to large and growing markets, it seems strange that farmers—skilful and respectable, but not rich-in England, and also in other parts of the British empire, should be content to struggle on, with high rents and low prices, while so tempting an opportunity invites them to become owners of land at a small figure, with the assurance of a superior market for their. products. For the class of farmers to which reference has ust been made, I know of no field of agricultural enterprise offering advantages to be compared with those found in our Pacific colonies. Of Canada, and to some little extent of the United States, I can speak from personal observa- tion. From all I have heard of Australia and New Zealand, these southern colonies present no exception to the fore- going remark.* ' At the opening of an auriferous country, mining and commercial enterprises assume, of course, a bewitching character, especially from the prospect held out in these undertakings of large and immediate returns. It is not unnatural, therefore, that immigrants, incited by excep- tional instances of brilliant success, should betray the romantic desire of suddenly winning the smiles and gifts of fortune. But their impatience may well be restrained, and their expectations moderated, by contemplating the * The substance of the remarks which follow was published by me in the British Colonist some years ago in two successive leaders, and time has only confirmed the view to which I then gave expression. 174 AGRIoULrURE IN vANcoUvER ISLAND. bitter truth that in mining and trading speculations, blanks have usually been the rule, and prizes the exception. It is not intended by this remark to insinuate that the country supplies feeble inducements to men whose inclina- tions and abilities qualify them to succeed in these depart- ments. But it may with confidence be aflirmed that, where farming is conducted in Vancouver Island with a fair amount of skill, perseverance, and economy, a greater ratio of those who devote themselves to that branch of industry will, in a given term, attain comfort and inde- pendence, than of persons following any other sort of business. With the view of disarming the prejudice that has so signally retarded the extension of the farming in- terest in the country, and of supporting the statements that have been made, it is only necessary to solicit atten- tion to a few particulars which have not obtained the publicity they deserve. Climate. The climate of the island is rendered proverbially genial, productive, and salubrious, from an interesting variety of causes. The temperature of the Pacific coast generally is known to be much milder than that which obtains on the corresponding shores of the North Ameri- can Continent in the Atlantic. The isothermal line be- longing to latitude 40° in the latter ocean passes through the parallel of 55° in the former, thus rendering the climate of Fort Simpson equal to that of New York. For lucid illustrations of this principle, the reader is directed to consult the instructive work of Lieut. Maury, entitled, ‘ The Physical Geography of the Sea.’ But the insular position of this colony, with other local circumstances, combine to secure for it a climate of singular equability and exemption from the somewhat more rigorous extremes CLIMATE. 17 5 to which the exactly opposite coast in the Gulf of Georgia is subject. The experience of colonial residents bears uniform testimony in support of this statement. We have the authority of eminent meteorologists for the action of cold under-currents flowing from the Arctic Sea, which lave the rocky foundations of the island during the hot season, and exert their tempering influence far beyond high-water mark. The Olympian range of moun- tains in Washington Territory, extending in an easterly and westerly direction, regale the eye in the rich sunshine. The proximity of their grateful summits, capped with eternal snows, tends to modify what must otherwise be the intense heat of midsummer. The prevailing winds at that season come from the south, charged with warm moisture drawn from the sea, and oppress with sultriness the atmosphere of northern regions in most easterly longi- tudes. But, by Contact with the neighbouring snowy heights, the humid element of these winds is condensed, and their excess of caloric absorbed, so that they are transmuted, as by.a magic touch, into breezes Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes. A vast rush of warm water, supposed to originate at the equator, and producing climatical effects resembling those which result from the agency of the gulf stream in the Atlantic, softens the rigours of winter as the boreal action already described is believed to cool the scorching heat of summer. The phenomenon referred to is called the China current, from the fact of its sweeping, in part, that coast, on its curvilinear path across the ocean, to break upon the shores of Vancouver Island.* 1‘ Another of those currents makes its escape through the Straits of Malacca, and being joined by other warm streams from the Java and Chinese Seas, flows out into the Pacific, like another gulf stream, between the Philippines and the shore of Asia. Thence it attempts the great circle 176 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. The temperature of the southern end of the island is also agreeably cooled in summer by the descent of freshets from Fraser river. These, it is hardly necessary to ob.- serve, are caused by the melting of the snow on the distant mountains in the interior. So great a volume of cold water cannot be thus carried down into the gulf without considerably reducing the temperature of the waters with which it mingles, and making its influence to be felt along the opposite shores, to which it is borne in a south-westerly course. From observations taken daily in Victoria during the years 1860-61, at 9 AM, 3 P.M., and 9 P.M., it appears that the lowest mean of the thermometer, in that period, occurred in the thirty-one days of December 1860, when the range of that instrument averaged 41° 22’. Twenty- nine days in July 1861, indicated the highest mean to be 60° 97 ’ . At intervals of from seven to ten years, how- ever, as in Great Britain, winters of unusual severity are experienced, when snow lies on the ground for amonth ‘or six weeks. But with the exception of these extra- ordinary periods, snow continues for little more than a week; and sharp frosts extend over about a fortnight during the year. So mild is the cold season generally, that cattle can find enough food in the fields without special provision having to be made for their shelter and maintenance. _ . Such an inclement season as has been named visited 118 in 1861-62, the year immediately following that in which a winter of corresponding severity occasioned in- route for the Aleutian islands, tempering climate, and losing itself in the sea on its route towards the north-west coast of America. . . . . As with the gulf stream so with the China current. . . . . The climates of the Asiatic coast correspond with those of America along the Atlantic, and those of "Columbia, Washington, and Vancouver are duplicates of those of Western Europe and the British ’slands.—Phys. Geog. of the Sea, pp. 161, 162. METEOROLOGICAL FACTS. 177 convenience to farmers in England. The effects of that extremely cold season reached as far down the coast as Southern California. The ice on the Fraser and Co- lumbia rivers was unusually long in breaking up, and the disappearance of it was succeeded by destructive floods, especially on the latter stream and on the Sacra- mento. The city of Sacramento was inundated, and agricultural interests damaged in Oregon and California by heavy losses of cattle and produce. The winter of 186 3-64 was mild throughout. As this part of the subject is so important to intending settlers, with respect to considerations of health as well as to farming operations, let us take a past year at random to aid the reader in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion on the matter. A register kept at Victoria in 1850, cited by Dr. Forbes, R.N., shows that in that year 201 days were fine, 96 overcast and foggy, 97 rainy, and 17 on which snow fell. Still, it should be remembered, that under the two last heads all days are included on which even the smallest quantity of rain or snow fell. Dr. Rattray, R. N ., attached to H.M.S. ‘ Topaze,’ in Esquimalt Harbour, in 186 0-6 1, carefully tabulated, for the use of the Admiralty, the state of the weather from the beginning of April to the end of March following in those years. Subjoined are the results of his la- bours :— N o. of fine days . . . . . . . . . 187 ,, wet days . . . . . . . . . 17 ,, showery days . . . . . . . . 101 ,, foggy days . . . . . . . . 17 ,, days with strong wind . . . . . . 35 ,, days with thermometer below freezing . . . 11 ,, days in which snow fell . . . . . . 12 N 178 AGRICULTURE IN vANooUvER ISLAND. Barometrical Observations in the same Year. Maximum . . . . . . 3069 Minimum . . . . . . 2919 Medium . . . . . . 3007 Monthly range . . . . . 150 Greatest daily range . . . . 1'04 ‘ The greatest difference between the wet and dry bulb thermometers was 8% (June); it has been observed as high as 13° (5th May 1861), and the least maximum difference 212-0 (September).’ From this comparison we infer that even in October, the wettest month in the regis— ter, the atmosphere was remarkably dry—a fact of great interest to persons suffering from chest complaints, and familiar with the raw, cutting damps common in the north of England in the beginning of winter. The wind columns in the tables of Dr. Rattray Show a prevalence of calm mornings and evenings, while days wholly calm appear in the proportion of 1 in 10. The average force of the wind for the year was 1-17—0, the highest being 9. Distributed over twelve months the mean force would scarcely amount to a light breeze. Out of eighty-three days, in which the wind was per- ceptible in any degree, southerly winds (chiefly SW.) occurred fifty-six days-=67'47 per cent. ; northerly, eleven =13'25 per cent; easterly, six =7 '23 per cent.; westerly, six=7'23 per cent; variable, four. High winds are most frequent in April, and blow from the south and south- west. Winds from the north are rarely strong, even in winter; but westerly winds, when they rise, blow with violence. As might be supposed, winds accompanied with rain are generally from the south. Traversing the vast Pacific in their course, they readily absorb a large quantity of moisture. In these observations, taken at Esquimalt, allowance CLIMATE COMPARED WITH CANADA. should be made for the more damp character of that place as compared with Victoria, the former being situated in a more hilly part of the island. As the impression widely obtains that the climate of the colony resembles in severity that of Canada, it may not be uninteresting to demonstrate by the statistics be- fore me the injustice done us by this error :——— . - Lowest Thermometer Annual Range Highest Thermometer during the Year during the Year of Temperature 4 Vancouver Island, 1860—1861 .. 72° 234° 48%° Canada . . . . . 102° 36° (below zero) 138° London . . . . . 86° 22° 64° Victoria being in nearly the same latitude with the south of England, comparison of their respective climates can be at once appreciated by inhabitants of Great Britain. In Vancouver Island spring is later, summer drier, autumn longer, and winter milder. In London in a given year a writer on climate records 178 days in which rain fell. In Victoria during 1860-61 the number of rainy days was under 118. The same author gives the annual mean height of the barometer in London for the same year at 29895, and the range for the year at 1998; whilein the south of Vancouver Island 1860—61, the mean height was 3007, and the range for the year 1'890.* From October to March we are liable to frequent rains, but this period of damp is ever and anon relieved by prolonged intervals of bright, weather. In March, winter gives signs of taking its departure, and the warm "“ I am under obligation to Admiral Fitzroy of the Board of Trade for permitting me to examine the Meteorological Register of H.M.S. ‘Hecate,’ which was employed in a surveying expedition on the coasts of Vancouver N2 180 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. breath of spring begins to cover the trees with tinted buds and the fields with verdure. Then become visible the star-eyed and delicately~blue collinsia, the chaste ery- th-ronium, the scarlet-blossomed lilies, and the graceful trillium; ‘the spring grass and young fern show promise of returning life; the unfolding oak leaf and budding wild fruits proclaim that winter is gone. The sensations produced by the aspect of nature in May are indescribably delightful. The freshness of the air, the warble of birds, the clearness of the sky, the pro- fusion and fragrance of wild roses, the wide-spread varie- gated hues of buttercups and daisies, the islets and inlets, together with distant snow-peaks bursting upon the view, as one ascends some contiguous eminence, combine, in that month, to fill the mind with enchantment unequalled out of Paradise. I know gentlemen who have lived in China, Italy, Canada, and England ; but after a residence of some years in Vancouver Island, they entertained a preference for the climate of the colony which approached affectionate enthusiasm. At the end of June vegetation reaches its annual maturity. Its growth in that and the preceding month is peculiarly rapid. Showers are rare during summer, and Island and British Columbia in 1862, the winter of which year was the coldest experienced in the colonies for a very long period. Barometer Wind D Ther. BRIE, 1331?}? Direction Force _ s A. M. 100 10C) Northerly 4 30-45 Coldestday’ Jan- 15 8 RM. 120 9° Calm 0 4231 8 A.M. 74° 66° W'esterly O Ther. at 0 noon. 99'87 Hottest day, Aug. 27 { 8 RM. 69° 66° Calm HEALTH or THE POPULATION. 181 when they do fall they are accommodating enough to come at night, when no one is inconvenienced by their descent. In compensation for uniformly fair weather, we have heavy dews, which cause the warmest days to be followed by cool nights ; consequently a blanket is found acceptable in a part of the year when in England and Canada it would be intolerable. The protracted dryness of summer often imparts to the soil a parched appearance, but it is rather pasture lands than crops that suffer from this influence. The refresh— ing showers of autumn, however, lasting till the middle of November, clothe the grass a second time with verdure, which it retains till after Christmas. The later part of the fall is known as the Indian summer. . While treating of climate in connection specially with agriculture, I take the opportunity which may not occur again in this volume, of glancing at the bearing of the subject upon health. N 0 statistics of the ailments and mortality of the population have thus far been kept, but from the nature of the public duties belonging to in y profession I was favourably situated for forming a correct opinion on these points. Those extremes of climate which, in the eastern and middle sections of the American continent and also in Australia, tend to absorb the juices of the system and render the complexion sallow, are absent in the colony, as in England, from the happy proportion of humidity incident to its insular character. The children of whites born in the country, and brought up with a reasonable amount of care, are distinguished by a remarkably plump and ruddy appearance. Epidemics are uncommon; and most of the diseases I have witnessed have been brought on by imprudence in the way of exposure or excess. Rheumatic and bronchitic afiections are sometimes to be 182 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. found, but are almost entirely confined to constitutions previously debilitated. Catarrh prevails in the moist weather of October and November. But speaking from personal experience, I am able to state that I never en- joyed more vigorous health in my life than during five years’ residence in Vancouver Island. While living in England, never a winter passed without my being pros- trated by repeated attacks of influenza; and though domestic conveniences were necessarily limited at so early a stage of colonial progress, I only suffered once in the colony from that cause. There is no naval station at which the crews of H. M. ships are so little subject to disease proceeding from cir- cumstances of climate, and none where mortality is so light. I know no locality so admirably suited for ex-Indian officers and merchants to retire to—a class to which climate, in their advanced age, is a primary consideration. Soils. It would have been advantageous to the interests of agriculture had the upheaval of the island above the surface of the ocean taken place at a much earlier geologi- cal period. From the unerring intimations ‘of geology, in the character and distribution of its soils, we infer its recent elevation by volcanic agency. The character of the soil varies in the different districts. That which preponderates on the higher levels is of a poor gravelly description, with a thin layer of vegetable mould, and covered by gigantic timber. This quality of soil exhibits deposits of northern drift which had ac- cumulat-ed in certain sections of the country while the land remained submerged—these places being just saved from absolute sterility by decayed foliage and grasses soILs. ' 183 that have ‘for ages been shed to cover their nakedness. Had a few more decades of centuries happened to elapse subsequently to the emerging of the island, and before civilisation was directed hither, there can be no doubt that the kind of soil referred to would have been immensely improved. But it is not unknown in England and Canada that gravelly soil, unmatched for poverty by any in this island, has, by an admixture of clay and manure, been made equal to soils containing naturally most fertile qualities-the former element imparting tenacity for the retention of heat and moisture, and the latter creating a loamy ingredient. Rich sandy loams are extensively found in the farming sections ; but usually, as might be expected, in valleys- ancient lake or river ‘ bottoms,’ and slopes of various dimen- sions. This quality of soil is formed by the disintegration and decomposition of limestone' and other rocks in con- nection with different forms of aqueous action; and when united, as it always is more or less, with decayed vege— table matter—which gives it a black or dark brown colour --it is excellently adapted for producing vegetables and every species of cereal. Clay chiefly constitutes the sub- ,soil of the island, and from its tenacious nature neces- sitates careful draining of the particular deposits which rest upon it. In a district about a dozen miles from Victoria I have seen a single prairie containing not less than 400 acres of clear land where the alluvial soil, con- sisting mainly of black loam, was at least a couple of feet thick. One of the most eminent British geologists has some- where said that remarkably fertile soil is formed by the disintegration of volcanic rock, and that their component elements,—iron, alumina, potash, silica, &c.-are in the proportions best suited for vegetation. From the metallic 184 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. discoveries continually coming to light in all parts of the island, as well as from the actual yield of crops, we are receiving unmistakable evidence of the productiveness of the soil, especially in the valleys. Agricultural Districts. The following comprehensive statement of the Crown lands sold, unsold, reserved, and pre-empted in the colony up to December 1863, appears in the report of a com- mittee appointed by the House of Assembly to investigate certain claims held in dispute between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Crown :— 1. The total number of acres in the colony, including every kind and quality of land, with the small islands belonging to Vancouver Island, is estimated at 7,598,215 acres, or 11,872 square miles. 2. The quantity of land sold in the 18 surveyed districts is 74,196 acres. 3. The quantity of land pre-empted in the surveyed and unsurveyed districts is 88,309 acres. 4. The unsold and unpre-empted land in each surveyed dis- trict is 92,264 acres. ' 5. There are 30 public reserves in the surveyed and settled districts, which contain 18,814 acres, besides which there are several small islands, of the acreage of which there is no estimate. There are 3 town lots in Government Street (Victoria), one at the foot of Broughton Street, and one 80 feet by 100 in Nanaimo. 6. From the foregoing statement it appears that the total quantity of Crown land unsold, including the reserves for the use of the colony, is 7,435,710 acres; and that the total amount of land sold and pre-empted is 162,505 acres. ' It should not be forgotten that this calculation embraces a considerable extent of rock and swamp unfit for culti- vation. The late Surveyor-General of the colony states that in AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS. 185 the immediate vicinity of Victoria 100,000 acres of valu- able farming land exist. This, however, is all in private hands. Colonel Grant, for several years a settler in Sooke, gives it as his opinion that out of five square miles in that district there is a moderate proportion of open land, ‘ the remainder tolerably level woodland.’ One of the explorers of the gold mines recently brought under notice in that locality, reports that near the junction of Leech and San Juan rivers there is a good field for agricultural operations—the concourse of miners sup- plying a convenient market for stock and produce. There are several large farms in the adjoining district of Metchosin, which I can testify, from observation, are in a prosperous condition. The bulk of the land in that neighbourhood, however, is most adapted for pasture. In the Saanich peninsula, which contains an area of 37 square miles, there are at least 200 settlers, including women and children. These severally occupy farms ranging from 50 to 1,500 acres, and their holdings con- tain a high proportion of clear land, combining calcareous and arenacious properties, together with humus—these soils resting generally on a clayey but sometimes on a gravelly stratum. Oats, timothy, barley, wheat, all the green crops, and every sort of garden fruit, grow there in great perfection. The portions of Cowichan, Comiaken, Quamichan, Somenos, and Shawingan surveyed three 'years ago were 57,658 acres, of which 45,000 are deemed superior in quality, and the remaining 7,600 good for the general objects of agriculture. But the Surveyor-General esti- mates the extent of available land in Cowichan at 100,000 acres. I am firmly persuaded (says the Assistant-Surveyor) that, under 186 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. a judicious system of farming, as good returns can be obtained from these lands as in any part of the continent of America. . . . The loamy soils possess everywhere a depth of two or three feet, and containing a large proportion of the calcareous principle, are especially eligible for fruit culture; and the oak-plains around the Somenos and Quamichan Lakes, with a Sandy clay sub-soil, are exceedingly well adapted for fruit or garden purposes. He then enumerates a large variety of native fruits which he found growing wild on the meadow lands. There may be already settled in these places over 100 persons, so that numerous sections are Still unpre-empted, and it is affirmed that a sufficient amount of good land exists in them to provide farms for many hundreds of families. In the vicinity of those connected districts is Admiralty Island, better known as Salt Spring Island, from briny springs which it contains. Its area is 90 Square miles. This district, already inhabited by 7 0 or 80 settlers, boasts much excellent land, which is being brought under cultivation as rapidly as their narrow means will permit. Many other fertile dependencies of Vancouver in the gulf only await the application of industry to render them productive. The land around N anaimo is divided into four portions --the Mountain, Cranberry and Cedar districts, .and the Delta plains—the extent of which together is put by the surveyor who measured them at 43,450 acres. In reference to the second of these that gentleman reports: ‘ The soil is sandy, but covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, fern, wild fruit, bushes, and trees; among which, it may be noted, the crab-apple and cherry are everywhere found. The woods are, for the most part, open and free from brushwood and fallen timber, and present quite a tropical appearance.’ Of the Cedar dis- CoMox. 187 trict but a small part is unfit for cultivation. ‘ The soil is very fertile . . . and abounds in beautiful springs of water.’ In 1861 Commander Mayne, R. N ., in crossing from Alberni on the west to N anaimo on the east, saw a large tract of land which he pronounces admirably adapted for settlement, between Qualicome and N anoose on the east side. He states that the soil was quite equal to that in the already settled district of Saanich. ‘ We found,’ says he, ‘ a great deal of excellent land in the valley of the N anoose River, which flows from the southward into the head of Nanoose harbour; so that I am able to affirm that the whole country between the Qualicome River and Nanaimo is fair and in parts excellent.’ The region of the Courtenay River, which empties‘ itself into Augusta Bay at the head of Baynes Sound, is perhaps the most promising spot for settlement yet found in the island. This district is called Comox * (or Komoux), and is said to contain not less than 30 square miles of good farming land. Commander Mayne remarks on this scene of his explorations: ‘ Although we had been in- formed that there was some fine land there, the extent and beauty of what we saw quite surprised us.’ * The following is an extract from a communication written by a settler in this district with reference to the harvest of 1864. ‘The crops in the settlement have been excellent this season, the farmers being well contented with their returns. Oats, barley, wheat, peas, and potatoes are the chief products. Oats have yielded as much as sixty bushels to the acre. One of the settlers, who has about six acres under cultivation, has raised over thirty tons of potatoes, a ton and a half of turnips, a large quantity of garden vegetables, and a small crop of splendid oats, beside wheat and peas. He also cut over thirty tons of hay, sixteen tons of which were sold on the ground at $15 per ton. He has nine head of cattle, including three milch cows, twenty hogs, and fifty chickens raised this year. From his three cows he made this season over 2001bs. of butter, for which he gets 37;- cents per lb. at the settlement.’ This person has only been two years in Comox, and is a fair example of what may be done by any industrious man without capital. 188 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. The stream referred to for about a mile is navigable for large boats and small stem-wheel steamers. At this - point it is joined by a river called Puntluch, which flows from the south-west through a deep valley, taking its rise probably in the great central lake, whence also emanates the Somass River, that mingles on the west side of the island with the waters of the Alberni Canal. Just above the junction of the Puntluch and the Courtenay, on the left bank of the latter, the traveller finds himself in the heart of an immense prairie, extending in a north- westerly direction parallel with the coast for eight or ten miles. This important tract is abundantly watered by the Courtenay and some smaller tributaries. A dense wood surrounds the prairie, offering every facility for the purposes of fire and building. ‘ It took us,’ says the naval gentleman cited above, ‘ a day and a half to walk over this land, threugh which a plough might be driven from end to end. . . . I have no doubt that more good land will be found to lie between this point and the valley of the Salmon River, which is 60 miles north of it.’ On the west bank of the Courtenay the soil is quite as good as on the east. 7,000 or 8,000 acres of clear land-are known to exist there. Twenty-five miles above Johnstone Strait is Salmon River, and there is every probability of finding—when the country is examined-large patches of land in its neighbourhood well adapted for agricultural settlement. Adam’s River, a stream of considerable size, waters a large valley which contains much good land. This spot is about sixteen miles above Salmon River, and five or six miles beyond Port Neville on the opposite side. Mr. Hamilton Mofi‘at, in 1852, crossed the north part of the island diagonally from Nimpkish River to Nootka Sound, and he is the only white man that, up to this date, PLENTY OF LAND. 189 has ever performed that feat. In the journal of his ex- ploratory tour, we are informed that in the vicinity of Lake Kanus, in the course of the N impkish, the country he passed through was ‘ clear, with occasional belts of wood and brush, and abounding in partridges.’ But it must necessarily be long before land distant from the coast will be settled upon, unless the discoveries of the precious and baser metals now taking place in rapid suc- cession in certain parts of the colony should call into existence towns and villages, and thus afford a market for farmers. Judging from the successful results of past exploration along the 150 miles of coast on the east side we are already acquainted with, there is every reason to believe that considerable quantities of fine land will yet be met with, as the examination of the island advances, capable of sustaining a large industrious population. Apart from the lucrative market presented by the grow- ing city of Victoria and the coal dépbt of N anaimo, the thrifty settler possesses an advantage unrivalled in any colony in the Atlantic or the South Pacific. I refer to the abundance of elk, deer, and wild-fowl with which our forests abound, and the incredible profusion of fish that inhabit our lakes and streams. Only a few scores of persons have, up to this time, found their way to the inviting districts north of Saanich and Cowichan; so that it is in the power of thousands of hardy pioneers, determined to master preliminary difli- culties, proceeding thither without delay, to obtain choice tracts for settlement. If they can command 100l. or more on their arrival, to set their farms a-going, so much the better. Let them not murmur if, for a time, they may have to bear inconvenience, as far as frequent and speedy 190 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. communication with Victoria is concerned. This priva— tion will only be transient, and must soon disappear in the course of colonial development. If any intending emigrant apprehend troubles from the Indians, it may be stated, for the relief of his anxiety, that these are ‘generally magnified by the imagination of the inexperienced, and are at once divested of the alarm— ing character supposed to attach to them, when the settler comes face to face with the aborigines. Another chapter will show, indeed, that, in common with savages elsewhere, they occasionally evince thievish and treacherous propen- sities. But it is only simple justice to confess, that in most feuds between them and the whites, provocation is given by the latter. If in our dealings with them we are actuated by firmness, kindness, and integrity, there is little to fear from their presence. That they have sometimes been guilty of acts of wanton deception and unprovoked cruelty toward colonists, must be admitted; but as past outrages have made the authorities vigilant in the detection, and severe in the punishment, of their crimes, the natives are certain to become less and less dangerous. As the tribes have been so fiercely alienated from each other, and en- gaged in internecine wars for ages, no such conspiracies could ever be organised by them against the whites as have been plotted by the Sioux of America, or the Maories of New Zealand. In fact, as tribes, they are universally well-disposed toward our race. Emigrants coming at this early stage of colonial growth, ignorant of the amount of land held by companies and private individuals for a considerable period, expect, per- haps, to be able to select for purchase sections within easy distance of Victoria on merely nominal terms; and are consequently surprised to find farms, partially under cul- LAND INCREASING IN VALUE. 191 tivation, valued at a figure so much higher than they had anticipated. The Hudson’s Bay and Puget Sound Com- panies, with certain officials of those companies, in their private capacity, own in different districts an aggregate of at least 15,000 acres of land, the price of which, several years previous to the present law of pre-emption being passed, was ll. per acre. If, however, the'varied mining resources of this and the sister colony continue to develop favourably, as they give full promise of doing, Victoria will unquestionably expand into a vast entre'pbt. A prac- tical farmer with some capital, therefore, who succeeds in buying from the present proprietor, with a view to settlement, 400 or 500 acres of land, anywhere within fifteen miles of Victoria, tolerably open and par- tially improved, at from 10l. to 4l. per acre, according to distance from town, may esteem himself fortunate. Before us is the analogy supplied by Melbourne and San Francisco, likewise emporia for gold-bearing countries. Around these cities land has in the last twelve or fourteen years risen in value several scores of pounds per acre; and it is certain that money invested in districts con- venient to Victoria will, in a similar period to come, be multiplied a dozen-fold. In proportion as the area of agricultural land adjacent to the city is limited—that is to say, in view of the large supplies which that market will eventually require—so will be the great value which land of good quality will attain. It would be a benefit to the colony, as well as to a certain class of our farmers—— some poor and others thriftless, under whom rich lands are lying comparatively waste—if they could be super- seded by enterprising and intelligent men, who‘ would offer the farmer a fair consideration to quit. Nor would this course be otherwise than advantageous to the new - occupants. 192 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. The comparatively limited extent of land fit for culti- vation in the island has sometimes been adduced as an argument against encouraging the immigration of poor settlers. But if the statistics brought forward above be correct, no country on earth can compete with it in secur- ing comfort to the laborious farmer. Amateur ‘ gentle- men’ farmers ‘are strictly cautioned against risking their means in agricultural speculations here. Unless men can either work themselves, or apply careful and experienced supervision to the labours of employés—having at the same time ‘large means to expend-they are distinctly advised not to emigrate as tillers of the soil. But it will be time enough to raise this objection about scarcity of land when all that is available on both sides of the gulf has been turned to account. While it must be acknow- ledged that the future prosperity of both these colonies depends, for the most part, on their metalliferous cha- racter—not losing sight, however, of the special commer- cial advantages of Vancouver Island—still, the assertion may be hazarded that they contain sufficient arable land to sustain whatever population may devote their energies to agricultural occupations for hundreds of years. Be- sides, the limited extent of land in the country which is alleged (allowing, for the sake of argument, that the asser- tion were true), enhances the inducements offered to those who are willing to come early into the field. Demand for any article which is scarce augments its value; and on the supposition of our mineral resources being so abundant as eventually to build up important and permanent centres throughout the country, large and profitable markets will be furnished to agricultural pro- ducers near their doors. Moreover, the very paucity of cultivatable land, within easy reach of a town, would, under these circumstances, necessarily give proprietors YIELD OF cnors. 193 entire command of the market, thus placing them above competition with farmers further off, and raising, in a corresponding degree, the value of their land. These remarks, it may be mentioned here, find present verification in British Columbia; and as cities of yet greater magnitude than those now in existence rise up in that colony, it will become increasingly evident that farmers in their vicinity possess an advantage over all competitors in the same occupation in the neighbouring American territory, whose products, imported. to. the British side of ‘the border, would. be heavily chargeable, with freight, to say nothing of duties. The extreme western districts of the United States and Canada are sometimes pointed to, and a contrast instituted between the vast prairies for which these parts are extolled in relation to our more circumscribed and less bounteous soil. But it should be considered that the value of land situated so inconveniently to market as in the case just referred to is. proportionately low, and the crops unremu— nerative. If, therefore, Vancouver Island and British Columbia advance as rapidly as we anticipate, a farmer in these colonies will realise a competency more quickly than he could, with the same means, in the. other districts of the continent that have been specified; These results cannot, of course, be brought about in a day; and only those emigrants are invited to cast in their lot with us who are prepared to exercise that amount of energy and endurance requisite to secure the promised reward. Average Yield of Crops, (Ste. A medical gentleman, whose lengthened residence in the colony and special enquiry into. this department of farming statistics gives weight to his statements, writes :— ‘ The average production of wheat is 25 to 30 bushels to o 194 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. the acre, 64 lbs. to the bushel; of cats, 40 bushels to the acre—weight, 36 lbs. to 46 lbs. ; potatoes, 200 bushels to the acre, and of superior quality. All vegetables succeed much better in Vancouver than in Oregon or Washington Territory.’ This remark applies also to butter. The potatoes grown in the colony cannot be equalled, and our turnips, carrots, onions, peas, cabbages, &c., cannot be surpassed, for size and flavour, in any part of the world. ‘ The following,’ says Dr. Forbes, ‘ are the usual quantities of seed sown per acre: Of wheat, one and a half bushels; peas, two and a half bushels; vetches, two and a half. The yield of barley varies, according to the cultivation of the land, from 24 to 40 bushels per acre.’ The following table, prepared by Dr. Rattray, exhibits the yield per acre of land in Vancouver Island as compared with that in England, Ireland, and Scotland :-- Weight per England Scotland Ireland Vi'glg‘gaver ($2? 11818;; mated). Wheat . . 4 qrs. 3%- qrs. 3 qrs. 4 qrs. 62 lbs. Barley ' - 4i‘ n 5 n 4_ n 4i‘ n 50 n Oats ' ' ' '5 n 6 n 4a" v 4% n 38 v Potatoes . 64 ,, 60 ,, —- 25 ,, Peas . . . 3% ,, ,, 3 ,, 3% ,,”“ Turnips . . 20 tons 25 tons 25 tons 15 tons Clover (cut green) 6 n 5 n 7 n 4 n Gardens . 25 fold 25 fold 30 fold 25 fold Tares tggs 35itons 33 tons 35 tons (green) (g1 een) (green) (green) Hops thrive in- the colony, and find a ready Sale among brewers, whose operations are lucrative and extensive. Flax also would become a profitable article of production, * At the Agricultural Exhibition held in Vancouver Island in October last, peas were shown weighing 72% lbs. to the bushel. STOCK. _ 195 provided we had flax-mills at work and were prepared to extract oil from the seed. This, after its contents have been expressed, is converted, in Canada and elsewhere, into a cake, which is said to be highly nutritious as food for cattle. Stock. Five-sixths of all the stock used in the country is still imported from California, Oregon, and Washington Terri- tory, and large profits are often realised from its importa- tion. Profits have, therefore, to be paid by the consumer in Vancouver Island to grazier, importer, and retailer. I have known persons bring horses from California to supply men about to start for the mines, invest in the transaction 200l., and net 45l. from the sale of the animals within six weeks from taking their passage for that American State. In a similar way have I known an enterprising cattle- dealer lay out in California 300l. upon oxen, sheep, &c., for Victoria, and within a few weeks place to his credit 150l. as the result. For success in this business much depends upon practical knowledge. Among American horned cattle are to be found some excellent breeds. Durhams and Devons have been in California for many years. Spanish cattle abound on the coast, and are good beeves, though of a small description. The Californian sheep have long horns and thick wool, and, when crossed with Southdowns in the island, the breed is much improved. Horses can be had in California in almost every variety, from the thorough-bred racer to the most miserable hack. The Holland or Clydesdale breed, however, are not often to be met with. A quantity of native horses are imported occasionally from the Sandwich Islands ; and in proof of how admirably the colony suits them, it may be stated that some of these, 0 2 196 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. fetching only 10l. per head when they arrive, get to be worth, after being put to grass for a time, from 25L to 30l. Cxen are generally used for ploughing and other kinds of heavy farm-work, and are in growing demand. Mares increase at the rate of 7 5 per cent., cows 90 per cent. (weight 375 lbs.), sheep 100 per cent. (weight 50 lbs), hogs 1,000 per cent. (weight 150 1bs.). Fern-roots, which teem in the island, afford staple food for the last-named of these animals. But to keep them tame and prevent them from being lost in the woods, they should have a stated feed of peas once or twice a day. Pork is a favourite dish with the Chinese, and, as it is also the chief sort of animal food in use among the mining population, it always commands a high price. A list of agricultural imports on a succeeding page will give an idea of how little has yet been done in the rendering of ourselves independent of foreigners for the supply of this article. A rare opportunity is here offered to skilful Yorkshiremen, familiar with the art of curing bacon, for making a fortune. The small area of Vancouver Island does not admit of grazing being carried on on so immense a scale as that branch of agriculture in the colonies of the southern hemisphere, where thousands of acres of pasture-land have been bought for a trifling consideration. But in the larger adjacent colony of British Columbia facilities exist for the breeding of cattle to an indefinite extent. Prices. The most hasty inspection of the prices obtained for I some kinds of produce, and particularly for stock, is sufiicient to create excitement in the prosecution of island farming, as the gold of Cariboo has attracted mining adventurers. ' PRICES or PRODUCE. _ 197 Hay sells at from 5l. to 6l., and rose during the spring of 1862, after a severe winter, to 16l. per ton. New potatoes fetch 3d. per lb. retail; wheat has been sold in the colony at 88., and oats at 68. per bushel. The large yields of wheat in California and Oregon, and the frequent shipments of flour from those States to Victoria, make com— petition diflicult on the part of our farmers for the moment, in these commodities. But the establishment of grist-mills at distances convenient to the farming settlements would place colonial producers, with respect to this article of import, in as favourable a position as they could desire. Fat oxen are worth from 30l. to 40l. per yoke; cured ’ bacon, which sells in the Atlantic States at from 5d. to 6d., and in Oregon at from 6d. to 7512-d. per 1b., readily brings in Victoria from 7%d. to 8d., and from 8%d. to 10d. per lb. respectively. The retail price of beef is 10d., and of mutton 1s. per lb. Butter that in the Atlantic States costs from Tgd. to 10d. per 15.3% and in California from 104. to Is. 5%d. per 1b., is sold in the island, retail, at from 1s. 10d. to 2s. 1d. per lb. Island butter (fresh) can be disposed of to any extent, and sells retail at from 2s. 7d. to 3s. per lb. Island eggs, in the most abundant season, are sold (retail) at '28. 7d. per dozen, and, if imported, at 2s. 1d. per dozen. I have known the latter article sold at Christmas as high as 6s. per dozen. In the Victoria ‘ Prices Current and Shipping List,’ under the head ‘ Grain,’ is the following list of goods, with the prices aflixed :— Cents Wheat—California . . . . per lb. 3 Barley ,, . . . . ,, 4;,‘- Oats—Colonial . . . . ,, 3 ,, California . . . . ,, 4 * These American prices are according to the gold and not the greenback standard, and apply to times of peace. 19.8 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. Cents Peas—whole . . . . . per 1b.‘ 5 ,, split . . . . . ,, 7 Beans—Bayos, California . . ,, 3 ,, white ,, . . . ,, 4,-2- ,, Chili . . . . . ,, 3 ,, pink . . . . . ,, 3 Under the head of ‘ provisions’ : -— Beef—Mess, California .' . per bbl. $8 @ 10 ,, ,, Eastern . . . ,, 8 ,, 10 Pork ,, American . . ,, 22 ,, 24 ,, clear . . . . half bbl. l6 ,, 18 ,, Hamburg . . . ,, 28 Cents Cents Hams -English, per lb. clear . . . . . 25 @ 0 ,, ',, half bbls. . . . . per lb. 25 ,,_ 0 ,, Oregon . . . . . . ,, 22 ,, 0 ,, Billings . . . . . . ,, 25 ,, 28 Bacon—Sides, extra clear, Eastern . . ,, 16 ,, 18 ,, ,, California . . ,, 22 ,, 0 ,, ,, Oregon . . ,, 22 ,, 25 Butter—Isthmus . . . . . ,, 47 ,, 50 ,, Oregon . . . . . ,, 37 ,, 0 Cheese*—English . . . . . ,, 18 ,, 25 Lard—American, lOlb. tins . . . ,, 16 ,, 20 ,, ,, kegs . . . . ,, l9 ,, 0 We are supplied with fresh milk at the rate of 2s. 1d. per gallon in summer. III winter the price is higher. For some time after my arrival in the colony it- cost 4s. 2d. per gallon. To those who are prepared to embark in farming, having capital sufficient to engage in this pursuit exten- sively, my advice would be that they should make their green crops subservient mainly to the feed of stock, and lay out as large a portion of their land in timothy grass as possible, as returns from hay and cattle are always certain and remunerative. In these items, together with "‘ The manufacture of this product is as yet unknown among us. PRODUCE IMPORTED. I 199 butter, fowls, and eggs, competition with foreign supplies ' need never be feared. Some beautiful orchards have been already planted in the island, varying in size from 25 to 5 acres. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, and all the bush-fruits of England, grow in great perfection. A gentleman in Oregon, who has an orchard of ten acres, seven years old, informed me that it netted him 1,000l., or at the rate of 100l. per acre per annum. There is no reason why an orchard of the same age in the colony, if duly attended to, should not realise to the proprietor at least 130l. per acre per annum. Amount of Agricultural Produce Imported into the Colony. To demonstrate how powerful are the inducements held out to industrious and intelligent farming immigrants in the colony, I subj oin statistics of various agricultural pro- ducts imported into Victoria in 186 3. I have prepared the statement with care from the general return of imports for the year :-- Article Value Article Value Bacon . . . . $63,211 Brought forward . 405,47 2 Barley . . . . 44,230 Hams . . . . 2,981 Beef . . . . 8,559 Hay . . . . 13,505 Bran . . . . 9,671 Hops . . . . 16,896 Beans . . . . 16,068 Hogs . . . . 9,170 Butter* . . . 66,231 Horses. . . . 38,364 Bread . . . . 5,463 Oats . . . . 13,039 Cattle . . . . 3,217 Pork .- . . . 6,304 Eggs . . . . 5,924 Potatoes . . . 7,736 Flour . . . . 172,521 Salt . . . . 323 Fruit . . . . 10,377 Sheep .. . . . 10,423 Carried forward . 405,472 Vegetables ' ' - 8;823 Total value . $533,037 * This is all salted or ‘ powdered.’ The more southern latitudes from which this article comes are not so well adapted for the making of butter as ours is, in consequence of their being subject to protracted periods of drought, which is prejudicial to the manufacture of dairy produce. Our moister climate gives us a decided advantage in this respect. 200 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. Here we have imported from foreign countries in one year, into an infant city of not more than 5,000 inhabitants, farming products, valued in round numbers as per invoice (wholesale) at 106,000l. sterling, every one of which articles could have been produced in the colony. ‘It (is true that a considerable proportion of these were intended for con- sumption in British Columbia, but having a market so near and so good—independently .of that furnished by our own island population—At supplies an argument all the more forcible why a stimulus should be given to agricultural enterprise among us. Some have looked upon the rperpetuation .of the free— port system as suicidal ‘to agricultural prosperity. If, however, the kinds of produce that ‘flourish in the island can be raised at the same expense as in California, Oregon, or Washington Territory, it is evident ‘that our farmers must be more favourably situated than producers in these States who :may attempt to compete with us in supplying our market, since they have not only to bear charges of transit .from the interior, where they reside, to the place of shipment, .but also freight thence 330 Victoria. The latter item, especially, our farmers are {enabled to save. Being close to market, moreover, and all our vege- tables with .certain of our cereals being superior to what are imported, they secure a preference among island consumers. 4 Did we possess a general protective tariff, the higher prices agriculturists would then have to pay for manu- factured imports would considerably‘ outweigh any little advantage they might gain in that case over American neighbours in disposing of stock and produce. If, on the other hand, the system of protection were confined to articles strictly agricultural, it might be attended with loss to the community at large, but could not sensibly benefit colonial producers. ‘ CLEARING AN sowrNc. 201 If with so little talent, energy, economy, and capital the majority of our farmers manage to keep their heads above water, their condition would be incalculably im- proved by possessing a larger share of these qualities. The free-port system should be guarded intact in its present state, so that not even the shadow of any custom-house official might ever be allowed to fall on it. For if once the principle of taxing imports be acknowledged, it will be impossible for the local government under financial pressure’ in the future to resist temptation to extend the application of it from articles of agriculture to those of . commerce. The transition from the one to the other is easy. What then would be the result? The chief element of our strength and progress would be hopelessly im— paired. ‘The charm with which Victoria is now invested —as distinguished from all other cities on the North American shores of the Pacific, and by which she brings to her feet commerce from every part of the globe—would be broken, and that unlucky day would be cursed by posterity when the first conception of protective policy to farmers cast an incurable blight upon commercial interests. Clearing, Times of Sowing, (yo. There are open lands in the colony already fit for the plough, and from which a crop may be obtained without any exertion in clearing. But even the richest prairie soil cannot entirely dispense with preparation for plough- ing. Where loose surface stones or small boulders happen to be imbedded, they should be first carefully removed. If there be no dense weed or stumps, the land should be broken up, in the first instance, by one or more yokes of oxen, as the farmer may deem necessary. These animals are preferred for strength and steadiness of draught to the ordinary horses of the country. ' 202 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. If fern prevail on the land, it should be ploughed up in the heat of summer, in order, by exposure of the roots to the rays of the sun, to destroy them. These with all bulbous weeds, such as crocuses, kamass, 810., should be collected and burned. Fern-land, not required for immediate use, may with advantage be left for hogs to burrow in, as they form valuable pioneers. Land covered with pine is not difficult to clear. That tree, being of a resinous description, burns freely, and its roots creep close to the surface. Nor is it requisite for sowing the first year’s crop that the stumps should all be removed. In Canada this is a work extending over years, and the settler can adapt the quantity of land he clears to the means at his command. The roots of oak descending more vertically into the ground are not so easily eradi- cated. The cost of clearing an acre of timbered land is put by the Surveyor-General of the colony at 8l. But where a man, assisted by a family of lads, works him- self, the expense would not equal half that amount. After clearing, draining and ditching should receive early attention. I am convinced from observation that where the land is levels—favouring the collection of sur- face water—the benefit of good drainage to the crops will, in two years, more than make up for its cost. Some advise that the rotation of crops in virgin soil should be : after the ground has been left to a Summer fallow, wheat sown in October; then a crop of peas, cats, or wheat again, and then a fallow made for turnips. By this time it is estimated the land will be well cleaned. After turnips, a crop of barley or oats should be raised, followed by potatoes. After the land is subjected to this cleaning process, it is advised that it should be manured, and then placed under the four-course system adopted in Great Britain. But, instead of following implicitly AUTUMN cuLTIvATIoN. 203 these or any other directions respecting the sowing of crops, the settler will act more wisely in following the method dictated by expediency. - It may be stated generally, however, that the time for sowing oats, barley, peas, and tares, is from the middle of March to the end of April; and the time for reaping these crops, from the 1st of August to the end of September. Potatoes are planted in March and April, and gathered in the early part of November. Turnips, gathered at the same time, are sown in the six weeks between the 1st of June and the middle of July. Autumn cultivation is not yet common in the colony. Besides wheat—which ought to be sown in October, that the young plant may gain strength to withstand the frosts of winter-there are certain fodder plants which should be put in about the same time. These specially deserve consideration in connection with stock—raising. There are clovers—red, Dutch, and Alsike. The last-named is the best of perennial clovers, and produces a thick crop of forage. The crimson clover (T rifolium incarnatum) forms rich fodder for cattle in spring, if out when in flower. Lucerne (Medicago sativa) comes up in spring, a fortnight before the clovers or rye-grass. It is most congenial to a light sandy soil, with a calcareous subsoil. With proper care this will yield a crop for eight years in succession. Common bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is highly nutritious, grows on dry elevated pastures, and is con- sumed with avidity by cattle. From the great depth to which its roots penetrate, it is protected against injury from drought, and. succeeds in retaining its verdure after the grasses and other plants are burnt up. Common saintfoin (Onobrychis sativus) also continues in perfection for many years, and ought to form part of all permanent pastures. Common tares or vetch ( Vicia saliva), hard 204 AGRICULTURE IN vANCoUvER ISLAND. fescue grass (Festuca duriuscula), sheep’s fescue (Festuca ovina), Italian rye (Lolium Italicuin), and common rye- grass (Lolium perenne)-—all these plants, sown in autumn, will produce in spring an early and a bulky crop, and should, without delay, engage the notice of island farmers.* Owing to our proximity to the gold-mines, farm-labour is scarce, and this operates as a serious hindrance to the development of agricultural resources. Yet the rate of wages offered to farm-servants is about double what ob- tains in England. While in the parent country they receive 2l. 88. per month without board, in Vancouver Island ‘they are paid 4l. per month with board. The intending emigrant will naturally desire to know what progress has been made in the colony as to roads. He is informed, in reply, that the Government has spared no pains in meeting this want. Within a radius of twenty miles of Victoria, in every direction, superior roads are made. Settlers in the remoter districts of Cowichan, Nanaimo, and Comox, however, are for the present at a discount in this respect. But a small steamer and several sailing-vessels call at the various settlements on the coast periodically, and afford farmers an opportunity of receiv- ing stores and letters from Victoria, and of sending their produce to market. From Comox there is a trail all the way to Victoria; but it is continually liable to be inter- rupted by the fall of trees after a storm. Every year will witness a rapid extension of roads where they are required. ‘ An Act to provide for the Repair, Improvement, and Regulation of Roads in Vancouver Island and its Depen- dencies,’ was passed some years ago. It was therein appointed ‘that every male person over ten years of age, * For these hints on autumn tillage I am obliged to the communication of a gentleman of great experience in such matters. TERMS 0E SETTLEMENT. 205 and every male and female entitled to any interest in any real estate in any of the road districts, shall perform six days’ labour upon the public highway, with extra days if property be extensive. This labour may be compounded at the rate of six shillings and threepence—the rate of a man’s labour—per day. A cart or Waggon, with a pair of horses or oxen, is equal to two days’ labour--or twelve shillings and sixpence.’ The principal articles for working and stocking a pre- empted farm are: an American plough, 4l. to 5l.; a Waggon, 40l.; a good horse, 20l.; a yoke of oxen, 30l. to 40l.; sheep, from ll. to 1l. 13s. per head; hogs, 2-é-d. per lb. on foot; hay, 5l. per ton; cows, 7l. per head; fowls, from 4s. to 6s. each; wheat, 65. 3d. per bushel, for fowls. Many a farmer, notwithstanding, has commenced work in the island with little more than one or two needful imple- ments, procuring other requisites as he could. Terms of Settlement. The upset price of surveyed land in the agricultural districts is 48. 2d. per acre, one-fourth of which amount must be paid when the purchase is recorded, and the re- mainder in successive instalments, extending, altogether, over four years. In those portions of the country which are still unsurveyed, the farming emigrant could enter into freehold possession by pre-emption. This system enables the settler to acquire land without any payment being called for till it is surveyed. From the date of survey he is required to meet his obligations to the Government in annual instalments, and at the same rate as in the previous instance. _ ' ' When the claim is registered, a recording fee of 8s. 4d. is charged. By this arrangement any unmarried man, above eighteen years of age, being a British subject, or 206 AGRICULTURE IN VANCOUVER ISLAND. having, as an alien, taken the oath of allegiance to the Crown, may pre-empt 150 acres; a married man, having a wife resident in the colony, 200 acres; and for each child under eighteen years of age, resident in the colony, he is entitled to ten additional acres?‘ Considering the rival advantages ofl’ered to the poor emigrant in New Zealand, the South African Colonies, and the United States—all of which countries are so much easier of access from England than this part of the world— it would be desirable for the local government to make, for a certain period, free grants of land to bona fide settlers. While such strenuous exertions are being used, and liberal inducements presented by New Zealand and the States to bring emigration, we cannot hope for the rapid settlement of these North Pacific colonies with poor but industrious farmers, unless we endeavour,-in some measure, to imitate the example of those more advanced countries.. * For the most recent land-proclamation in extenso see the Appendix. CHAPTER VII. BRITISH COLUMBIA. HISTORICAL SKETCH—GEOLOGY, ETC. Seaboard—Sir Alexander Mackenzie—First Trading Post—Hudson’s Bay Company’s regime—Geological Formation. BRITISH COLUMBIA lies between the parallels of 49° and 55° N. lat., and contains, together with Queen Charlotte Island, the chief of - its insular dependencies, an area of about 200,000 square miles. It is bounded on the south by the frontier of the United States, on the east by the Rocky Mountains, on the north by Simpson’s River and the Finlay branch of Peace River, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Its coast-line, as has been already stated, measures 450, and the average breadth of the colony is from 350 to 400 miles.‘ Its greatest length diagonally, from corner to corner, is 805 miles. Like Vancouver Island, the seaboard of British Columbia is broken by numerous inlets, many of which are navigable by steamers and sailing vessels of moderate draft, and will undoubtedly be brought, sooner or later, into use as mediums of communication with the farming and mining settlements rising up in the interior. While the exploration of the adjoining colony was accomplished by navigators approaching it from the west, British Columbia was originally entered by civilised enter- prise from the east. 208 BRITISH COLUMBIA. The Quebec Fur Company formed in 1629, the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1669, and, subsequently, the N orth-West Company, vied with each other in extending their respec- tive hunting-grounds northward and westward. But the eternal snows crowning the gigantic range of the Rocky Mountains seemed to bid resistless defiance to all further advance toward the Pacific till the heroic Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in 1790, crossed at the north end of the range, and succeeded in tracing Peace River and the Fraser to their sources. That name will remain indelibly inscribed on the page of history as belonging to the first white man who set foot in British Columbia. The romantic story of Lewis and Clarke has made familiar to many the thrilling adventures of these leaders of the pioneer-band who next, in the year 1804, passed the formidable barrier referred to. In 1806 the first fur—trading post ever established in British Columbia was erected a short distance from the a great bend of Fraser River by the oflicer of the Hudson’s Bay Company, after whom that stream was named. It was not long before the country—known. then as New Caledonia—was dotted with the factories of the company. In 1821 a termination was put to the fierce hostilities that had for many years embroiled the Montreal or N orth- West Company in bloody conflict with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and these two trading bodies, burying the hatchet, were merged under the designation of the latter. In that year the united companies obtained a charter guaranteeing to them exclusive trade in these regions; and to their posts the native tribes ‘ brought the furs of the black and silver fox, the bear, the sea-otter, the fisher, the marten, the beaver, the musk-rat, the lynx,’ &c. This lucrative monopoly the company enjoyed till 1858, when the country—added to the list of British ITS PHYSICAL CHARACTER. . 209 colonies, to be governed under the direction of the Crown —-was emancipated from the restrictive dominion of the fur-trader, and thrown open to the free enterprise of civilisation. The large influx of population in that year, consequent on the discovery of gold, has been already enlarged upon in connection with the history of Vancouver Island. A The geology and physical geography of British Columbia alike derive their character primarily from the presence of the Rocky Mountains. This great chain, running from north-west to south-east, forms the axis of elevation of the western coast of North America. It is of volcanic forma- tion, and is subject to the action of eruptive and elevatory forces to which the craters of Mount Helen, Mount Ranier, and Mount Baker answer as safety-valves. This mountain range consists generally of igneous hypogenic rocks, flanked by silurian deposits, combined with auriferous rocks, which also in part overlay the first-named of these strata. In the vicinity of the 49th parallel this range is mainly com- posed ' of contorted, false-bedded, stratified rocks, very full of ripple mark, with some interstratified basaltic traps. These beds rest on a gneisso-granitic mass, which is exposed at Pend- Orielle Lake, about half Way between the Columbia and Kootanie rivers. This granite is the general geological axis of the country, and divides the unaltered rocks of the eastern slope from those of the western side, which are principally black slate and lime- stone, contemporaneous With the lower beds of the Rocky Mountains; but they are very much altered and disturbed both by granite and greenstone rocks. It is remarkable that only one greenstone dyke is exposed to the eastward of Pend-Orielle Lake (in the valley of the Kootanie River), while the amount of metamorphism in the rocks increases as we pass westward from the Columbia to the Pacific, or valley of the Fraser River. P 210 _ V BRITISH COLUMBIA. This great range then runs in a north—West and southeast direction, at an average distance of from 350 to 400 miles from the coast. Parallel to this, running in the same general direc- tion, is the coast range, which sends down, westerly, numerous rugged mountain-spurs to meet the sea and to form deep inlets. ' This range, composed of plutonic, metamorphic, and trappean rocks, permeated throughout by a system of metalliferous quartzose veins and trappean~ dykes, sends off a branch known as the Lilloet spur, to terminate at the Fraser River west of Hope. Between the range and the spur is enclosed a chain of lakes which, with their port-ages, are of great importance as a means of transit to the upper country. A succession of elevated plateaux of the tertiary age stretch westerly from the base of the Rocky Mountains and their flanking ridges to this Lilloet - spur of the coast range; and cutting its way through the friable materials of this deposit, bursting through the mountain passes at Yale and Hope, the Fraser River with its golden waters flows onward to the sea, bringing down in its spring and summer torrents those lighter particles of gold which, accumulated on its banks and bars, have been the means of directing attention to and developing that amazing wealth of the rugged upper country whence the noble stream derives its springs of life. Sweeping on’ past Yale and Hope, the river leaves its rocky barriers behind, and, rolling on in graceful sweeps, passes the rising city of New Westminster, to empty its flood into the Gulf of Georgia. During the latter part of its course it flows a tranquil steady stream, through tertiary and alluvial deposits, carrying with it sedimentary matter, to be deposited as banks and shoals, the nuclei of future ‘ green fields and pastures new.’ The colony of British Columbia, which thus extends its Western borders to the sea, has a noble barrier for the protection of its shores. An outlying ridge, another parallel chain of mountains—cut ofi”, however, by the sea from the continent with which, in its physical geography, it is connected—forms an archipelago of islands, the chief of which is the sister colony of Vancouver‘. The whole northern and western sea-face of British Columbia, eEoLoeICAL FEATURES. 211 as far south as Howe Sound, is a rugged mass of plutonic, trappean, and quartzose rocks, with associated semi-crystalline limestones. Cut up by numerous inlets and arms of the sea, it needs no protection against the winds and waves, but sends out its adamantine promontories to meet them. Far different, however, is the coast-line from Howe Sound or Burrard’s Inlet southwards. Stretching in a semicircle, the convexity of which touches the foot-range of mountains above Langley on the Fraser, and reaching south, past Bellingham Bay, into United States territory, is a deposit of loose friable sandstones and all uvium, the same through which the Fraser River cuts its way. These sandstones at Burrard’s Inlet and at Bellingham Bay contain seams of lignite; the associated friable sandstones, where hardened and partially metamorphosed, show- ing impressions of a dicotyledonous plant allied to maple. All geological evidence tends to prove that the last upheaval of this continent and outlying islands was slow and gradual, occurring in the post-pleistocene or most recent tertiary epoch. And the existence of this belt of sandstone and alluvium, which is of such vast importance to British Columbia, is due in the first place to the upheaval and deposition of alluvial matter; in the second place, to the protection of the outlying insular bar- riers, Vancouver Island and its dependencies.ale This quotation from the excellent pamphlet of my friend is given at length because it contains the most compre- hensive geological description of the colony I have seen, and the document from which it is taken is very little known in England, not having been published here. At the entrance to Harrison Lake, and on both sides of that sheet of water, there are boulders of granite and quartzose rocks; gneiss with garnets; mica-schist with garnets; slate, and masses of white quartz, giving metalli— ferous indications. Most of the mountains surrounding the lake are composed of trap, with micaceous, talcose, * Forbes, p. 7. P2 212 BRITISH COLUMBIA. and hornblende schists, resting at various angles upon it. All these are more or less charged with iron, the oxidation of which is thought to have produced the disintegration of these rocks. Not far from the mouth of the Harrison, on the right bank, is found a mass of trachytic rock, which has evi- dently been erupted, having also shattered and dislodged the rocks adjacent. This rock, which is of volcanic origin, contains white quartz, showing the presence of silver and copper. The quartz-vein dips northerly, overlaid by the trachytic rocks. Subordinate veins of quartz radiate in all directions, permeating the trachyte. The geological features of this locality may be regarded as a fair type of the formation on the entire eastern side of the lake. It has been briefly described as ‘ a region of primary metamorphic and volcanic rock, crossed and recrossed by trappean dykes and veins and seams of metalliferous quartz and quartzose rocks, which form the central axis of the mountain range, have on their flanks transverse ridges and spurs of trappean rock, bedded and jointed; resting on which, at various angles, lie the meta- morphic schistose rocks, which, again broken through, disturbed and shattered by successive intrusions of volcanic rock, have in many instances undergone a second meta- morphosis, and show an amorphous crystalline structure, accompanied by segregation of metal into the permeating veins.’ On the road between Douglas and Lilloet is found an argentiferous rock of a pale blue colour, with masses and strings of quartz running through it. Sulphuret of silver, argentiferous pyrites, and specks of gold are met with, associated with iron pyrites, in cubes and other forms. Numerous faults and slips exist in the trappean range. As far as they have been examined, the rocks on the GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. 213 way from Hope to Colville are of the igneous and meta- morphic series. A mountain near Hope appears to be of granite, tipped with slate, and interspersed with masses of white indurated clay, containing fragments of white quartz. This format-ion (says Lieutenant Palmer, may be said to consist of granite with its felspar decomposed and reduced to a state of indurated clay; it extends to the dividing ridge of the cascades, and partly into the valley of the Tulameen. In the latter valley may be seen vast masses of white quartz; in all probability the exposed face of the rock, which, with granite, constitutes a large portion of the district, extending into the Semilkameen valley. On approaching the summit of the Tulameen range, the quartz partially disappears, and is replaced by a species of variegated sandstone, in which traces of iron occur. To what extent the sandstone prevailed I had no opportunity of judging, the weather being snowy while I was there, and the rocks, as a rule, imbedded in peaty turf. As we leave the Tulameen mountains and descend into the valley below, indurated clay appears to predominate to a con- siderable extent. This clay varies in character as we approach the Vermilion Forks : a portion I noticed near that point being a white silicate of alumina, mixed with sand. On one specimen which I picked up were the fossil remains of the leaves of the hemlock. Further down in the Semilkameen valley the clay acquires a slaty texture, and becomes stained with iron to a greater or less extent. Blue clay also exists; only, however, in small quantities. The mountains bordering the Semilkameen consist chiefly of granite, greenstone, and quartz, capped with blue and brown clay slate. The beds of both the Tulameen and Semilkameen are covered with boulders of granite of every description and colour; of greenstone and of trap, and vary in form and size. Boulders of the same character prevail on the river-bottoms to a greater or less extent. Like that of most other explored parts of British Columbia, the geological character of this region 214 BRITISH COLUMBIA. appears to indicate the high probability of auriferous deposits. In the lower portion of the Semilkameen, and near the ‘ Big Bend,’ gold was discovered shortly after I passed through by some of the men attached to the United States Boundary Com- mission. Report pronounced the discovery a valuable one, as much as $40 to the hand being taken out in three hours without proper mining tools. The Cariboo district, which embraces spurs of the Rocky chain, is so singularly contorted and erupted as to be represented as ‘ a tumbled sea of mountains.’ Their characteristic feature is, that the granite of which they are partially composed is permeated, as elsewhere, with masses of quartz. The beds of some of the streams con- tain large quartz boulders and a kind of slate rock, covered with red gravel, said to bear resemblance to the rich gold-bearing regions in the south of California. 215 CHAPTER VIII. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Scenery in the Passage from Victoria to Fraser River—Cascade Range— New Westminster—Imports—Shipping Returns—Customs Revenue— Rates of Duties Leviable—Government Buildings—Churches—Langley— Sumass and Chilukweyuk—Harrison River—Douglas—Diary of a Journey thence to VVilliam’s Creek—Cariboo—Table of Distances—Hope—Yale -—Rapids-—Lytton—Clinton—William’s Lake—Routes via Bentinck Arm and Bute Inlet—Routes to Shuswap. STEAMERS ply regularly between Victoria and New Westminster, performing a voyage of about eighty miles in seven hours. The trip across the Gulf of Georgia in fine weather is uncommonly interesting, especially to one accustomed to the landscapes of Western Europe. For alternate beauty and sublimity, the scenery passed through cannot be equalled by any to be met with on the coasts of the Old World. In traversing the placid waters cultivated tracts are beheld westward in the districts of Victoria and Saanich. Our course, at times, leads through narrow and lonely passes between pine-clad islands, and flocks of mallard, widgeon, and sea-gull ever and anon present a tempting spectacle to the sportsman. The coast of the colony appears fringed with dense forest, sometimes growing on flats, but generally covering mountains of various shape and grade. These granitic and trappean ridges terminate in peaks, varying from 1,000 to 10,000 feet high, and are timbered half way to their summits. 216' GENERAL nEsCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. A considerable distance behind the minor ranges, the Cascade chain runs nearly parallel with the coast at a distance of from sixty to one hundred miles from it. The loftiest height in this range is Mount Baker. It is situated in lat. 48° 44’ N. in American territory. It is 10,700 feet high, and towers far above every other object visible from the Gulf. It was seen from Victoria several times, after dusk, during my residence there, in a state of eruption; At length the mouth of the Fraser is reached. On either side of the entrance to the river, sand-bars have been formed by river-drift, and extend five miles west- ward, opposing, however, no dangers to navigation which a reasonable amount of caution may not avoid. As we ascend, the maple, the alder, and the cottonwood appear in the vicinity of land that is liable to periodic inunda- tion from spring floods. Higher ground is occupied by cedars and majestic pines. The prodigious size of these giants of the forest is beyond even what the backwoods- man of Canada is prepared for. Fifteen miles up the stream from its mouth is New Westminster, the infant capital of the colony. It stands upon a slope inconveniently steep for extension into a great city, though possessing facilities for anchorage by no means despicable. This site was chosen by Colonel Moody, late Commissioner of Lands and Works in the colony, for the strategical advantages which it offers in case of war with our American neighbours, and the space will doubtless prove ample for all future requirements of a town built in that location. Should the colony of Vancouver Island be eventually united with British Columbia, and one parliament be agreed upon to legislate for both, New Westminster will serve admirably for the seat of Government. It is in no respect desirable IMPORTS TO NEW WESTMINSTER. ' 217 that Victoria, the natural de'p0t of commerce for the entire region, should also in that event be the political centre. New Westminster, which had no existence till 1859, is the present port of entry for British Columbia, and the following statistics may be taken as a fair index of the degree in which, since that time, it has prospered. All imports pay duty at this point. Comparative Quarterly Statement of Imports. 1862 1863 , s E First quarter . . . 155,172 46 376,016 73 Second quarter . . . 1,154,242 09 752,082 70 Third quarter . . . 995,914 98 574.323 99 Fourth quarter . . . 495,511 38 406,614 28 2,800,840 91 2,109,037 70 Total Value of Imports into the Uolony of British Columbia during the Years 1861, 1862, 1863. 1861 . . . . .$1,414,809 73 1862 . . . . . 2,800,840 91 1863 . . . . . 2,109,037 70* The value of imports entered at the custom—house during the quarter ending 81st March, 1864, is $459,417 88c. The value of imports during the corresponding quarter last year was $375,016 730., showing a difference of $84,014 15c. in favour of this year, a very satisfactory advance under all the circumstances. - * The difference in value between the imports of 1862 and 1863 is mainly attributable to the large quantity of live stock imported in the former year from Oregon and Washington Territory by overland route, and Rock Creek. Besides, there was an extraordinary rush of immigration in the former of these years. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. SHIPPING RETURNS. Comparative Statement of Number of Vessels and Passengers Entered Inwarols at the Port of New Westminster during the Years 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863. _ No. of Vessels Passengers 1860 . . . . . 337 * 5,270 1861 . . . . . 228 2,233 1862 . . . . . 276 6,496 1863 . . . . . 243 5,103 1,084 19,102 CUSTOMS REVENUE. Comparative Statement of Customs Revenue (exclusive of Road Tolls) during 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863. 1859. . . . . . $88,945 89 1860. . . . . . 171,010 03 1861. . . . . . 181,701 94 1862. . . . . . 284,017 64 1863. 276,161 10 Comparative Statement of Customs Receipts from January 1 to March 31, in the Years 1863 and 1864. 1864 1863 £ 3. d. 12 s. d. Duties . . . . . 13,142 6 11 9,631 3 10 Harbour dues . . . 168 16 O 213 2 3 Head money . . . . 303 16 O 235 4 O Tonnage dues . . . 910 5 6 637 10 6 Warehouse fees . . . 1 O O 14 12 O In. nav. licenses . . . 25 4 O 41 16 O Fines and seizures. . . 3 6 8 38 13 O Landing waiter’s trips . . O O O 20 8 6 Total . . £14,554 15 1 £10,832 10 1 Increase on the quarter . . £3,722 5 0 ~ Passengers entered during the above period: 1863, 1,176 ; 1864, 1,519. * Includes a large number of miners’ canoes. SKETCH or NEW WESTMINSTER. 219 Rates of Duties of Customs now Leviable at New Westminster upon Goods and Articles Imported into British Columbia. d. s. d. Flour, per barrel . 3 1% Bitters, Per gallon , 2 1 Bacon, salt and dried pork, Blankets, per pair . 2 1 per lb. . . . . 0 1 Cheese, per 1b. 0 2% Beans, per 100 lb. . 1 3 Opium, ,, 2 1 Barley, per 100 lb. . 1 3 Dried fish, ,, . . 0 1 Butter, per lb. 0 2% Salt fish, ,, . . 0 0% Candles ,, 0 2% Chinese medicated wine, Lard ,, 0 1 per gallon . . . 3 1% Rice, per 100 lb. 3 11} Dried vegetables (Chinese) Tea, per lb. 0 25 per lb. . . . . 0 1 Coffee ,, 0 1% Salt vegetables (Chinese) Sugar ,, . . . 0 1 per lb. . . . 0% Ale and porter in bottle, Spirits, per gallon . . 6 3 per doz. . . 1 8 Horses, oxen, mules, per Ale and porter in wood, head . . . . 4 2 per gallon . . . 0 7 Sheep and goats ,, . 2 1 Wine in wood and bottle, Tobacco, per lb. . . 0 6;‘,- per gallon . . . 2 1 Flour, 196 lb. per barrel. 3 1% On all other articles a duty of 10 per cent. on the value thereof. New Westminster contains several hundred permanent inhabitants and several buildings of brick and stone that would do no discredit to a city twenty times its size. The plan of the town is divided into a number of blocks, varying in size, and averaging 6 by 415 chains. Each block is subdivided into lots measuring 66 feet by 132 feet. Among the public buildings of New Westminster the most prominent are the Government buildings, which include the offices of Governor, Colonial Secretary, Trea- surer, Master of the Mint, Colonial Assayer, and Colonial Auditor. There is a hall and an engine-house connected with the Hook and Ladder Company, which comprises a body of volunteers banded together for the purpose of extinguishing destructive fires. A colonial hospital has also been built here. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. The Roman Catholics are represented by a bishop and several priests, who minister to the religious wants of both immigrants and aborigines. The Church of England has a place of worship, with a rector and archdeacon resident in the neighbourhood. It is proposed by the Bishop of Columbia to secure the appointment of a new bishop for the diocese of British Columbia. Dr. Hills, as embryo Metropolitan, would then reside in Victoria, Vancouver Island. The new chief pastor, when ordained, will take his title from New West- minister, where he will also have his episcopal seat. This step, like the large accession that has recently been made to the colonial clergy, has been severely criticised by the press of these colonies as entirely pre- mature, and is considered by many laymen as a culpable waste of religious funds. It is those who sustain the mission and those who are benefited by it, however, that must be allowed to determine what is the best course to adopt in the matter. The collective white population of both colonies is 15,000,* and it is believed that the natives do not exceed that number. Not more than two churches in both colonies put together are adequately, self-support- ing. 500l. is annually expended out of mission funds to sustain two schools in Victoria—one for boys and another for girls-the number of pupils in attendance at the larger of the two being forty or fifty. About twenty clergymen are salaried, besides one or two ladies, one bishop, and two archdeacons. This staff is deemed by many more than suflicient to meet the present spiritual requirements of the colonists, without the appointment of a second bishop. There cannot be fewer than thirty-five ordained pastors already in the colonies, including Roman * It is confidently expected that the mines of Kootanie will, this year, add 20,000 to the population. THE LOWER FRASER. 221 Catholic priests. Estimating the present white and abori- ginal population at 30,000, we have a proportion of one pastor to less than each thousand. But more than one half of those clergymen belong to the Episcopal Church, while its adherents, as compared with the other religious bodies put together, are vastly in the minority. It does seem, therefore, that the cost of the episcopal organisation is out of proportion both to the sphere of operations and to the results that may be expected to follow for many years. The Presbyterian Church of Canada and the Wesleyan body have also their respective churches and ministers. In proportion to the extent of the population of New Westminster, it is of a more homogeneous and permanent character than are the inhabitants of Victoria. The municipal affairs of the place are conducted by a mayor and corporation. Commodious steamers are in waiting at the former place to convey freight and passengers to the head of navigation on the Lower Fraser in one direction, and 011 Harrison Lake in another. The first point of special interest reached after leaving the capital is Langley, situ- ated about 30 miles from the mouth of the river. Here is an old and extensive trading fort of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The land around the Fort, which has been cleared of heavy timber, produces excellent crops. In the garden attached, vegetables grow in luxuriance, while the apple-trees are loaded with fruit. The sites chosen for the forts of the company are generally on the bank of a lake or river sufficiently elevated to command the sur- rounding country. The establishment is constructed of hewn timber, and includes fifteen or twenty houses. These consist of one or two for the accommodation of officers and clerks; others affording quarters for labourers and mechanics. Spacious storehouses are likewise enclosed 222 GENERAL DESCRIPTION or BRITISH COLUMBIA. for the reception of goods and furs, with shops for car- penters, coopers, and blacksmiths. A powder-magazine is added, built of stone or brick; the entire structure is protected by a stockade 15 or 20 feet high, inside of which, near the top, is a gallery with loopholes for mus- kets. This picket-work is flanked with bastions, of which there are generally two placed at diagonal corners ; these mount several small pieces of cannon, and are also amply pierced for Inusketry. Seen from a distance these forts are rather formidable in appearance, and though capable of offering but slight resistance to artillery, have been found sufficient to overawe the Indians. The broad and fertile prairies at Sumass and Chiluk- weyuk next come into view, which are overflowed by freshets once a year. It must be confessed, however, that the banks of the river, for the most part, do not convey a remarkably encouraging impression of the agricultural capabilities of British Columbia. Tall and dense forests, tangled with undergrowth, circumscribe the prospect in many places, and together with the mountains visible in advance of the traveller, impart to the scenery an aspect of wild and gloomy grandeur. The scenery on the Lower Fraser is thus eloquently described in a despatch of Governor Douglas :— The banks of this river are almost everywhere covered with woods. Varieties of pine and firs of prodigious size, and large poplar trees, predominate. The vine and soft maple, the wild apple-tree, the white and black thorn, and deciduous bushes in great variety form the massive undergrowth. The vegetation is luxuriant, almost beyond conception, and at this season of the year (summer) presents a peculiarly beautiful appear- ance. The eye never tires of ranging over the varied shades of the fresh green foliage, mingling with the clustering White flowers of the wild apple-tree, now in full blossom, and filling the air with delicious fragrance. As our boat, gliding swiftly THE DOUGLAS ROUTE. 223 over the smooth waters, occasionally swept beneath the over- hanging boughs that form a canopy of leaves impervious to the sun’s rays, the efiect was enchanting. Thirty-five miles above Langley is the debouche of the Harrison, and the confluence of that stream with the Fraser. Fifty miles from the mouth of Harrison River, and at the head of the lake of the same name, is Douglas, on the route to the mines of Cariboo, vid Lilloet. This lake is surrounded by lofty and rugged mountains, cleft to the base by hideous fissures, capped with snow, and in general presenting a singularly barren appearance. The hamlet, which bears the name of the first governor of the colony, stands upon the margin of the lake, and the possibility of its enlargement would seem to be precluded by rocky heights, almost precipitous, in its rear. But other routes to the northern mines are likely to abstract from Douglas the lion’s share of the traffic which it has hitherto enjoyed ; so that the confined space allotted by Nature to the growth of the town will not probably be felt as a serious inconvenience. Without continuing any formal description of the Douglas route, I will take the liberty of appending a copy of the diary of a miner which gives a much more gra- phic idea of the difficulties of personal locomotion for- merly involved in a journey to Cariboo than any other delineation could do. Happily engineering skill has, since the trip now to be depicted was undertaken, completely triumphed ' over these obstacles, and now a good Waggon-road has been constructed, running over the entire distance from Doug- las, except where lakes intervene. The route vid Yale, to be hereafter described, is favoured with similar advan- tages. Instead, therefore, of the journey occupying as GENERAL DESCRIPTION ‘OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. formerly from 23 to 30 days, it can now be comfortably performed on foot in less than half that time ; and should the miner be able to indulge in the luxury of stage tra- velling, the time will be abridged in proportion. The following paper, not before published, has been kindly placed at my disposal by the gentleman who pre- pared it :_- Diary of Journey to William’s Creek, Cariboo, May, 1863. May 8th.—Left Victoria at 9A. M. Arrived at New West- minster‘at 4.30 PM. Had a pleasant passage, the day being warm and calm. Put up at the ‘ Mansion House ;’ slept in my own blankets on the floor in company with several others, free of charge. Saturday, 9th.—Left New Westminster for Douglas at 3.30 P. M. Anchored at dark, 40 miles up the river. Slept soundly on the saloon floor. Sunday, 10th.——Started early; got into Harrison River at 8 A. M. Great contrast between the two rivers —the Fraser very muddy—the Harrison as clear as glass. The scenery on both is beautiful; enjoyed it very much. Arrived at Douglas at 3 P. M. Travelled 12 miles further on; pitched our tents in the bush. Monday, 11th. —Got up at daybreak; cooked breakfast, and start-ed for the head of Lilloet Lake, distant 17 miles. Arrived there at 3.30 P. M. Could not sleep at night for mosquitoes, the tent being full of them. The road from Douglas to the lake is one continued ‘gulch ’ between two ranges of mountains, called the ‘ Cascades.’ In some parts they are nearly perpendicular, and rise to a great height. The distance between Douglas and the lake is 29-;- miles. About 20 miles from Douglas there is a hot mineral spring, said to supply relief to rheumatic patients. lts chief constituents are sulphur and soda. There are road- side houses every few miles, where meals can be had at a dollar (4s. 2d.) each. The scenery is beautiful, the river running almost parallel with the road, and the mountains with their snow-clad tops towering on either side. JOURNEY To CARIBOO. _ 225 Tuesday, 12th.--Started on our journey along the Lilloet Lake at 7'30 A.M. Had to go in a barge for six miles before We got to the steamboat.‘ Arrived at Pemberton at 2 P.M. From the foot of Tenass little) Lake to the head of Lilloet Lake is 25% miles. The general direction of the lake is north. At Pem- berton We took the Waggon-road, and travelled 8 miles same day. About 20 of us slept on the floor of the 8-mile house in the usual style, being very kindly invited by the landlord. Wednesday, l3th.——Started early. Arrived at Anderson Lake, distant 26 miles from Pemberton, in good time in the after- noon. We passed through all sorts of interesting scenery; rich prairie called ‘ the Meadows,’ 7 or 8 miles long, and from half a mile to a mile wide. Beyond the half-way house is a water- shed, 1,482 feet above the level of the sea. From the road is seen a roaring cataract dashing from the snowy summits of the mountains. Here are the sublime and the beautiful in perfection. Had to wait for the boat till morning. Made a tent of one of my blankets; could not sleep, the other being too short for me. My companion got used up. Had to send his tent and blankets by ‘ express.’ " Thursda'z , 14th.——On board the steamer at 8 A.M. Lake Anderson, 16 miles long. Direction, north and south. Arrived at Port Seaton at 3 P.M. Lake Seaton, the last in the chain of lakes, is 14 miles long, lying west and east, and is only 1% miles from Lake Anderson. Scenery on both lakes charming; the hills rising abruptly out of the water as clear and tranquil as I have ever seen. Travelled to Lilloet, distant 3%- miles. In approach- ing it the hills recede. It is a pretty place; a flat surrounded by mountains. There are a few patches of arable land, but sand seems to prevail. All along from Douglas the country looks barren; hardly a blade of grass to be seen, or a spot level enough to pitch a tent on. Friday, 15th.—-Started early. The Fraser winds its way through the Lilloet Valley, the river bed being 190 feet below the plain. The land rises up from the river in terraces, level and regular,‘ and these assume hues varying with the seasons. Probably the Whole valley was once the basin of a lake whose waters subsided gradually, these benches being old water marks. Q 226 ' GENERAL DEsCRIBTIoN OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. On one of these terrace-like levels, on the right bank of the river, is the ‘town of Lilloet; its altitude 1,036 feet. It consists of a broad street lined with wooden stores and dwellings; has 350 white inhabitants. At the southern extremity is an Epis- copal church, of which a worthy son of a Scotch Free Church minister is the rector. The romantic scenery around is calcu— lated to remind him of the Highlands of his native country. Crossed the Fraser 2 miles above Lilloet. Passed several Indian burying-places. All the graves have flags over them. On one was a pole with a gun fixed on top. Travelled 20 miles to-day. Had the country I passed through been fertile, it would certainly be a fine locality for farming. Beautiful tracts of table-land, thinly timbered, but parched and sandy, with very little vegetation. Saturday, 16th.—-Started in company with two Australian shipmates. Slept last night in their tent. Met a train of camels going down. The country gets more open. Very little grass and very little arable land. Crossed Pavillon Mountain. Very steep on both sides. Quite flat on the summit for 4 miles. Here Bridge River, an auriferous stream, joins the Fraser; 4 miles higher up is the Fountain. Here is good farming land for some distance. Pavillon Mountain is 4,000 feet high. Tra- velled 20 miles to-day. Feel quite fresh and hearty. Have not got a blister on my feet as yet. Sunday, 17th.-—Went on to the ‘ Junction ’ at Clinton, 47 miles from Lilloet, situated in a pleasant glen 16 miles in length, called ‘ Cut-off Valley.’ Here the Yale and Lilloet roads unite. Stayed all day. Bought flour and beef at 25 cents per pound. Monday, 18th.—Set out at seven AM. It rained from then till 2 P.M. Travelled 23 miles. Flat country, thickly timbered. Slept on the floor of the 7 0-mile house. A night scene in one of these extemporised inns would be an amusing novelty to a high-toned civilised Londoner. Might be compared to a robber’s cave. The floor covered with blanketted bodies. On the counter sleeps the bar-keeper, to guard the liquors from any traveller that might, in a fit of thirst, so far forget himself as to get up in the night, put forth his hand without permission, and moisten his throat. My neck and hands all over mosquito bites. BRIDGE CREEK TO MUD-LAKE HOUSE. 227 Tuesday, 19th.-—On the road at 7 RM. Hail storm about noon. The appearance of the country much the same as I passed through yesterday, except that it is more hilly and not so thickly timbered. Passed several small lakes with plenty of wild ducks; saw no other game. Can hear partridges chatter- ing in the woods. Travelled 30 miles. Put up at the 100-mile house, Bridge Creek. Here good farming land opens to view. Paid $1 500. (68. sterling) for supper, with the privilege of sleeping on the floor. Had the honour of sitting before a good fire by the side of Judge ]3- I look as much a judge as he does! I write this close by him. He is on his way to the mines. Scarlet and ermine would be sadly out of place here. Wednesday, 20th.——Off about 7 A.M. A heavy snow storm. Showed at intervals during the day. A beautiful looking country. Soil good, and abundance of wood and water. Land near the road clear of timber. Sweet little lakes. Profusion of feed for cattle. Passed Lake La Hache, 10 miles long. The scenery delightful. I would not wish for a prettier spot for a farm. Travelled 28 miles; feel a little tired. My feet quite sound. Some of our party in a bad state with sore feet. Put up at the ‘ Blue Tent.’ Paid $1 500. for supper, and slept com_ fortably on the floor. Thursday, Zlst—Started early. Walked 4 miles; lighted a fire, and cooked breakfast (slap-jacks* and coffee). Travelled 23 miles. Put up at Davidson’s, at the head of William’s Lake. Overtook Mr. A , who left Victoria two days before me. He lost his horse on the road. Friday, find—Started at 6 A.M. Shocking bad road for 10 miles, over a thickly—wooded hill. Some of our party took the trail to the Forks of Quesnellet We take the Fort Alexander trail. The Forks route is the shortest, ‘but very rough. Travelled 25 miles to-day. A broken and hilly country. Scenery very romantic. Put up at Mud-Lake House. Saturday, 23rd.——On the road at 6 A.M. The trail winds * Thin pancakes made of flour and. water. 1' This branch route will be described when the road m'd Yale comes under notice. Q 2 228 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITIsII COLUMBIA. along the banks of the Fraser, which flows through a narrow valley enclosed by sloping hills on either side. Some spots are like made pleasure grounds; the trees look so green, and the blooming shrubs so various. Arrived at Alexandria—a gem of a place. Fort Alexander, which belongs to the Hudson’s Bay Company, is on the opposite side of the river, and consists of three or four log-houses. Travelled 21 miles to-day-—3 miles beyond Alexandria. Sunday, 24th.-- Could not sleep last night in consequence of cold. Disagreed with my companion about Sunday travelling. He went on and I stayed here all day. I fancy I will overtake him by Tuesday night. Monday, 25th.--Got up at 3 AM. Had breakfast with A and P Started alone at 5 AM. They could not go so fast with the mule. Killed a carpet-snake 3 feet 6 inches long. A thickly-wooded country, with occasional blocks of prairie land. Arrived at the mouth of Quesnelle at 6 P.M., making this day’s journey 33 miles. Feel very tired, the last 12 miles being very bad-—up to the knees in mud. Overtook those that travelled yesterday, here. The town of Quesnelle boasts ten houses, chiefly stores. It is the landing-place of the steamer ‘Enter- prise.’ Flour 350., bacon 900. per lb. The Quesnelle is a rapid and shallow stream, whose southern branch flows from the Great Quesnelle, one of the largest lakes in the colony. It empties from the south-east into the Fraser, about 35 miles above Fort Alexander. Its breadth is from 40 to 100 yards, according to the different stages of the water. Passengers ferry across at two points ; one at the mouth, and the other 3 miles above. Tuesday, 26th.-—-Started at 8 A.M. A wet morning; rained most part of the day. Roads frightful, up and down hill; to the knees in mud. To see us splashing through it was a dismal spectacle. Crawled Over logs of wood ; pushed our way through thick scrubwood; climbed up the steep and slippery sides of hills, and put our feet in every form and shape to secure a footing and avoid the worst parts of the boggy trail. ' I fancy we should make as a good subject for a picture as ‘ Bona- parte crossing the Alps.’ The appearance of the country is very THE ROAD AS IT WAS. 229 wild and sterile. Travelled only 14 miles. Lighted two large fires and cooked supper (slap-jacks and bacon). Some of our party were obliged to sleep on the wet ground, having no tent. Wednesday, 27 th.—-Faced the muddy trail at 8 A.M. , A fine day, but the trail worse than it was yesterday. My boots full of water. Dead horses lying in every direction; the wretched animals so overcome with fatigue and deficient feed that they died in the mire. Beaver swamps, marshes, dense forests, of pine and hemlock, and patches of poplar and willow trees the main features of the landscape. Arrived at Cottonwood at 3 P.M., making only 11 miles journey to-day. Flour 600., beef 500., bacon $1 12%c. per 1b., meals $2 each. Thursday, 28th.—-Sharp frost this morning. Started at 6 A.M. Crossed Swift River over a large tree as a substitute for abridge. Cne man fell in, and we narrowly escaped the same fate. The trail is better, but hilly. Dead horses met with every mile. The country now changes in appearance; barren and reefy hills indicating the presence of gold. Travelled 18 miles. About twenty of us slept on thefloor of Beaver Pass-house. Swift River, from 30 to 50 yards wide, is reached by a gradual descent, and crossed a little way above Lightning Creek. It flows through valleys containing good soil and occasional prairies. Friday, 29th.-—Started at 7 A.M. Arrived at Van Winkle, Lightning Creek, about 1' 1’.M., making to—day a journey of 12 miles. Slept on the floor of an empty house. Cottonwood, at the mouth of this creek, promises to become a trading dép0t of some importance. Saturday, 30th.——Started at 7 A.M. for William’s Creek, dis- tant about 15 miles; a very tedious journey, the trail being covered with snow to the depth of 3 feet. Arrived there about 3 P.M., almost as fresh as when I left Victoria. Of all places I have seen—and I know the Australian ‘ diggings"—this is certainly the roughest. There are two townships a mile apart. Have not seen a square yard of clear ground on the creek; not even a footpath. Have to crawl over fallen trees, stumps, roots, brushwood, &c. 230 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Table of Distances. From Victoria to Douglas . . . . 176 miles ,, Douglas to Lilloet Lake . . . 29%- ,, ,, Lilloet Lake to Pemberton . . . 24 ,, ,, Pemberton to Anderson Lake . . . 18 ,, ,, Anderson Lake to Port Seaton . . 34 ,, ,, Port Seaton to Lilloet . . . . 5 ,, ,, Lilloet to Junction . . . . 47 ,, ,, Junction to 7 0-mile House . . . 23 ,, ,, 7 0-mile House to Bridge Creek . . 30 ,, ,, Bridge Creek to Blue Tent . . . 28 ,, ,, Blue Tent to Davidson’s (William's Lake) 23 ,, ,, Davidson’s to Mud Lake . . . 25 ,, ,, Mud Lake to Alexandria . . . . 19 ,, ,, Alexandria to mouth of Quesnelle . . 36 ,, ,, Mouth of Quesnelle to Cottonwood . . 25 ,, ,, Cottonwood to Beaver Pass . . . 18 ,, ,, Beaver Pass to Van Winkle . . . 12 ,, ,, Van Winkle to William’s Creek . . 15 ,, _ 586 Returning to the mouth of Harrison River, at which we diverged from the Fraser, and resuming our ascent of that arterial highway through the colony, we soon arrive at Hope, still a trading dép6t of the Hudson’s Bay Company. This place gave promise, in 1859 and 1860, of rapidly becoming an important centre for the distribution of goods to the mining camps on the Lower Fraser, and the region adjacent to the American border, seventy-four miles from Hope, and embracing Similkameen, CKanagan, and Rock Creek. Hope, at the same period, was the head of navi- gation on the lower section of the river. When I visited this locality in the latter of those years the town presented a lively aspect. On the trail to the mines of Similkameen, too, I met numerous pack-trains. Had Cariboo never been heard of, those engaged in the southern mines would long ere this, I venture to believe, have found the precious metal quite as abundant as it has proved to‘be in the northern part of the colony. But, HOPE AND YALE. 231 directly the more seductive spell of Cariboo loomed before the vision of the miner, the less dazzling mines of Simil- kameen were abandoned; and, consequently, the commer- cial barometer of Hope fell. In 1862, when I saw the town last, it was evidently in a state of collapse. Feeling disposed for some refreshment on landing, I repaired to the most respectable looking restaurant I could find, and was gravely informed by the proprietor that his whole stock of nutritive solids consisted of half a small pie! The reason assigned was that he did not expect the steamer that day! But there are brighter days in store for Hope. The rich border mines and the broad prairies of Okanagan will yet attract a large and permanent ' population, and from that district the route m'd Hope is the natural outlet to the Fraser. The auriferous wealth of the Kootanie country, which has only within the past six months become generally known on the coast of the North Pacific, will also communicate a powerful impulse to the growth of Hope. The site of this town is a lovely plateau on the banks of the river, environed with lofty and shaggy mountains. Immediately opposite is an islet formed by the rapids of the Fraser. Its distance from the mouth is ninety—five miles. Fifteen miles higher up is Yale, another trading port of the company, but now transformed into a rising town, containing several hundred inhabitants. This is the head of navigation on‘ the Lower Fraser, and here goods, destined for Shuswap and Cariboo, via the new Waggon-road through Lytton, are transhipped. A suc- cession of rapids is the most signal impediment offered to the navigation of this brief interval. In illustration of the strength of the current to be overcome, it may be noticed that, while it takes but half an hour to descend to Hope, six hours are occupied in ascending by high-pres- 232 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. sure steamers thence to Yale. One fatal explosion oc- cured near Emery’s Bar a few years ago, destroying, with others, the life of the captain--a member of an ill-fated family. Four brothers in it fell martyrs to the high-pres- sure system in the waters of British Columbia and Oregon. Indeed, I have no reason to recall with satisfaction my own sensations when crossing the troublesome point re- ferred to. Our steamer happened to be the first that attempted the passage beyond Hope that year, subsequently to the river beginning to fall. The struggle was so intense on our reaching the gurgle of the rapids that, with a pressure of steam greatly beyond the weight allowed by law, no ascending motion for twenty minutes was perceptible. The captain, a reckless American, became, with other betting men on board, intensely excited (under the influ- ence of liquor) as to the issue of the dangerous experiment. Some were foolhardy enough to lay a wager that an ex- plosion would take place, and coolly discussed the expe- rience they should have when blown into the air. I ascertained afterwards—on the authority of one whose position in the boat qualified him to know—that, at the critical moment, while the question remained undecided as to whether the rapid or the steamer should conquer, a pipe connected with the boiler burst, and was regarded as the infallible precursor of our common destruction. The prodigal indifference of American steamboat men in regard to human life was characteristically exemplified in a conversation in which I took part. The enquiry was put to a Yankee as to the safety of a certain steamer. ‘ She may do very well for passengers, but I wouldn’t trust treasure in her,’ was the unfeeling but candid reply. Leaving Yale by the Waggon-road, completed in 1863, PAVILLON MOUNTAIN AND LYTTON. 233 we pass through a deep and narrow gorge in the moun— tains called the Little Cafion (Kanyon), through which the river forces its way with resistless momentum. This cleft in the Cascade range is the favourite resort of Indians in search of salmon. Their mode of fishing has been pre- viously described. The road, in some parts, is hewn out of solid and pre- cipitous rock; and, with similar work done in rendering the Pavillon Mountain passable, this deserves to rank among the most astonishing achievements of the engineer- ing art. A bridge is thrown across the river eleven miles above Yale, where a ferry was formerly used. At the junction of the Thompson and the Fraser, forty- three miles below Lilloet, upon an elevated fiat, 780 feet above sea level, is Lytton, a town named after the distin- guished gentleman who was Secretary of State for the Colonies during the administration under which the colony of British Columbia was founded. The Waggon-road then turns in a north-easterly direction, until Cook’s Ferry is reached, twenty~three miles above Lytton. The road via Lilloet joins the one by Lytton at Clinton, a point forty-seven miles from the former place, and seventy-five from the latter. Clinton has sprung up with mushroom growth. It has three respectable hotels, a saw-mill, a butcher’s shop, two blacksmiths and farriers, a store of a miscellaneous description, stables, barns, brickyard, and several shanties, ‘ among which you observe the Celestial’s sanctum, with an announcement over the door that he has the courage to undertake the “lively” operation of washing a Cariboo shirt.’ A scheme was on foot last year, with every prospect of success, for making a road from about the 108th mile— post, on the present road to Antler Creek, via the Horse- fly and Beaver Valleys and the Forks of Quesnelle. This 234 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. track saves from seventy to eighty miles?‘ The present road, as the map plainly shows, is an absurdly roundabout one. Of course, the question is suggested to most persons acquainted with the country, why did Government allow the road to be taken that way? Why were the con- tractors allowed to take the road to Soda Creek and start a steamboat in the Fraser to run thence to the mouth of Quesnelle? The answer is, that the late governor, though paid a handsome salary for looking after the interests of the colony, never carried personal inspection so far. Of course, the contractors have made nothing out of the road or the steamboat. Oh, 110! Who could for a moment imagine such a thing? It is so common for men of business or Govern- ment officials in this part of the world to sacrifice themselves for philanthropic motives! During the time the road was being made the managing contractor expressed to the William’s Lake settlers on the old trail his willingness to take the road by way of their ranches (farms) in consideration of a small donation of $15,000! How kind! But the next news was that the gentle- man who was wont to labour so hard for the general weal had become possessed of half a share in Deep Creek ranch, about 14 miles from the present steamboat landing (one of the best stands for business); and, strange to say, notwithstanding the disinterestedness attributed to this gentleman, the road even- tually took a course by way of Deep Creek. Another thing still more extraordinary is, that the steamboat still continues to return at such an hour of the day that the miner on his way down is obliged to stay at Deep Creek House 11' * This route will open up a portion of the country hitherto unprospected, but believed to contain rich and extensive deposits of gold, which, from being situated in lower land, can be worked for a longer period during the year than the mines lying northward of it. Here, moreover, tracts of ex- cellent farming land exist Capable of sustaining 500 families, in the vicinity of a growing and highly remunerative market. . 1' Letter from a resident in British Columbia. FROM wILLIAM’s LAKE TO CARIBOO. 235 It is to be hoped, the local Government will take care, in giving out contracts in future, that covenants are entered into stringent enough to prevent individuals from schem- ing to benefit themselves at the expense of the country and to the inconvenience of the public. From 'William’s Lake two paths leading to Cariboo proper are at the option of the traveller, as referred to in the diary already quoted. If he should wish to enter the mining region on the eastern side, he will take the route via Quesnelle and Antler, which is at once the shorter and more arduous. Should he prefer the western route, he will proceed to the right at Lake Valley House on William’s Lake. The distance from that lake to Rich- field by the latter route, which, as we have seen, goes by the Upper Fraser and Cottonwood, is estimated by Lieut. Palmer at 149 miles; and the distance by the eastern route, 216. via Beaver Lake, Deep Creek Farm, and the town of Quesnelle, at 113 miles. The longer journey possesses the advantage of supplying more abundant feed for animals. Two routes from the coast to the northern mines of British Columbia are projected, both of which, when completed, will reduce considerably the time, expense, and strength consumed by miners and packers who now travel by Yale and Douglas. ' The route by North Bentinck Arm was the first of these submitted to public attention. It was travelled over by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1792, and re-explored a few years since. So much importance did the Govern- ment attach to it that a party of Royal Engineers was appointed to examine and report upon it. The voyage from Victoria to Bentinck Arm is nearly 500 miles. Numerous deep-water indentations are passed in sailing to it, extend— ing inland from 20 to 100 miles, and bearing severally 236 GENERAL DEscRIPTION OF BRITIsII COLUMBIA. the names of arms, inlets, sounds, and canals. In the vicinity of some of these, glaciers, rarely to be met with elsewhere, are of frequent occurrence, and near Knight’s Canal there is a river said to flow for 15 miles through a magnificent glacier tunnel, 100 feet in height and from 100 to 150 yards in breadth. North Bentinck Arm is 25 miles in length and from 11.; to 2%,— miles in breadth. Groups of mountains, of gra- duating altitude, tumbled through rounded masses, snowy peaks, pine-clad slopes, rugged cliffs and. precipices, shapeless masses of trappean and granite rocks, soaring to vast heights, gloomy valleys, and picturesque water-falls -—these alternations of wilderness and beauty constitute the essential features of the scenery. At the head of this arm the Bella Coola or N ookhalk River discharges. The stream is 80 miles in length, and drains a portion of the Cascade range. The first serious obstruction to road- making to be met with is from the crossing of the Cheddeakulk to the foot of the Great Slide, where the mountains crowd upon both sides of the stream. Slides, occasioned by fragmentary trap-rocks running directly into the river or into low swampy land contiguous to it, are to be met with, varying from 300 to ‘600 feet in height. These slides are capped by cliffs averaging 1,500 feet in altitude above the river. The next barrier of special consequence to the traveller is the Precipice. This peculiar mountain mass is composed of basaltic rock 1,350 feet in height, and stands between the forks of the brook Hotharko, which runs in a south-easterly and west- northerly direction. The ascent of this mountain is re- markably steep. The officer in command of the Govern- ment exploring party, in describing this peculiar formation, says :— _ The trail at first runs up the backbone of a singular spur, BENTINCK ARM ROUTE. , 237 winding further up among crumbling fragments of rocks, and finally reaching by a dizzy path the summit of a perpendicular wall of rock, 100 feet high, which crowns the mass, and from which it derives its name. The cliff is composed of blocks of columnar basalt in the shape of multangular prisms, averaging, in their perfect state, about two cubic feet in size, usually stained of a dull red colour, and somewhat vesicular. The blocks are fixed together as perfectly as if by human agency, and the layers are horizontal; thus on the summit, which is perfectly level, patches are met with in which, the scant soil having been washed away, the jointing of these singular stones, almost resembling mosaic fragment, is clearly visible; and towards the edges of the cliff large portions of the rock have crumbled away, leaving standing in many places abrupt columnar masses of as much as 50 feet in height, which, viewed from a shorter distance, almost assume the appearance of massive, artificial, and battlemented structures. But the two grave obstacles spoken of—‘ the Slide ’ and ‘ the Precipice ’-—may be avoided when the road is being made: the one by not leaving the Atnarko till reaching the mouth of the Hotharko; the other by following the south fork of the Hotharko, and rising to the level of the Precipice by an easy inclination. Arriving at the summit of the Precipice, 3,840 feet above the level of the sea, the great elevated plateau is entered. This lies between the Cascades and the Fraser. An expanse of waving‘ forest, broken only by lakes and marshes, meets the eye looking eastward. The peaks of the Cascade range lie to the west, and lonely massive heights, interesting from their very irregularity, stretch away to the south. It is the opinion of Lieut. Palmer that in emerging'from the Cascades the principal difficulties of travel are past, and that there is no impracticability in making a road across the plateau to strike the Fraser Valley at almost any point south of the fifty-third parallel. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. ' The Bute Inlet is situated much further south, being near the northern entrance to J ohnstone Strait, and is claimed by Mr. Alfred Waddington, the talented and enterprising projector of this second route, to be incom- parably superior to any of the other routes specified. The country through which it passes does not differ materially in contour from that traversed by the Bentinck- Arm route, except that it includes ninety miles of lake and river navigation between Bute Inlet and Cottonwood River. It is natural that Mr. Waddington should desire to make his scheme appear as favourable as possible in con- trast with those of his rivals. Still, making every allow- ance for the influence of partiality in this respect, I think the following comparative statement may be accepted as substantially correct. The measurement relates to the distance between Victoria and Lightning Creek. Bute Inlet Bentinck Arm Yale Route Route Route Miles Miles Miles Sea, lake, and river navigation . . 305 . . 560 . . 182 Land travel . . . . . . 158 . . 17 8 . . 359 ERR 738' 5711 No. of days consumed in conveying freight 22 . . 28 . . 37 No. of loadings and unloadings . . 5 . . -- . . 14 ' Cents Cents Cents Freight, per 1b. . . . . . 10 . . 15 . . 55 There are two routes to the Shuswap Diggings. The one that starts from Hope and passes Nicholas Lake, it would be somewhat perilous to attempt, except under the guidance of one acquainted with the track which leads over mountains where the snow lies deep till near mid- summer. The other route is vid Yale and Lytton, following the Waggon-road after leaving Lytton for about 52 miles. This conducts to a point nearly opposite Cache ROUTE T0 SHUSWAP. 239 Creek, and one mile beyond the house of James Orr. Here the Bonaparte River is crossed to the eastward, when a trail is found going off toward Cache Creek Valley. This must be kept for 14 miles, as far as Mr. Bate’s ranch. Thence a walk of 6 miles brings us to the foot of Kama- loops Lake,—Saviner’s ferry. The trail has then to be taken to the north side of the lake. Twenty-five miles more passed over and we arrive at Fort Kamaloops. From Fort Kamaloops to the Grand Prairie embraces 40 miles, and from the latter place to Cherry Creek on the Shuswap Lake is about 70 miles. The trail passes through a vast extent of fine open farming country, and the land for the most part is so level that, without much difficulty, a loaded waggon might be drawn over a large section of it. 240 CHAPTER IX. THE MINES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.‘ Diggings at Hope—Ya]e—Similkameen—OKanagan—Rock Creek—Tran- quille and North Rivers—Kamaloops Lake—Quesnelle—Antler—Cariboo -—Bed' Rock Flume and Artesian Mining Companies—Remarkable In- stances Of Success—Prices at the Northern Mines—Shuswap and K'oo— tanie Diggings —Mining Prospects on the north-west of the Fraser- Mining Laws. TAKING the mining districts in the order of their discovery we have, first, . The Fort Hope Diggings.—-—These primarily attracted the bulk of mining adventurers on their arrival in 1858. The barsfi‘ which excited most notice for their productive- ness at that time, were respectively known as the Victoria Bar, the Puget Sound, French, Travalgar, Mariaville, Union, Cornish, Prospect, Blue Nose, and Hudson. An official statement shows the miners at work in these loca- lities to have averaged, as minimum earnings, between 169. 8d. and 2l. per day. ‘ Two miners realised in six weeks 270l., and their confidence in the productiveness of the country was so great that they afterwards invested * ‘ Bars’ are accumulations of sand and general detritus which cover the ancient channel of the river, having formerly been washed down and de- posited by the water of the stream, when flowing in its old bed. They constitute the present banks of the river in many places, and are all more or less auriferous. ‘Benches’ is a term applied to the auriferous banks when rising in the form of terraces. YALE AND SIMILKAMEEN DIGGINGS. 241 that sum in the purchase of another claim.’ A silver lead of great promise is being worked in the neighbourhood of Hope. The company formed to develope it is sustained by the limited sum of 6,000l. ; the stock consists of 600 shares. But without an increase of capital, which cannot for some time, I fear, be commanded, unless the interest of the present company is transferred to one more able, organized in the parent country, the mine is not likely to be very productive. In October 1864, diggings were found on the river Coquahalla, near Hope, averaging $5 per day to the hand. ' Fort Yale Digyings-These embrace the ground on the river banks between Hope and Yale, and that extend- ing some distance above the latter town. Hill’s, Emery’s, and Boston Bars were the most noted in this district for richness. ‘ As a rule,’ says an official document, prepared in 1858, ‘ they (the miners) have been successful, and many have returned to their homes possessors of from 416l. to 830l.’ But the mines of the Lower Fraser, while by no means exhausted, fail to satisfy any longer the now more elevated expectations of the whites, whose content- ment with moderate returns has been spoiled by the ‘big strikes’ made in Cariboo. The quieter field of labour around Hope and Yale is therefore abandoned, almost exclusively, to Chinamen, whose wages average from '88. 6d. to 1l. per day—the expense of their living being not more than 28. per day. The Similhameen, OKanayan, and Roch Creek Dig- yings.--These localities are sufficiently near each other in proximity to the southern border to be grouped together. It was ascertained that the precious metal existed here in 1860. No sooner was the discovery made than trails were cut, by direction of the Government, for the con- venience of any who might desire to ‘ prospect’ the dis- R 242 THE MINEs 0E BRITIsII COLUMBIA. trict. ‘ On the country being examined (at Similkameen ), “ prospects ” were so good that all the miners made pre- paration for sluicing, and other costly works for mining, on a large scale.’ it ‘ The earnings in the summer of 1861 averaged 3t. 63; to the hand per day. About 200 miners, of whom 150 were Chinamen, were at work in this dis- trict. A party of three took 50l. in three days; and the rocker used in wet diggings yielded from 168. 8d. to It. 133. 4d. to the hand.’_-Times Correspondent. I have had opportunities of personally conversing with men who acknowledged that they had realised SZ. 48. 6d. per day to the hand. i In May 1861, Governor Douglas reported that a pro- specting party had found grain and scale gold of fine quality in all the streams flowing into the western part of OKanagan Lake, which is over seventy miles long. In the summer of the same year there were twenty-six miners at work who averaged 168. 8d. a day. Sixteen streams out of nineteen flowing into the lake had been ‘ prospected,’ and were found to yield gold. . Gold was extracted from one claim in Rock Creek, at the junction of that stream with Colville River, in Feb- ruary 1861, to the value of'198l. in six weeks : another yielded 4l. per day. Mr. Cox, the gold commissioner at this point, says (May 1861): ‘We prospected nine streams, all tributaries of Lake CKanagan, and found gold in each, averaging from 30 to 90 cents a pan.’ He then mentions other good prospects, which he deemed it advisable not to make public, lest a check should be given to operations then in a state of progress. ‘ I ascertained,’ says Governor Douglas, ‘from the testimony of the miners generally, ‘that none of those who had succeeded in open- ing gold claims were making anything less than 41. a * Parliamentary. Papers on ‘British Columbia, Part IV. p. 30. QUESNELLE AND ANTLER. 243 day. . . . A party of three white men, after paying all expenses, during the mining season saved ZAOOL: 20!. a day was sometimes made.’--Tz'1nes Correspondent. The Diggings of T ranqaz'lle and North Rivers, and Kamaloops Lake—Seven miners (and many more whose gains have never been made public) are known to have realised 3!. 68. 8d. per day each on Lake Kamaloops. A friend who explored on the Thompson River, close by, assured me that without difficulty he gained ll. per day with the rocker; but it should not be forgotten that he was an old Ballarat miner, and that for any novice to set to work in the same neighbourhood, hoping immediately for the same result, would be to incur dis— appointment. Qaesnelle and Antler Diggings—The early pioneers of the country argued that the fine gold of the Lower Fraser was formed by the disintegration of quartz veins, from which coarse gold was separated by the abrasion of water, carried down streams, and rendered finer by aqueous action as it was rolled toward the ocean. This correct theory led to the examination of certain tributaries of the Fraser, directly north of Alexandra, and late in 1859, gold of the quality anticipated was discovered on the Quesnelle River, and in 1860 the finding of Antler Creek was proclaimed. N o sooner did this occur than the hopeful mines near the southern boundary were deserted. On Quesnelle River 600 white miners were successfully employed in the summer of 1860, earning from 2L to 51. per day; and several pieces of gold were picked up in this region weighing from 6 to 8 oz.--an ounce being equal to 31. 88. sterling, and sometimes more. Ferguson’s Bar in this vicinity, yielded, in 1860, as much as 12L to the hand per day; but after the pay streak near the river R 2 244 THE MINEs 0F BRITIsrI COLUMBIA. became exhausted, the profits decreased to 3i. per day. Bed-rock fluming will yet compel this place to yield con- siderable treasure. The bed-rock of Antler Creek, on which the gold is found, crops out at many points but a short distance from the surface. The absence of precipitous banks renders the working of this stream more easy and less expensive than most of the creeks in the upper country. ‘ Setting the workable ground,’ says Commissioner N ind, ‘ at a low estimate, there is room here for at least 1,000 miners.’ ‘ We are daily,’ says Governor Douglas, ‘ receiving the most extraordinary accounts of the fabulous wealth of Antler Creek. . . . Authentic intelligence has come of a company of four men, who were making regularly from 16 to 37 ounces a day—from 4 to 9%— ounces each.’ By fluming, another company of four men washed out with cradles 36 ounces of gold in one day. The Rev. Mr. Brown was present when 200l. was taken from the sluice- boxes as the result of one day’s work. In the summer of 1861, the aggregate yield of Antler was over 2,000l. per day. New hands raw at work (says the ‘Times’ Correspondent) took out gold to the value of 20l. per day. A Mr. Smith earned 63% oz. of gold per day (worth 185i. 6s.), his claim averaging 26 or 30 OZ. a day. . . . When the bed rock was laid bare it was found studded or paved with lumps of gold, and every shovelful contained a considerable amount; and in some cases to the value of 10l. The stuff required no washing, as the nug- gets or pellets of gold could be picked out by the hand. The rocker yielded 50 oz. of gold of a forenoon. . . . At a later period the creek yielded 100 to 130 oz. a day from small claims. . . . Since May [’60, including a period of a few months] two men have taken out 3,750l. with a rocker. From four companies which mined on Antler Creek, the return of three weeks’ operations is this :—-One company of three men, 16,660l. ; CARIBOO DISTRICT. 245 three others took out 7,500l.; five men 5,200l. ; and six men 5,000l. A company was formed last year, called ‘ Antler Bed- Bock Flume Company (Limited),’ for the purpose of applying to the bed of the creek the important process in- dicated in the designation they have adopted. The capital proposed to be raised is 12,000l., in 2,400 shares of 5l. each. The company have obtained from the Colonial Government a ten years’ lease of the bed of Antler Creek, 16% miles in length by 100 feet in width, to be worked by an hydraulic apparatus in connection with fluming. It is stated in the prospectus that much of the ground on the creek, in 1861, yielded at the rate of 200l. per square foot. The incipient character of mining operations in the country may be judged of when it is mentioned that heavy mechanical appliances were introduced last year for the first time. If a few creeks and bars yield returns so enormous, with the aid of the most primitive contri— vances in a country still comparatively unexplored, we surely have in this fact an unmistakeable earnest of the colossal fortunes yet to be made when larger capital is invested, the interior better known, and machinery more extensively in use. The Cariboo District—This famous region is studded with mountains closely packed together, of considerable altitude, and often presenting thickly-wooded slopes. Tremendous masses, tumbled and irregular in character, with summits from 6,000 to 7,000 feet above the level of the sea, form centres of radiation for subordinate ranges. Of these the most familiar to ‘ Caribooites ’ are Mounts Snowshoe, Burdett, and Agnes-the latter being commonly known as the ‘ Bald Mountain.’ Language fails to do justice to the impressive grandeur and sublimity of these 246 THE MINEs OF BRITISH COLUMBlA. spurs of the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps the image that conveys the most suitable idea of this singular formation is, that of a molten sea, lashed into gigantic billows, which, at the very height of the storm, had been suddenly petrified. This aggregation of mountains is drained by numerous streams, of every imaginable size, from tiny rivulets to large brooks, called in local parlance, ‘ creeks and gulches,’ which wind among cations and valleys, apparently to and from every point of the compass, discharging themselves at length in prominent tributaries of the Fraser. From the melting of winter snows and the frequent rains of summer, these streams are subject to an increase of volume, which is occasionally troublesome to the miners. Gold is found in greatest abundance close to the moun- tains, whence they take their rise. It is an additional testimony to the clairvoyant gift of that renowned geo- grapher Sir Roderick Murchison, who so marvellously predicted the discovery of gold in Australia, that several years before the existence of the precious metal was known in British Columbia, he hazarded the assertion that it would probably be found in large quantities in this very region of Cariboo. The richest sinkings hitherto explored are situated on the following creeks: Keighley’s, Goose, Cunningham’s, Lightning, Jack of Clubs, Grouse, Chisholm, Sovereign, Fountain, Harvey, Nelson, Steven’s, Snowshoe, Last Chance, Anderson California, Thistle; Sugar, Willow, McCallum, Tababoo, Conklin, Lowhee, Williams, &c. Up to the present, the last-named of these is acknowledged to. have been the most productive. It takes its rise near the Bald Mountain, and flowing swiftly through a deep valley, past the town of Richfield, unites with Willow River about six miles below the town, and thence wends ARTESIAN MINING COMPANY. 247 towards the Fraser. Shortly after the exploration of WVilliam’s Creek, a claim, owned by a person to whom I am indebted for the information, yielded in one day 1,300Z. The entire sum realised from a space of 80 feet square, was about 24,000Z. Three partners in a certain claim (two of whom are well known to me) netted 8,000Z. each, in a period of four or five months. Several part- ners in another claim (one of whom verified the statement to me personally) made 1,400Z. to their individual share. ‘ The Artesian Gold Mining Company(Limited),’ was organised last year, with capital stock amounting to $132,000, divided into 2,640 shares of $50 each. This company have obtained a charter with a lease of twenty years, of one half mile in length, by three eighths of a mile in breadth of mining ground, situated on this creek. The extent of ground leased is equivalent to 520 mining claims of 100 feet square. Their object is to prospect and explore the ground thoroughly with an artesian boring machine, so that an artesian shaft can be sunk to the bed rock in from four to six days—working two ‘ shifts’ it‘ per day. Under the most favourable circumstances, the ordinary time consumed in sinking a shaft with pick and shovel to the bed rock, at a depth of 40 or 60 feet, is from six weeks to two months. The cost of sinking thus, by manual labour, is from $3,000 to $10,000. The artesian shaft can be made for less than $500. The augur or worm at the end of the boring tool is so constructed as to bring up every time it is raised about a panful of dirt, by washing which the ground can be thoroughly examined for gold from top to bottom. The machine can be easily worked by three men. Water, which is the great obstruc— tion to be contended with in open shafts, is rather an ad- "“ Working time with a set of hands. xix“. .‘@41’;‘<-_-‘.~ . 248 THE MINEs OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. vantage in boring an artesian shaft. It is also the intention of the company to fit up a steam-engine of twenty or thirty horse power, for pumping water and lifting dirt at all seasons of the year. The name of my esteemed friend, Mr. J. P. Cranford, the secretary, is a sufficient guarantee for the thorough respectability of the enterprise, which I have no doubt will be followed by others of the same description. That a correct judgment may be formed of the probable value of the ground leased, and of the substantial basis on which the company rest their hopes of success, the following facts, in reference to the yield of claims on this creekfi“ have been carefully collected and published in their prospectus :— The Adams Company averaged over $50,000 to each 100 feet; the Steel claim gave $120,000 out of 80 feet; the Cun— ningham $270,000, chiefly out of 500 feet; the Burns gave $140,000 out of 80 feet; LOring Diller & Co. obtained $240,000, chiefly out of 50 feet; the Canadian obtained $180,000 out of 120 feet; the Never Sweat gave $100,000, chiefly out of 120 feet; the Moffat gave $90,000, chiefly out of 50 feet; the Tinker gave $120,000, chiefly out of 140 feet; the VVatty gave $130,000 out of 100 feet; besides the Black Jack Tunnel, Barker, Baldhead, Abbot, Grier, Griffin or Point Wilson, Beauregard, Raby, Cameron, Prince of Wales, and numbers of others of world-wide fame. But we cannot ascertain facts as to what they have yielded.1' In 1863, about 4,000 miners were engaged on this creek, scattered over a space of seven miles; and though the majority of the claims taken up had not then been opened, many paid returns that in any other gold producing * The gold in William’s Creek gives in fineness, ‘830. 1- A relative Of Mr. Cameron whose claim is mentioned in this list assured me, when in Canada a few months since, that this gentleman had returned to his native colony from Cariboo with not less than $240,000. LOWHEE CREEK. 249 country would be considered remunerative. Forty at least yielded handsomely, and from about twenty was taken out steadily, every twenty-four hours, from 70 to 400 oz. In one instance—exceptional, of course—103 lbs. of gold was extracted in a single day; and I conversed with a partner of that company who brought down to, Victoria, as his individual portion, 15,000z. Between October 1862, and January 1863, 60,000l. was taken out of three claims, previously unprospected. A lad, so far reduced as to accept a situation in Victoria, from which he hardly received remuneration enough to pro- cure the necessaries of life, repaired to the mines in 1863, and in a few months returned with 2,000l. Lowhee Creek promises to equal, if not surpass Wil- liam’s in richness. Several companies on that stream have reached the bed-rock, where gold is deposited in fabulous - quantities. For a considerable time the claim of Sage Miller yielded between 300 oz. and 400 oz. per day, and after hav- ing been worked nearly two full seasons, we learn by late intelligence that it still gives 80 oz. a day. The Chittenden claim, only recently opened, averages about the same amount. A letter, dated from Cariboo, in June 1864, states that Dr. Foster, a partner in the Plumbago Company, went down one day, after the water had been shutoff, and picked up in his claim $400. The Ericsson claim, on Conklin gulch, June 3, 1864, yielded 420 oz., and next day one thousand oz. The steamer ‘ Enterprise ’ arrived at Victoria, from New West- minster, August 10, 1864, with over twelve hundred pounds weight of gold. Mr. O’Beilly, gold commissioner, writing to the Govern- . ment in June last, from Itichfield, says :-‘ l have much pleasure . in reporting that a company known as f‘ the Butcher,” on Lightning, being a hill claim, situated above ‘250 THE MINEs or BRITISH CoLUMBIA. the town of Van Winkle,which yielded largely last year, but soon after. lost the lead, and since then has laboured hard, spent alarge sum of money in prospecting, has again been rewarded by avery rich strike, 3’ 5,300 having been taken out in the past three days; one nugget of solid gold being the largest yet obtained in the Cariboo district, weighing 30-116- oz.’ - A copy of the ‘ Victoria Chronicle,’ of Nov. 1864, says : -—‘ The Aurora Company, on the 20th ult., took out 800 oz., and on the 24th, 618 oz. of gold. The Mofi’at was paying about $1,000 to the share per week.‘ The Saw-mill boys struck a good prospect on Saturday, and adjourned to champagne and coffee. The prospebt was $10 to the pan; next day they took out $20 to four buckets.’ Great returns are also looked for next year from Cunningham’s Creek, which last autumn attracted special attention. Instances of even remarkable success are much too numerous to be all recited here. On the other hand, let it not be supposed that those which have been specified are intended to give the impression that prizes are the rule, and blanks fall to the lot of none. It is not reasonable to expect that in an occupation to which skill can be applied to so limited an extent, the majority can escape disap- pointment. The ancient beds of creeks which contain auriferous deposits are generally of a tortuous character, and overgrown with underwood and pine. The ‘ striking’ of the gold lead, while not entirely, is in a considerable degree, therefore, attributable to luck. The ground in the vicinity of a creek being saturated with water, the shafts which are sunk from 35 to 70 feet, are liable to incursions of water, so rapid as frequently to battle incessant pumping to master it. Many claims, unquestionably rich, have been abandoned by the miners PROSPECTS OF CARIBOO. 251 from this cause, and it operated not a little, in 1864, to hinder the effective development of others. But this diffi- culty will henceforth be overcome in Cariboo, by the agency of steam-pumps and bed—rock drains. It is plain that placer-mining in a country, only lasting for some ten or twelve years,‘ cannot afford per— manent employment to immigrants. It is quartz-crush- ing that must eventually form the principal source of mining income in this colony, as it now does in California. Gold-bearing quartz has already been discovered. One of the ‘leads’ is formed on Keithley’s Creek, and is said to contain $10 worth of gold to the lb. of quartz. In the vein, which is 18 inches thick, there is a large percentage of silver and some galena. If, as I believe to be the case, the mountains of Cariboo are but an extension of the Sierra of California, there is no reason to doubt that the quartz formation of the former, when it receives that amount of attention from British capitalists which is com- mensurate with its importance, will become astonishingly productive. There will then be no longer cause for com- plaint of the shortness of the working season in Cariboo, for quartz mining and tunnelling can be carried on all the year round. Nuggets mixed with quartz have been found at Lowhee, weighing 16 oz. I repeat that to organ- ise the apparatus requisite for conducting quartz—crushing operations, associated capital is indispensable; and it may be confidently asserted that no country on the globe at the present moment offers such magnificent induce- ments in this respect, to men of energy and means, as British Columbia does. Not a tithe of the Cariboo region isyet explored, and this area of country embraces, never- theless, but an insignificant section of the gold-bearing streams that head towards the Rock Mountains from Peace River in the north to Rock Creek, on the confines 252 TIIE MINEs OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. of Washington Territory. I have no hesitation in saying that, in three years from now, the advance in the yield of gold in proportion to the population will be beyond con- ception. Advices from Cariboo to November 1, 1864, inform us that the weather continued delightful—sunshiny and warm--more like May than November weather. Markets quite overstocked. Flour selling at 32c. to 350. per lb. bacon, 500. to 75c. per 1b.; butter, 81 25c. per 1b.; coffee, $1 per 1b.; beef, 400. per 1b.; mutton, 40c. to 45c. per'lb.; rice 45c. to 500. per 1b.; beans, 30c. to 400. per 1b.; sugar, 500. to_62%c. per 1b.; tea, $1 to $1 25c. per 1b.; syrup, 65c. per 1b.; potatoes, 20c. to 250. per lb. ; turnips, 10c. to 200. per 1b.; cabbage, 350. per 1b.; onions, 50c. per 1b.; nails, 50c. to 6212-0. per lb. Clothing, a shade above New Westminster prices; cordwood, $12 per cord; sawn lumber, 10c. to 12%c. per foot; stakes, $5 per hundred. Miners’ wages, $10 per day of ten hours. The population in William’s Creek was about 1,500 ; about 700 or 800 of whom would probably winter there. There was very little sickness on the creek. The Shuswap Diggings, east of Lytton, about 150 miles, are likely, when better known, to become the centre of an important settlement. The Kootanie Diggings.—The district so named lies close to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and also to the United States boundary. Rumours have been in circulation as to the existence of gold in that section of the country for two years, but it was only in 1864 that the ground was thoroughly tested, and the discovery will probably turn out to be the most important yet made in British Columbia. These mines have the peculiar advantage of being in alti- KOOTANIE MINES. 253 tude much lower, and in latitude much more southerly, than those of Cariboo, and thus are more conveniently situated for being worked during the greater part of the year. They are, besides, more easy of access for migra- tions of those who are dissatisfied from time to time with the mines of Boise and Idaho. As the mines of Kootanie (or as it is often spelt Koota- nais) are destined ere long to become as familiar to the English public as were those of Cariboo a few years since, I am happy in being able to place before the reader two official documents, both of recent dates, which will convey a more trustworthy notion of this auriferous region than could be afforded by any private communication. The first of these documents is a despatch from Mr. Haynes, gold commissioner for the district, to the Government. It is dated Kootanais, Wild Horse Creek, August 30, 1864 :- To the Colonial Secretary. SIR,——I have the honour to submit for the information of His Excellency the Governor the subjoined facts relative to the mines in this district. There are about one thousand men here, including miners, shopkeepers, and labourers. The mines as far as discovered on this creek extend for about four miles and a half, and are divided into five hundred claims of 100 feet each, including creek and bar. The following list shows the amounts taken daily from ten of the best claims on the stream : -—-- Co.—Six men employed. Yield per day, $400-—~ during Week ending 3rd September, 134 oz. ———- Co.—Twelve men working. Yield per day, $200-— during week ending 3rd September, 158 oz. Co.—Thirteen men employed. Yield per day $474-— during week ending 3rd September, 158 oz. ——-— Co.—Fourteen men employed. Yield per day, $429-— during week ending 3rd September, 143 oz. Amount of gold 254 THE MINEs or BRITIsH CoLUMBIA. taken from this claim during the month of August last 719% oz., or $12,948, at the value of gold here. ——-— Co.——Twelve men employed. Yield per day, $1,044— four days’ sluicing, $4,176. -——- Co.-Nine men employed. Yield per day, $108—during the week ending 3rd September, 36 oz. -——- & Co.-—Fifteen men employed. Yield per day, $600— during week ending 3rd September, $3,600, or 200 oz. Co.-—Seventeen men employed. Yield per day, $720— during week ending 3rd September, $4,320, or 240 oz. ——-—- Co.—-Twelve men employed—Amount taken out per day, $200—during week ending 3rd September, $1,200, or 66-;- oz. Co.-—-Four men employed, rocking. Yield per day ,6‘ 133 —-during week ending 3rd September, $7 98, or 44% oz. Ordinary claims here pay from $20 to $30 a day to the hand. A large ditch is now being made here by Messrs. & Co., at an altitude to command the hill on which this town stands, and which prospects well. When this work shall be completed a much greater number of claims can be opened than at present, as there is a great lack of water. A nugget weighing 37 ounces was found in the claim of —-—~ & Co., on the 2nd inst. This is a beautiful specimen of pure gold, and, I believe, the largest found north of the parallel. Several pieces of gold, weighing from one to nine ounces, have also been picked up here. Labourers are paid at the rate of seven dollars a day. There are about fifteen men living on Finlay’s Creek, distant fifty miles from this, but owing to the frequent freshets to which that stream is subject, nothing worth mentioning in the way of mining has been done up to the present time. No mines in addition to the above-mentioned have as yet been discovered in this district. The Indians in this part of the country are harmless and Well disposed. I made it my duty to meet the chief of this tribe—-- Michael— and his principal retainers here a few days after my arrival, and explained to them that His Excellency the Governor would protect the interests of the red men as well as the white; MR. BmcH’s REPORT. 255 and further, that His Excellency would expect them to act in a right and proper manner. After treating them to a good din- ner and making them a few presents, they left well pleased. A great deal of prospecting is being done here in the way of tunnelling, sinking shafts, and otherwise, so that I have before the close of the season to have the honour of reporting fresh discoveries. I have, &0., JOHN C. HAYNES. List of prices of provisions at Wild Horse Creek, District of Kootanais: flour 400.; bacon, $1; beans, 500.; sugar, 700.; coffee, $1 ; tea, $2 25 ; beef, 300. ; dried apples, 600.; butter, $1 50; lard, 800.; tobacco, $2 50; candles, 750. From the British Coliimbia ‘ Government Gazette ,’ “*- -L\J-L.L.L v1.1. .LLLL-LJ-MJ. 1.1.1. \J\ VY obtain the following report of the late official trip to the Kootenay country by Mr. Colonial Secretary Birch :— Colonial Secretary’s Office, New Westminster, October 31, 1864. SIR,—-—I have the honour to report to you my return from visiting. the Kootenay District. I much regret that my absence has been prolonged beyond the time I had anticipated, in con- sequence of the far greater distance of the mining portion of that district from the town of Hope than I had been led to expect from the reports that had reached New Westminster before my departure. Leaving Hope on 2nd September, in company with Mr. Bushby and Mr. Evans, we crossed the Cascade range to Prince- ton, a distance of 75 miles, in three days, and following the beautiful valley of the Similkameen, we reached the custom— house at Csoyoos on the 8th of September. From Osoyoos we proceeded by way of Rock Creek, where we found several Chinamen and five white men employed in mining“ on the lower portion of the stream. The latter were taking out from 6 to 8 dollars a day to the hand, and, from information I- was enabled to gather on the spot, it only requires an influx of miners to develope the resources of this once famous creek. After leaving this we followed the N-whoy-alpit-kwu, or Kettle. 256 THE MINES OF BRITIsII COLUMBIA. River, as far as Boundary Creek, where we left the Old Colville trail and proceeded by the new Hudson’s Bay Company’s trail, which continues through British territory, and after some 15 miles struck the Old trail again on the Grande Prairie. With the exception of a very few miles the entire route from Rock Creek lies through a fine rolling prairie country, thinly wooded and abounding in bunch grass. The Grande Prairie is a magnificent level plateau of some 15 miles in length by 8 in breadth, admirably adapted for grazing and agriculture; it is almost encircled by the Kettle River, the banks of which for some distance on either side consist of adeep rich soil. My intention was to have continued on the new trail to Fort Shepherd without passing into American territory, but on learn- ing from the Indians whom we met on the Grande Prairie that the trail from Fort Shepherd to the Kootenay Lake was extremely rough and bad for horses, I deemed it prudent to proceed to Fort Shepherd by way of Colville, where I was enabled to have some of the horses, which had become foot-sore, properly shod at the United States barracks, through the kindness of the officer in command of the garrison. After a delay of two days at Colville, we started for Fort Shep- herd, a newly erected trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company, situated in a wild and barren spot, some 2 miles northward of the Boundary Line, and 40 miles from Colville. Here we had to swim the horses in a very rapid part of the Columbia a short distance above the Pend d’Oreille River. I find that the trail from this point to the Kootenay Valley, which passes Over a densely wooded mountain, a distance of some 20 miles, was opened out in the early spring by the merchants of Colville, but what additions or improvements have since been made by the employés of the Hudson’s Bay Company, I am at a loss to conceive. NO attempt has been made to grade the steep inclines in any way and it seems to have been the ambition of the road party to carry the trail through as many swamps as possible, taking the trail over some high bluff only to return again to the swamps beneath. MR. BIRoH’s REPORT. 257 The best evidence I can give of the utter uselessness of the Work done under the auspices of the Hudson’s Bay Company, is in the disaster which has happened to one of the Company’s own pack-trains, which started to cross this portion of the trail at the same time as myself, under the charge of Mr. Linklater; this train was 14 days in reaching the Kootenay Valley, and lost six horses, one of which disappeared with its entire pack of 250 lbs of flour. As the trail‘ at present exists it would be impossible for packers to pass through this portion without carrying food for their animals. There is good feed about 12 miles from Fort Shepherd, and again at the summit of the mountains, which form the divide between the valleys of the Columbia and Kootenay rivers. The distance from the first feed to the summit is 34 miles, and again, from the summit to the Kootenay some 36 miles must be passed over without finding sufficient grass for more than one pack-train. We struck the Kootenay River about 4 miles from the upper end of the great Kootenay or Flatbow Lake. This portion of the valley is quite level and composed of rich alluvial soil, and much resembles that of Pitt River at this season, abounding as it does in swamp grass and rank vegetation ; it is evidently one continuous lake during the earlier period of the year. The river itself is broad, steep, and sluggish. The Kootenay Indians are by far the finest specimens of the . race that I have yet seen, and are among the-I fear—few tribes remaining that have not been demoralised by contamination with the white man. I believe, with few exceptions, they have become converts to Christianity, and it was a pleasing sight to see the chief of the tribe, who accompanied me on my road for some days, kneel down before each repast and thank God for his daily bread. They appeared much pleased with a few presents which I made them of needles, fish-hooks and tobacco, and during the time that we were within the district of the eastern tribe we were generally followed bya large cavalcade. A large num- her were encamped in the valley at their fishing grounds; they were very friendly, and rendered us every assistance in helping to swim our horses and cross our baggage over the Kootenay S 258 TIIE MINEs OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. River; this we accomplished with safety, nearly parallel with the Boundary Line, having travelled some 20 miles up the valley after leaving the newly-made trail. On leaving the river we were obliged to diverge some ‘10 miles into American territory, when we joined the Lewiston and Walla Walla trail, which follows up the Mooyie River to the lakes, from which the river takes its rise, through a thickly timbered and somewhat mountainous country, where we found it very difiicult to find food for our horses. From these lakes to the mines, a distance of about 40 miles, the country again opens out, and nothing can exceed the grandeur of the scenery as we now approached the Rocky Mountains. We arrived at the mines on the 26th day from Hope, and I cannot estimate the distance travelled over in this period at less than 190 miles, though in this it should be remembered that I include the detour of 30 miles which I made by way of Colville. - I found about 700 men resident at the mines, and I was in- formed that at least 300 were out prospecting in the neighbour- hood; but although numerous reports of new and extensive discoveries reached the creek daily during my stay, I could obtain no information sufliciently authentic to place any credence in them. I ' The mining is therefore at present entirely confined to one creek, called by the miners ‘ Wild Horse Creek,’ which takes its , rise within the confines of the Rocky Mountains, and flows into the Kootenay River, northward of the 50th parallel of latitude. The creek is at present worked for about 4 miles, commencing some 2 miles from its junction with the Kootenay. I visited most of the claims, and found them all paying well, and, with few exceptions, the entire community appeared well satisfied with the laws to which they were subject. - At the time of my arrival, 50 sluice companies were at work, employing from 5 to 25 men, and taking out from $300 to $1,000 per diem. - - One hundred rockers were averaging from 2 oz. to 6 oz. per diem. MR. Bincn’s REPORT.‘ 259 Eight companies have commenced running tunnels into the _ side of the hill, but the Gold Hill Company was the only one sufficiently advanced to become remunerative ; this company was taking out nearly an ounce to the hand per diem. Four shafts were being sunk in the bed of the creek, but at my departure no satisfactory results had been obtained, although all parties interested seemed confident of success. Seventy men were employed in constructing a large upper ditch, some 5 miles in length, which it was expected would be completed early in the present month, when more than 100 hill claims, which were lying over for want of water, would com- mence work. The few hill claims at present working are found to be richer than the bed of the creek, the opening of the ditch is therefore looked forward to with much interest. Labourers were receiving $7 a day, and the price of provisions enabled them to live well for $1.50 per diem. - A town of no inconsiderable size has already sprung up upon the creek. Four restaurants are established _: the rate of charges for regular boarders average $14 to $18 per week. Numerous substantial stores have been erected. A large brewery had also been established and had commenced working. Great uncertainty prevails as to the period at which the winter fairly sets in, but it was expected that the severe frosts would not commence before N ovember, and it was therefore the inten- tion of Mr. Haynes to allow all claims to lie over from the 1st November to 1st of May. From the number of log huts in the course of construction, it is estimated that from 300 to 400 persons‘ will winter at the mines. The gold taken from these mines is considered by the traders to equal the best Californian gold. The price'at which it passes current on the creek is $18 the ounce, and packers going down are glad to purchase at that price. I was very anxious to obtain some approximate return of the amount of gold taken from the creek during the season, but I found it impossible to do so. Careful accounts are kept by the miners of the receipts and disbursements for the week, but as each Sunday comes round the division of profits is made, or s 2 260 THE MINEs 0F BRITIsH COLUMBIA. more properly speaking, there is a general square up, after which all accounts to that date are destroyed. The camp is well supplied with all the necessaries of life. I enclose a list of prices of the chief articles. . It is confidently expected by the traders that there will be a rush of from 10,000 to 15,000‘ miners from the Boise country in the spring, and large supplies are still being sent in to the mines. On our return we met 10 or 12 heavily laden pack trains daily. The entire supplies are at present packed up from Lewiston, Walla Walla, Wallula, and Umatilla Landing, in Washington Territory and the State of Oregon. The cattle came direct from Salt Lake City, and are some of the finest I have ever seen. ' _ , The distances from these places are as fellows :— Wild Horse Creek to Lewiston . 342 miles. Do. do. to Walla Walla . 408 do. Do. do. ' to Wallula . . 438 do. Do. do. to Umatilla Landing 453 do. The present charges for packing from these places ranges from 200 to 240 per 1b. A trail through British territory, either by way of the Shuswap or Grande Prairie, cannot I think exceed 400 miles. The mer- chants of this colony need therefore have little fear of being able to compete with the American merchants, when it is remembered to what an enormously high tariff American goods are now subject. - - Mr. Haynes had collected a large amount of revenue, con- sidering the short time that he had been resident, in the district. I found his treasury to consist of an old portmanteau, which he zealously guarded by night and day, in the log hut in which he is at present living. At the urgent request of Mr. Haynes, I relieved him of a port-ion of his responsibility, by taking Over some 75lbs. weight of gold. This I brought down with me, and have safely deposited in the hands of the Treasurer. It is an interesting incident for Mr. Evans, Mr. Bushby, and myself to remember that we were the first MR. BiRcn’s REPORT. 261 gold escort direct from the Rocky Mountains to the seaboard of the colony. We left the mines on October 1, and I much regretted that time would not allow of my returning by some other route than the one I had already travelled over, as I feel very confident that for many reasons it is not the one to be adopted by the Government. Since my return to New Westminster I learn that a surveying party has already started, by way of Kamloops and the Shuswap Lake. They will doubtless follow the Indian trail, and strike the Columbia near the Arrow Lakes; but before any decision is arrived at in the matter, I am very anxious that the portion of the country lying between the Grande Prairie and the junctions of the Kootenay and Columbia Itivers should be explored. I am told by Mr. A. McDonald, who is resident at the Hudson Bay Company’s Fort at Colville, and who is well known as an experienced hunter, that, striking nearly due north from the Grand Prairie, there is a low divide, the commencement of which we could plainly distinguish, by which you are enabled to reach the Columbia with great ease, nearly opposite to the Kootenay River. The entire country from Princeton to the Grande Prairie, a distance of some 160 miles, is almost free from timber ; abounds in food for cattle; the trail throughout is excellent, and with the exception of a small distance on the Similkameen, no expenditure would be required in improving it, and indeed little would be required in making the same into a Waggon road. The exploration of the short distance I have referred to might easily be accomplished during the winter months, and if found feasible might be opened out in a very short time. I would therefore suggest for your consideration, that Mr. Haynes be at once empowered to expend a small sum on this work. I have little of sufficient interest to report relative to our return journey, which would excuse me for continuing this already lengthy report; we arrived at Hope in 24 days from Wild Horse Creek, having experienced most lovely weather; we had only to record two wet days throughout the whole period of 262 TIIE MINEs or B'RITIsH COLUMBIA. our absence, and nothing can exceed the charms of this climate for Camp life. We found game abundant over the whole trail, and were enabled without difficulty or delay to keep the camp well sup— plied, though I must own that on occasions we had descended so low in the game list as to eat porcupine with a relish. I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my sense of the admirable manner in which Mr. Haynes has carried out his duties under most difficult circumstances; arriving as he did with only one constable to assist him, among a body of 1,500 miners from the adjoining territories, many of whom were known to be utterly regardless of law and order ; he found them banded together, making their own laws and meting out their Ownideas of justice; each man, as many have owned to me, carrying his life in his hands. In fact, so insecure had life and property become in the eyes of many of the miners that Mr, Dore, one of the original discoverers of the creek, and a few others, had formed themselves into a committee, and drawn up a code of laws, which they intended enforcing on the community had not a Government oflicer arrived at the moment. Copies of these laws were handed to me by Mr. Dore, and I enclose them as interesting documents. 'I would add that the gentlemen forming this committee have cheerfully rendered Mr. Haynes every assistance in their power in maintaining law and order. I arrived, within six weeks of Mr. Haynes’ residence in the district, to find the mining laws of the colony in full force, all Customs duties paid, no pistols to be seen, and everything as quiet and orderly as it could possibly be in the most civilized district of the colony, much to the surprise and admiration of many who remember the early days of the neighbouring State of California. I have the honour to be, sir, Your most obedient servant, ARTHUR N. BIRCII. His Excellency Frederick Seymour. Jlij/yings north-west Qf the Fraser.-—-Sufficient prospec- tingihas been attempted to prove the existence of the MINING LAWS. 263 precious metal in that section of the country. Bridge River, Lilloet, Last Chance, Bella Coola, Skccna, and N ass, have furnished indications of being eminently auriferous. Of the Stickeen River, which has its source in the same mountains with Peace River, it is confidently affirmed, by many who have visited that locality, that good wages can now be earned on some of its bars, and that in future years it is certain to become a centre of mining industry. WVhen the matrix, whence issue the granular particles found on the banks of the Stickeen, is reached, the disclosure of a second Cariboo will reward the toil and patience of explorers. Little effort has been made as yet to discover minerals and the baser metals in British Columbia. I have seen a large piece of pure copper from Stickeen. Indications have also been found of plumbago, lead, iron, platinum, and tin, and the country is believed to abound in coal and limestone. The mining laws of the colony are given in eatenso in the Appendix. Only the points most interesting to intend- ing emigrants are here submitted. The governor is empowered to appoint gold commis- sioners who, within certain districts,may issue ‘ free miners’ certificates,’ authorising the holder to mine upon crown lands, and may register claims (or allotments of auriferous land to individual miners). The sum of 16. is charged for a certificate, which must be countersigned by the miner, and is not transferable. 8s. 4d. has also to be paid for the registration of the claim. Certificate and registration are valid for one year. The gold commissioner is possessed of the authority of a justice of the peace, with power to try all the disputes of miners. He is appointed judge of law and fact, subject to appeal to the Supreme Court of the colony, when in civil cases the value of the matter in litigation exceeds 264 THE MINES or BRITISH COLUMBIA. 20L, or when in criminal jurisdiction the fine exceeds that sum, or the imprisonment exceeds 30 days. The governor may lease auriferous lands on conditions specified in the several proclamations affecting mining interests. Mining boards are permitted to be established in any districts where deemed necessary by a given number of miners, to make by-laws respecting the size of claims, sluices, and things connected with mining generally. The size of registered claims, which are usually in dry, bar, bench, or ravine diggings, is 100 feet square; in quartz claims 150 feet along the vein. Discoverers receive special advantage in the allotment of claims, according to their number. Provision is made for letting exclusive water privilege, for which a rent is paid to the Government. For a clear and useful digest of mining laws, with all requisite explanations, the work of Mr. Park, barrister, published in Victoria, Vancouver Island, should be consulted. Nata—The following extract is from an interesting letter addressed to me by a representative of one of the largest mining concerns in British Columbia. The date of the communication is 6th of December 1864, and its value consists in the exact and candid account it gives of the condition of the gold mining interest at Cariboo during last season :— I concentrated all the men on our main claim on Creek in order, if possible, with the available means at command, to go down with our shaft this season. I had to rebuild our wheel which was smashed at the beginning of last Winter by the severe frost, sink a new shaft much larger than the former one, and superior in every point of view to any in the colony. We had every confidence as to success ; but the wooden pumps were our difficulty. I am now fully convinced, after the experience I NoTE 0N cARIBoo. 265 have had, that no company of men, however skilful, will ever reach the bottom of our deep diggings here without the aid of powerful iron pumps and fixings, if not steam power, which eventually must be got, as we have not surface Water enough, where it is wanted, to work them efficiently. In the meadows, so called, on Williams’ Creek, where so much was expected, and where operations have been going on on a very extended scale for the distance of about 3 miles, in every instance the mines have failed for want of adequate machinery and pumps. This will appear the more provoking when I say that we do not require greater power in any of the claims than is found in ordinary mines in the old country. The Waggon road is now complete to Cot- tonwood; 15 or 16 miles more will bring it to the bottom of Williams’ Creek. Then machinery can be taken up the whole distance. We have lost the whole season in fighting with our difficulties, having inadequate means to cope with them. In reality, they are not difficulties, had we the necessary appliances at hand to overcome them. Still, with all the disappointments, and they have been many this year, more gold was sent down from Cariboo than in any preoio us year. CHAPTER X. PROCESS OF MINING. Essentials for carrying on Mining Operations successfully—The Art ot ‘Prospecting’-—The Use of the Rocker—Sluicing-—Hydraulic Mining— Water Companies—The ‘ Flutter-wheel ’-—Turning a River out of its Bed—‘ Ground Sluicing ’—'—Tunnelling—Quartz Mining—The Rastra— Crushing Quartz by Steam Power—J Quartz, the Mother of Gold.’ To the intending emigrant unversed in the art of extracting gold, a general description of the methods employed for this purpose may not be uninteresting. It is hardly necessary to remark that this metal derives its value from its comparative rareness and the difficulties encountered in procuring it. Any one, therefore, imagining that—the scene of operations reached—he can pick up the object of his search withoutkobstruction or delay, had better, while under that delusion, make up his mind to remain at home. Should he refuse warning and persist in indulging utopian expectations, his folly will be visited with vexatious consequences. Three great essentials in effectually carrying on mining operations are water, wood, and quicksilver. In some parts of California the want of the first of these materials offers a serious hindrance to the labour of the miner, which can only be compensated by elaborate and costly appliances. It sometimes happens in that State that even where steam quartz mills are at work, any small volume of water required to supply them must be conveyed in fiumes a distance of forty miles, and in some instances more than double that distance. In New Zealand wood ‘ rRosPEcrixe.‘ 267 is felt to be the great desi/ler/ztam. The ore of quicksilver, which is usually found to exist in gold-producing countries, has been discovered in British Columbia, though the utilisation of it has hitherto been neglected; conse- quently the colony is dependent for supplies of quicksilver on California. WVater and wood, however, British Columbia contains in abundance, and the mountainous PROSPI‘CTOR\ AT ‘WORK character of the country enables the minor to divert to his purpose torrents, the economic power of which would otherwise be much less valuable in his operations. The metallic sand in which gold is found is primarily sought, and the peculiar quality of earth that contains the amalgam is technically called the ‘ colour.’ \Vhile engaged in the pursuit of this indication of the presence of gold, the miner is ‘prospecting.’ The requisites for this task are a ‘ pan’ and some quicksilver. \Vhen the miner 268 PROCESS OF MINING. comes to a spot on the bank of a river which he supposes to be auriferous, he proceeds to test the value of the ‘ dirt ’ in the following manner. Having filled the pan with earth, he gently dips it in the stream, and by the assistance of a rotatory motion which he gives to its contents, loosened by the introduction of water, the black sand with’ pebbles is precipitated to the bottom. The lighter earth is allowed to pass over the edge of the pan or basin. After all has been removed except the sand and any specks of gold that may be in combination with it, the pan is placed by a fire or in the sun to dry. The lighter particles of sand are blown away, and if the gold be very fine it is amalgamated with quicksilver. By thus ascertaining the value of the remaining particles of gold dust, skilful ‘prospectors’ conclude whether the ground would pay to work. In this rough method of searching for gold the superior specific gravity of that metal over every other, except platinum, is the basis of operations—auriferous particles, on this principle, settling at the bottom. The readiest and most primitive contrivance for wash- ing gold is the ‘ rocker,’ which is still used by China- men, and a few white men, on the banks of the Fraser. The rocker is constructed like a child’s cradle, with rockers underneath. This box is 3% to 4 feet long, about 2 feet wide and 1% feet deep. The upper part and one end are open, and the sides gradually slope toward the bottom. At the head is a section closely jointed with a sheet-iron bottom, perforated so as to admit of small stones passing through. Along the bottom of the rocker riffies * or cleets are arranged to arrest the gold. This apparatus placed on the margin of the river, the upper iron box is fed by one miner with earth, and by another is * These are strips of wood or metal arranged after the manner of a Venetian blind. ' ‘ Rockne.’ 269 rocked and supplied with water. The gold and pebbles passing down to the bottom, the water carries away the latter, and the riflles detain the former. In case the gold is very fine, part of a blanket is often laid along the under box, covered with quicksilver to attract the gold dust. By this simple agency from ll. to 10l. per day and upwards to the hand has been realised. In an ordinary sluice 40 or 50 lbs. of quicksilver is employed daily, and in a \VORKING \YITII THE ROCKER. rocker from 8 to 10 lbs. But after the gold has been retorted from it, the same quicksilver may be applied several times over. The next method to be described, and the one most prevailing on the Pacific, is Sluicing. This is a process of mining that can be conducted on any scale and in connection with the labour of an indefinite number of men. It is almost invariably found in con- junction with a system of ‘ flumes’ or wooden aqueducts 270 PROCEss OF MINING. of various extent, running parallel with the claims on a creek or river. It is necessary, in separating the earth from the gold which is mixed with it, that each‘ sluice should be supplied with a fall of water, and if the stream contiguous to the mine run on too low a level to supply this want, miners, as has been already stated, are often compelled to go considerable distances in quest of water sufficiently elevated to afford the obj ect desired. Flumes are thus brought into requisition, and by openings made in that side of them opposite the mine, water is admitted to the sluice, which is placed at such an angle that the water may have force enough to carry off the earth, while leaving the gold behind. Sluice-boxes are of various sizes, and are fitted closely together so as to form a strongly built and extended trough. The fall of the water in the sluice-box is adjusted to allow suflicient time for the riffles and quicksilver to arrest the gold as it passes, and the supply from the flume is regulated by a slide in the opening on the side of it. The bottom of each sluice is usually intersected with strips of wood, and in the interstices of this grating quicksilver is spread to intercept the fine gold in its descent, nuggets and grains of coarse gold being caught by the grating itself. The sluice is supported on trussels so as to raise or lower it to the level convenient for shoveling in the earth. Several miners introduce ‘ dirt’ on either side, and others assist in loosening the heap and removing large stones, so that the gold may be easily precipitated. Hydraulic mining is entitled to some consideration. Bars that pay but a small return to the hand on the ordinary principle of working, will yield handsomely when operated upon by the hydraulic method. Insepa- rably connected with this is a system of fiumes or sluice- HYDRAL' L10 MINING. 27 1 boxes, generally 14 inches in length by about 3 feet in width. These are fastened together at the ends, and form a long and strongly built trough, extended as far as may be necessary—sometimes thousands of feet. It is lined with thick wooden blocks, partly to resist the friction occasioned by the passage of the debris, and also to allow room for quicksilver in the interstices for attracting and HYDRAULIC MINING. detaining the gold. Sometimes the quicksilver is placed in rifiies, fixed transversely upon each other._ This massive and continuous line of boxes is constructed near the bank about to be attacked. It is obvious that to bring down millions of tons of earth with the ordinary appliances of manual labour would be a tedious and profitless task. Another flume is therefore prepared for the purpose of bringing water from a level so much higher 272 PROCESS or MINING. than the side of the hill to be reduced as to secure for the stream thus diverted a force powerful enough to do execu- tion upon the masses of earth that are to be washed down. Attached to this latter fiume is a common hose, consisting of a double ply of canvas or gutta percha. Through the iron mouth of the hose, the volume of water, conducted in the manner described from a convenient elevation, is directed against the bank, as when the et of the fireman plays upon a burning house. The skilful operator aims at eating into the lower strata of the hill a considerable way till the upper portion can no longer be supported. A signal is given as the moment of the threatened crash approaches that miners in dangerous proximity may betake themselves to a safe distance. After the huge masses of earth have fallen, the men return and shovel it into the sluice-boxes through which a volume of water passes that removes the dirt and precipitates the gold into the rifiles. The expense attending this ingenious arrange- ment is often enormous in consequence of the long way water may have to be conveyed. Unproductive ground, too, may be fixed upon for bed-rock fluming. But when mining parties are so fortunate as to select the proper spot, the operation can hardly fail to be remunerative. One or two of these ‘ water-batteries ’ brought to bear upon a hill side can effect more than could be done by 100 men with picks and shovels. Many localities in California are completely metamorphosed by this hydraulic process. An interest intimately associated with the chief methods of mining that have been delineated, and one essential to their success, is that of the waterworks companies. It has been shown that alluvial diggings often exist adjacent to streams whose level is too low to be of the least service in supplying water for mining purposes. To obtain an artificial supply of water in that exigency, these enter- WATER coMPANIEs. 273 prising corporations undertake difficult and extensive works by which mountain streams are diverted from their channels through canals and ditches, following sinuosities of the hills, and where, if necessary, a grade is obtained to assist the fall of water by means of fiumes. When these have to be formed across valleys at certain eleva- tions, they are propped by stout tressel-work. Water is furnished to the mining companies along the course of the trunk aqueduct by lateral branches, which tap this main artery, and water thus admitted into the branch fiumes for the accommodation of separate mines is sold by the inch. This measurement is adjusted by a slide in the aperture communicating with the main aqueduct, of a fixed breadth—the height being bargained for. These ‘ditch ’ projects often prove a source of great emolument to the shareholders. In sinking a deep shaft, the earth that is removed is hoisted up in buckets, and to abridge and expedite the labour connected with this process, an overshot-wheel is erected near the top of the shaft, which is driven by the water passing through the branch fiume. The dirt is emptied into a box, the interior of which resembles that of a rocker, and includes the apparatus of riffles, quicksilver, &c. This receptacle is known, in miners’ phrase, as the ‘ dump-box,’ for here the earth is loosened by dumping. A subsidiary flume expressly leads water into this box, and, as in rocking, by this action of the passing current the light earthy matter is carried off, the gold precipitated, and the stones left behind, which are easily separated. To supersede the necessity, where it is possible to do so, of bringing water from a distance to work a rich mine, which is considerably elevated above the level of the river on whose banks it is found, a variety of ingenious inventions have been resorted to. The most common of T 274 PROCESS OF MINING. these is the ‘flutter-wheel,’ which, in California, is erected in every conceivable manner, and meets the eye of the traveller in all directions. Its diameter is sometimes 30 feet, and it is furnished with buckets, so prepared as to catch the water of the river, a considerable quantity of which is retained in their upward revolution. At the point where it flows from the buckets, there is a trough standing to receive it, and through ‘this it passes into the sluice-box where mining operations are carried on. Among the fearless plans sometimes adopted for exa- mining the holes and corners of an auriferous region, one of the most noteworthy is that by which a river is turned out of its bed. In bed—rock fluming the stream is col- lected into the narrow wooden duct that is placed in the middle of its natural channel. When a river is said to be ‘jammed,’ a high barrier is constructed from one side across. A small space is left between the termination of this dyke and the opposite side of the channel, for the water to escape. To preserve that part of the channel, from which the water has been diverted, dry, another barrier is formed at right-angles with the first, running parallel with that side of the river-bed through which the stream flows. The layer of clay covering the bed-rock and the crevices, or ‘ pockets,’ of the rock itself are minutely ransacked, and often with very profitable results. The freshets of spring generally prove disastrous to these bold undertakings, but with the destruction of the dykes, come new deposits of gold, occasioned by this annual enlargement of the stream; so that the trouble of re- building for several seasons in succession is sometimes - found to be amply repaid. ‘ Ground sluicing ’ is now a very general, as it is a very convenient, method of getting at the ‘ pay-dirt.’ When a section of the ancient bed of the stream has been alighted GROUND sLUIciNe. 27 5 upon, in which the presence of gold is indicated, but over which has accumulated a layer of barren earth, the only plan formerly in use for working the auriferous stratum was ‘ coyoteing ’-—a term derived from the name of a wild dog found in California having a special instinct for burrowing. But there are circumstances in which the same result can be accomplished with a great saving of ORUI'NI) SLI'H‘ING. time and labour by ground sluicing, with the chance, also, of securing gold, should any exist, in the upper earth. WVhen the bed-rock does not lie very deep from the surface, instead of sinking a shaft or making an opening horizontally, the top dirt removed by turning a strong jet of water upon the bank, which is soon reduced, and by the help of picks and shovels the old channel of the river is laid bare. The force of the water carries off the 'r 2 27 6 PROCESS OF .MINING. debris; the gold, by its own gravity, falls close to the hand of the miner, and is thus saved with the rich pay- dirt, which is intended to be washed by the regular methods. But the formation of the original river-bed, and the depth of the bed-rock covered by the layer of gold-bear- ing earth, is often such as to necessitate the difficult and costly expedient of tunnelling. The tunnel is sometimes made from the bottom of a shaft sunk perpendicularly, which is called ‘drifting,’ but quite as frequently is struck into the bank from below its present surface. It is made to follow the windings of the old channel, and a drain is constructed to keep the works free from the interruption of water. In exploring the chambers of a tunnel ‘pockets’ or nests of gold are often met with of extraordinary rich- ness. These crevices, in which the gold was deposited in former ages, of course vary in size. Some of them are as large as a common bowl, and are filled with a conglo- merate of black sand, mica, disintegrated particles of talcose slate and pebbles. This concrete gives way under a few blows of the pick, and the broken pieces, which are naturally ‘heavy, have been compared to chunks of plum- cake. On breaking them with the hand the interior is observed to contain pellets of gold. Quartz-mining, which ultimately becomes the perma- nent method of extracting gold, after the place'res or alluvial diggings have given out, has scarcely yet been attempted in these colonies, in consequence of European capitalists (who are always expected to inaugurate large mechanical operations in auriferous countries) being sus- picious and tardy in reference to these investments. It cannot be long, however, before this branch of mining is widely established among the hills of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, as it is in California and N evada. QUARTZ CRUSHING. 27 7 The most primitive expedient for crushing quartz is the rastra, or drag. This consists of two large stones attached by a strap to a horizontal bar. A horse or mule is yoked to the bar, as when a corn or threshing-mill is driven by animal power. The quartz is broken into small pieces, and placed in the circular trough, in which the animal goes round. These are reduced to powder by the friction HELVETIA QUARTZ MILL, GRASS VALLEY. of the rastra. Over the paved floor of the trough a stream of water constantly flows, by which the crushed quartz is made to assume the appearance of a milk-white paste. The floor is sprinkled with quicksilver at intervals. When the quartz is sufficiently ground, the water is turned off, the floor taken up, and the amalgam collected and re- torted. Quartz is said to be more thoroughly crushed and 278 PROCESS OF MINING. pulverised by one of these lazy, jogging machines, than by the ‘stampers’ of a regular steam crushing-mill; and from rock which it would be profitless to work ‘under the more advanced principle, gold in paying quantities can be ex- tracted. _ ' I was favoured with an opportunity of witnessing the operation of quartz-crushing by steam power, on a limited scale, in California. The apparatus consists of a series of iron stampers, erected in a line, with an iron box placed under, and fitted to receive each. Into these boxes the quartz is put, after having been broken up into small pieces. The stampers are moved by cogs connected with a revolving wheel, by which they are alternately lifted and let fall. The stamping box is generally supplied with water by a hose or pipe. Through a hole made on pur- pose, the quartz, converted into a thick milky liquid, is forced, carrying with it much of the fine gold. This pulpy substance is discharged upon a framework, across which riffles or cleets are fixed, containing quicksilver, with which the gold amalgamates in its passage. Any fine particles escaping the quicksilver are caught below upon a hide or blanket stretched tightly across a frame. But, notwithstanding the most careful precautions, a waste of gold occurs, which can with difficulty be avoided. It often happens that the ‘ tailings,’ or refuse of the mill, on being put through a second crushing, will pay as well as did the quartz when crushed in its original state. Scientific men are agreed, I believe, that ‘ quartz is the mother of gold.’ The precious metal is sometimes visible in glittering specks, distributed throughout the rock, but quartz may also be worked with advantage in which the gold particles are so small as not to be visible to the naked eye. A proportion of gold to the value of 820 to YIELD or QUARTZ. 279 the ten of quartz pays well, where the machinery is effective and convenient to the reef. Rock is crushed, however, in California that yields hundreds of dollars per ton?‘ ' "‘ See an interesting article that appeared in Ilm'pefs New ltlonthly illayazine for April 1860 on this subject. CHAPTER XI. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. Climate '—Farming Capabilities— Agricultural Districts—Mr. Davidson’s Experience of Farming North of the Pavillon—Yield of other Farms— Fruit—Sti)ck-raising—Remunerative Character of Dairy Produce—Sheep —Hogs—Terms on which Land may be Acquired. As climate is an important consideration in agricultural pursuits, it is worthy of notice that the uneven surface of British Columbia presents every shade and variety of temperature. It may be safely asserted, however, that farming can be carried on in this colony at any altitude under 2,500 feet above the level of the sea. Certain belts of the country are found to be warm and dry, wb ile others are moist and of more equable temperature. For a hun- dred and fifty miles inland from the mouth of the Fraser we have a district characterised by a humid climate, and in which the thermometer of Fahrenheit rarely falls below 10, or rises above 90 degrees. Rain, sometimes continuing for days together, and frequently assuming the form of ‘ Scotch mist,’ prevails in that section of the country during spring, summer, and autumn. In winter, snow falls from one to two feet, the depth lessening as We approach the sea. It remains on the ground for a week or two, and, after an absence of the same duration, light snow-storms succeed. Thus, with alternations of snow, rain, and tem- porary suspensions of both, the winter passes, usually breaking up in the early part of March. Periods of cloudy CLIMATE or THE INTERIOR. 281 weather during summer temper the heat of the season, which is much more intense in the interior. But even when the atmosphere is clear, heavy dews fall at night. The northern limit of the damp portion of the country crosses the Lilloet route in the vicinity of Anderson’s Lake and the Fraser, between the Upper Cafion and the Forks. Beyond extends a region of equal breadth but greater heat and aridity. Though situated farther north and on a loftier elevation, the climate in this neighbourhood is not perceptibly colder in winter, while the snow is less deep than in the more southern part of the country just ‘described, adjacent to ‘the Lower Fraser. In Similkameen, the valley of the Thompson, and Horsefiy, the winter is rarely so severe as to be injurious to stock; while in Cariboo the snow, which perpetually covers the earth, is accompanied with extreme cold. Mr. Pemberton writes :-—‘ It may be sufficient here to say that . . . in parts of valleys of the Fraser, Lilloet, Columbia, and Thompson Rivers, a climate quite as mild as that of Devonshire is indicated by birds of bright plumage, humming birds, cactuses growing in the open air, &c.; while lands farther north reproduce not unfre- quently the climates of Hudson’s Bay and Labrador.’ The views of Mr. A. C. Anderson on the same subject are entitled to respect from his long residence in the country: -- Snow begins to fall in the mountains early in October. In ‘July there is still snow for a short distance on the summit of the Fort Hope trail, but not to impede the passage of horses. ' From the middle of October, however, to the middle of June, this track is not to be depended upon for transport with p'ack animals. The summer climate above the Forks is dry, and the heat is great. During winter the thermometer indicates occa- sionally from 20° to 30° of cold below zero of Fahrenheit; but such severe cold seldom lasts on the upper parts of Fraser River for more than three days; the thermometer will then continue 282 AGRICULTURAL REsoURCEs OF BRlTISH COLUMBIA.‘ to fluctuate between zero and the freezing-point until possibly another interval 'of cold arrives. But the winters are extremely capricious throughout these regions, and no two resemble each other very closely. In general, the snow does not fall deep enough along the banks of the main streams to preclude winter travelling with pack animals. . . . There are many spots between the Similkameen Valley and OKanagan that are specially favourable for winter ranches. In some the snow never lies, however deep it may be around. The climate to the west of the Cascade range is mild, but somewhat humid. The summer is beautiful, with a small proportion of rainy days; the autumn is clear and fine; the winter liable to frost and’ rain, by turns; and the spring peculiarly wet. ' ‘ The winter of 1859,’ says Mr. Brown, of Lilloet, ‘ was very mild. The frost came November 10, then went away; snow in December 1860 ; January, February, March were mild and damp; April and May fine, but a good deal of rain fell; June, July, August, and September were very fine ; October rainy; November and December fine winter weather. In 1861 the maximum temperature at New Westminster was 84°, and the minimum 20°; January was wet and frosty; February very wet; rain fell on 18 days out of 29; March and April also wet; May fine, with a good deal of rain; June, July, August, September very fine, with a little rain; October fine; snow appeared on the mountains in November, and until shortly before Christ- mas the weather was good. A little before Christmas there was hard frost, increasing in intensity till January 9, 1862, when the river froze over opposite New West- minster, remaining so till the early part of March. The minimum temperature was 16%—o below zero. Such a winter had not been known in the country for thirteen years. CLIMATE. 283 The difference in the physical aspects of the countries on either side the Cascades extends, as already remarked, to the climate. As a sample, the last four winters at Lilloet may be described :— In 1859 winter began on November 7, and continued till the middle of March. In 1860 winter commenced on December 7, and lasted till the end of February. There were three or four days of severe cold, with wind from the N., and the thermometer fell to zero. There was a long spell of bright clear frosty weather, with an occasional thaw; little snow fell. In 1861 the severest winter known for 20 years began on J-LA Ayn-1 \T 1 --_ ah __..;I _-_;.-_1..- ._-Z.J 1... LB...‘ ‘bud-Ar] 4-21 A LYOVBIUUGI' Al, anu. lu'cty uc: Scuu bu u'ctvc i'aietcu till one cuu uf March, although the river did not break up till April 15. The thermometer attained a minimum of 25° below zero. There were 10 weeks of continued frost, when the thermometer fre- quently got below ‘zero in the evenings and mornings. But the weather was always clear and sunny. The snow was at one time 12 inches deep, but at other places in this section of coun- try there were last winter 2 feet of snow a depth, however, very unusual. Notwithstanding this, most of the stock left to winter out, and find their own food as best they might, survived. The winter of 1862—3 was extremely mild, with the exception of two or three days in November, and ten days of severe cold in February. January and February are usually cold months, March and April variable—the plains begin to be clothed with verdure. May to October, and sometimes November, fine, clear, warm weather; in the last two months the evenings are frosty. De- 0ember is coldland wintry. In summer, on the other hand, the mercury sometimes shows 1000 in the shade. In this section of country little rain falls. More rain fell in 1862 than in 1861 ; more again in 1861 than in 1860. In the OKanagan district there is a great supply of rain; at William’s Lake a sufflcient quantity. At the latter place the winters are more severe than at Lilloet, the thermometer some- times ranging as low as 400 below zero; yet the weather is clear, 284 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES or BRITISH COLUMBIA. and without wind; and, in the experience of those accustomed to cold climates, any cold is bearable, and even enjoyable, so long as the sun comes out during the day and the Winds are still. At Alexandria and Quesnelle mouth snow appears in the end of November, and lies to a depth of 18 inches for three or four months; January is the coldest, August the hottest, June the rainiest; August, September, and October the driest months in the year. The climate of Cariboo is severe; there the winters are long, lasting from November till the end of April; yet the weather is usually clear and calm. Snow falls principally in January or February, sometimes to a depth of from 7 to 10 feet, so that snow-shoes are used for winter travelling. But wit-h the exception of Cariboo, the climate of British Columbia is universally regarded as one of the finest in the world. Nor can the fact of its extreme healthiness be too much insisted on. Cases of sickness are rare, and many who suffered at home from feeble health have here inhaled new life from the bracing mountain breeze. In reference to the soils of the colony, they are of three kinds. The first and the most rare of these consists of decayed vegetable matter and alluvial deposits of a black colour, but rich and loamy. Valleys and banks of rivers contain deposits of this character. The next quality is formed by the disintegration and decomposition of rocks, and is light and sandy, with a considerable proportion of lime, which accounts for its remarkable fertility. It varies in depth from one to three feet, and rests on a subsoil of gravel or clay. It must be acknowledged that the amount of superior farming land in British Columbia is not great when com- pared with the gross area of the colony. But it should be remembered that the trunlc roads to Cariboo conduct, for the most part, through the most unprepossessing sections of the country. It is confidently expected, however, that FARMING nIsTRIcTs. 285 the agricultural resources will improve upon a more inti- mate acquaintance with the regions between the Fraser and the Rocky Mountains on the one hand, and the coast on the other. But on the supposition of land fit for cultivation being of even more limited extent than we know it is, this con- stitutes no argument against encouraging the immigration of settlers. My views on this point are expressed at length in the chapter on farming in Vancouver Island, and reference to the opinions there stated will enable me to dispense with the repetition of them in this place. It is no libel on the farm- ing capabilities of ' the country to say that its metalliferous capabilities are greater. I do not hesitate to assert that British Columbia contains sufficient arable soil to sustain a population of many millions ; besides, the large and profitable markets furnished to agricultural producers by mining and trading settlements are unequalled in any part of the world. A glance at the principal agricultural districts may not be inappropriate to the present sketch. At the mouth of the Fraser there-is a large tract in the delta of the river, which waves in summer with rich and luxuriant hay—a source of considerable revenue to those settlers who ex- port it to Victoria. This plain is covered at high water, but would yield immense compensation to effort bestowed in reclaiming it. Farms in the neighbourhood of New Westminster have been found to bear excellent crops, especially vegetables and fruit. Five miles above West- minster, on the banks of Pitt River, are meadows clear and of great extent; the only hindrance to their success- ful cultivation being that they are liable to overflow. The banks of Pitt River (writes Governor Douglas in 1860*) * Blue Book, Part IV. p. 8. 286 AGRICULTURAL REsoURcEs OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. are exceedingly beautiful; extensive meadows sweep gracefully from the very edge of the river toward the distant line of forest and mountain. The rich alluvial soil produces a thick growth of grass, interpersed with the Michaelmas daisy, the wild rose, and scattered groups of willows. This fine district contains an area of 20,000 acres of good arable land, requiring no clearing from timber, and ready for the immediate operations of the plough. Many parts of it are, however, exposed to overflow through the periodical inundations of the Fraser. . . . It may be turned to good account in growing hay and every kind of root crop, and may also be used for pasturing cattle and for the purposes of dairy. A well-known citizen of -New Westminster, convinced that large tracts of arable land existed beyond the forests on the banks of the Fraser,‘ made an exploratory tour through the dense woods between that city and Langley; and after having travelled about twelve miles, a magnifi- cent prairie burst upon his view, several miles in extent. Many such spots, attractive for farming settlement, are certain to be discovered when the Government applies itself systematically to the work of exploration. At Langley the soil is superior, and wheat has been grown there for a succession of years without the aid of manure. Sumass and Chilukweyuk contain land suitable chiefly for pastoral purposes. Like the Pitt meadows, however, it is subject to overflow for a few d. ys from the summer freshets. The Lilloet ‘meadows at Port Pemberton contain ‘ a fine tract of prairie land seven or eight miles long and from half a mile to a mile wide.’ The soil is signally productive and adapted for cultivation. Eight miles above Lilloet, at the Fountain, a large quantity of land is under crop. Higher up, in Pavillon Valley, excellent crops of cereals and vegetables are produced. The crop of potatoes FARMING DISTRICTS. 287 reaped by the proprietor of a farm at Pavillon in 1860 gave 325 bushels to the acre. One of the turnips grown in his garden weighed 26 lbs. Cats and barley thrived under this gentleman’s care. The cars were of great size, and the straw about four feet long. His cattle were allowed during winter to run at large without shelter, obtaining provision as they best could. After ascending an elevation of 1,000 feet above Big- bar Creek, the traveller reaches a succession of table-lands inviting to the plough, and ranges of prairie capable of sustaining innumerable herds and flocks. At Bridge Creek there are tracts of arable soil exceed— ing in extent any to be met with between Langley and ' this place. From Bridge Creek to William’s Lake there is much good land, though it is said that crops in that . neighbourhood are liable to be injured by frosts. At Lake La Hache and Williams’ Lake, barley, wheat, &0, can be grown to advantage. It is rare to find in British Colum- bia those vast prairies that are so common in the Western States of America, without a hill or tree to intercept the view, far as the eye can reach. We rather have what is understood on the Pacific coast as ‘ rolling country;’ that is a surface broken up into valleys and mountains— ridges of unequal height. The land around Beaver Lake is extensive and produc- tive, and the district adjacent to Williams’ Lake yields rich crops of grain and vegetables. At Alexandria, whatever portions are under cultivation, give profitable returns ; and beyond that town prairies exist containing excellent meadow grass and good soil. A similar description would apply to the mouth of Quesnelle, and between that place and Cottonwood, whence begins the rugged and barren district of Cariboo. In return southward, Governor Douglas, speaking of the G 288 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES or BRITISH COLUMBIA. vicinity of the Thompson, Bonaparte, and Chapeau Rivers, says :— The district comprehended within these limits is exceedingly beautiful and picturesque, being composed of a succession of hills and valleys, lakes and rivers, exhibiting to the traveller the grateful spectacle of miles of green hills, crowning slopes, and level meadows, almost without a bush or tree to obstruct the view, and, even to the very hill tops, producing an abundant growth of grass. It is of great value as a grazing district—a circumstance which appears to be thoroughly understood and appreciated by the country packers, who are in the habit of leaving their mules and horses here when the regular work of packing goods to the mines is suspended for the winter. . . . . It has certainly never been my good fortune to visit a country more pleasing to the eye, or possessing a more healthy and agreeable climate, or a great-er extent of fine pasture land; and there is no doubt that with a smaller amount of labour and out- lay than in almost any other colony, the energetic settler may soon surround himself with all the elements of affluence and comfort. . . . . Mr. M‘Lean has recently settled in a beautiful spot near the clébouohé of the Hat River, and is rapidly bring- ing his land into cultivation. . . . He entertains no doubt what- ever of the capabilities of the soil, which he thinks will, under proper management, produce any kind of grain or root crops. The only evil he apprehends is the want of rain, and the conse- quent droughts of summer, which has induced him to bring a supply of water from a neighbouring stream, by which he can at pleasure irrigate the whole of his fields. But the most encouraging field for farming operations yet discovered in the country includes the Similkameen and OKanagan districts. On the road thither from Hope lies the Sumallow Valley, containing land of superior quality. Fifteen miles from Princeton the country be- comes open. There the soil is light, and covered with bunch grass. Feed for cattle abounds in the neighbour- hood, and from indications found of valuable metals, there U OKANAGAN AND SIMILKAMEEN. 289 is every probability of its becoming an important mining locality. In the valley of the Similkameen the range of country is grassy, interspersed with patches of rich land. The area around OKanagan Lake is admirably suited for farming, with alternate valley and hill. Feed for cattle can be had on the west side of the lake, on the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trail. On the eastern side there are 10,000 acres of clear land, with soil adapted for raising stock, or cultivating corn. Passing to Tete d’Epinette, a reserve claimed by the Nicola Indians, and thence to the Grand Prairie, much superior soil and luxuriant pasture are to be met with. That prairie is about sixteen miles long, and from one and a half to two and a quarter miles in breadth, and would form a capacious settlement. The route from that luxuriant tract to Thompson River is varied by lakes, hills, and clumps of trees, together with numerous large intervals of farming land. There can be no doubt that as gold discoveries advance in that direction, excellent markets will be created for agricultural producers. Of the soil around OKanagan and Similkameen, the report of a party of Royal Engineers, who visited these places in 1859, thus speaks :-- The grass is generally of a good quality, the prickly pear and ground-cactus—the sore enemy to the moccasined traveller-— being the surest indication of an approach to an inferior quality. Timber is for the most part scarce, but coppices appear at the sharp bends of the river, tolerably well wooded, and abounding in an underbrush of willow and wild cherry, while near the base of the mountains, timber exists in quantities easily procurable, and more than sufificient for the requirements of the settlers who may populate the district. The soil is somewhat sandy and light, but free from stones, and generally excellent for grazing and farming; and, though the drought in summer is great, and irrigation necessary, many large portions are already well watered by streams from the mountains, whose fall is so rapid as greatly U 290 AGRICULTURAL REsoURCEs ‘or BRITIsH COLUMBIA. to facilitate such further irrigation as might be required. In corroboration of my expressed opinion relative to the yielding properties of the soil, I may mention that in spots through which, perchance, some small rivulet or spring wound its way to the river, wild vegetation was most luxuriant; and grass, some blades of which I measured, out of curiosity, as much as nine feet high, well rounded and firm, and a quarter of an inch in diameter at its lower end."e It will have been observed from this hasty account of soil and sections adapted for agricultural settlement, that, in some parts, spring wheat‘ would require irrigation; but autumn wheat, receiving abundant moisture from the rains of winter and spring, would come safely and rapidly to maturityff‘ In regard to the yield and prices of crops, I have much pleasure in being able to lay before the reader an ex- tract from the journal of my dear friend, Dr. Lachlin Taylor, of Canada, who possessed, in 1863, opportunities of travelling extensively in British Columbia. His quick and observant eye did not allow any fact of statistical "" Blue Book, Part HI. p. 85. T The Kootanie territory would seem, from the description of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Oregon, to consist of forest and prairie, divided in pro— portions remarkably favourable for cultivation. The source of the Columbia River, which is in British territory, he regards as a point of great prospective importance. Birch, pine, cedar, and cypress are the prevailing woods of the region. The climate is spoken of as'delightful. Extremes of heat and cold are infrequent, and the snow usually disappears as it falls. According to the opinion of the bishop, who has an intimate acquaintance with that dis— trict, it only requires the transforming hand of civilisation to change it into a terrestrial paradise. Veins of lead and silver, as well as gold, are known to permeate the mountains of Kootanie, and imagination cannot set bounds to its future prosperity. It is conveniently situated, moreover, for com- munication with Salt Lake city, whence it can be reached in waggons ; it is readily accessible not only from the more north-westerly parts of British Columbia, but also from the mining localities of Idaho, Boise, and Salmon River. nAvInsoN’s FARM. 291 interest to escape notice. In the letter accompanying the following extract, he says :-- Enclosed you have the extract from my Cariboo journal, which gives Mr. Davidson’s opinion of the farming lands of the Upper Fraser, as well as the statistics of his own magnificent farm. The whole statement was taken from D.’s own lips, and read over to him after it was written; so that, as far as his judgment could be depended on, it is correct in every particular. Extract. Such is the prevalence of summer frosts in the entire country north, or above the Pavillon Mountain, including Mr. Davidson’s own ranch, that a farm or piece of land must have a southern aspect, and be protected from the northern blasts, to cultivate any of the cereals to advantage. Six miles above Mr. Davidson’s is the Road Company’s farm, considerably higher than the Lake Valley ranch (which is the name of Mr. D.’s), but, to all appear- ance, as well situated. As it has not, however, the same southern declination, Mr. D. is of opinion that grain could not be grown there with any prospect of success. He is also of opinion that, although there are tracts of land like his own, with a clay bottom under a rich sandy loam, the generality of the soil near the river is gravelly, which, when the vegetable deposit or top soil is gone will be very poor and sterile. A selection of country facing Lake La Hache, on the north side, might, like Anderson’s farm, from its southern aspect, be cultivated to advantage; but such places—as about Cochrane’s Bridge Creek and the junction—are extremely doubtful. I saw, however, myself, when on my way down from Cariboo, some of the largest potatoes I have ever seen in any country, which Mr. Watson, of the Junction Hotel, grew the present season. You will now be gratified to get some statistics from Mr. D.’s own ranch, *' nich is probably the finest farm, taking extent and cultivation together, in all British Columbia. In the first place, a few items about Mr. D.’s first ranch, called ‘the Mission Ranch,’ and consisting of 500 acres. Mr. D. cultivated altogether about seventy acres. From 401bs. of spring U 2 292 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES or BRITISH COLUMBIA. wheat he threshed 20 bushels; and the following season, 15 bushels sown, produced over 400 bushels. Barley, potatoes, cabbages, and onions were all produced in abundance. Mr. D. came to his present ranch in June, 1862 (about fifteen months before he communicated this information to Dr. Taylor). It consists altogether of about 1,860 acres—160 on the road and 1,700 three miles from the house in which he lives. He has this year (1863) 175 acres under cultivation, the principal crops being barley and cats, with from twelve to fifteen acres of potatoes, several acres of corn, beans, parsnips, and carrots; also two acres of cabbages; one of turnips, and one of onions. The barley and oats, on the prime land, will yield about 40 bushels to the acre, and, on the higher land, from 20 to 30 ; oats, on the best land, from 60 to 80 bushels per acre. 400 tons of hay might be cut, and, on eight acres seeded with timothy, the ap- pearance is as favourable as anything he has seen in any part of the world. Mr. D. is of opinion that it is a good country for raising stock; and the profits derived therefrom would be very great. He has good stock himself, and some of them could not be excelled on the Pacific coast. Mr. D. finished seeding on the 1 1th June, and expects a return of from 200,000 to 300,000lbs. ; and he is of opinion that the yield would be much larger had he been able to sow a month earlier. Barley is worth at Mr. D’s. house $6 per bushel, and cabbage, of which he expects to have 1,000 head averaging 8lbs. per head, 25 cents per lb. He employs at present sixteen servant men—the number being reduced in winter to four or five. He has eight yoke of working oxen, and from six to eight horses. He has a good stock of farming implements, including a reaper and mower, and a threshing machine which can thresh 1,000 bushels a day. On other farms potatoes are known to yield from 7 to 15 tons to the acre. The average weight of many is 1lb., not a few reach 2% lbs., and some even 3lbs. each. On one farm, turnips—Swedish and white—produced 25 tons to the acre, and one instance is on record of some having ‘grown to the enormous bulk of 201bs. Onions yielded YIELD—PRICES—STOCK. 293 from 4 to 6lbs. to the acre. Many weighed 1%lbs. ; some 2lbs. ; and one, grown at the Fountain, is referred to by Mr. Brown as having weighed 2lbs. loz. Cabbages are often to be seen from 12 to 14lbs. in weight; and in a certain garden a cabbage was grown weighing 25lbs.! It was sold to an Indian for 3s. Mr. Brown saw a beet- root in ’62, lllbs. in weight, 2 feet in length, and 20 inches in girth, and at another farm, a carrot weighing 4lbs., with 171,; inches in girth. As to fruits, melons grow in the open air without manure, of prodigious bulk and excellent flavour. The presence of the wild cherry and wild pear fully testifies that the soil is well adapted for the growth of pears and cherries, and it is believed that the grape would flourish on the sloping banks of the Fraser. The prices of vegetables, &c. in New Westminster are higher than in Victoria ; at Lilloet they are nearly twice as high; and at Cariboo four times as high as at New i'Westminster. The country is pre-eminent for stock—raising. ‘ Bunch grass,’ which is highly nutritious for cattle, is also abun- dant. On this fodder the Cayoosh nags or native horses so thrive that they surpass, in power of endurance, many an English hack fed on grain. One of those hardy animals can accomplish without injury a journey of 40 miles in a day. Mules that, in the upper country, have to carry 300 or 4001bs., over long daily stages, have bunch grass for their only provender on the journey. A large cattle-dealer, accustomed to bring herds from Oregon, has publicly declared, as the result of two years’ experience in the country, that his stock had thriven better here than they had done in Oregon and California. ‘ Two years ago a man bought a cow, for which'he paid $140 ; that summer he made $ 350 by the sale of her milk and 294 AGRICULTURAL REsoURCEs or BRITIsH COLUMBIA. butter; now she has three calves, each of them worth $100.’—Rev. R. C. Lundin Brown. In illustration of the remunerative character of dairy produce, I am assured by a gentleman who has a personal knowledge of the circumstance, that a farmer at the Blue Tent drove into Cariboo during the mining season in 1863, thirty dairy cows, and netted 15l. per day for four months. In eighteen months from his arrival in the colony, he rea- hsed 4,000l. In summer, cattle require little attention and no feed- ing. In winter, too, they have generally been left to forage for themselves. Yearling calves and foals have suc- ceeded in weathering the winter storm. But an unusually severe season does occur at intervals, and it would be imprudent to make no provision against it. A log- shed and six weeks’ fodder would save all risk and anxiety. t is only a few years since sheep were imported into the country, but the experiment has been attended with. complete success. The colony is best adapted for South- downs, which may be purchased in Victoria, or still more cheaply in Oregon. In the middle section of the country they thrive wonderfully. By a simple calculation it might be shown that 100 ewes and 2 rams would, in the course of five years—supposing the produce to be one half lambs, and the wethers to be sold— increase to 1,000. This calculation supposes the ewes to lamb twice a year, and to have twins one time in three, which is under the average. Sheep cost in Victoria 2t. and rams 20l (South- downs): the animals would cost little for keep in summer or winter, and the wethers being sold for mutton, the proceeds would cover the wages of a shepherd. As mutton costs Is. to 18. 3d. per lb. (and the sheep average 50 lbs.) it is easy to see that, even allowing a wide margin for casualties, a small fortune could thus be realised in the course of a few years. The fleeces TERMS or SETTLEMENT. 295 might either be turned to account in the country itself or ex- ported ; the price at San Francisco is 40 cents per 1b. The number of sheep imported in 1862 was 6,946; of cattle, 5,649 ; of horses and mules, 6,427. Hogs are an immensely profitable investment in the colony, bacon being a staple commodity at the mines. Every other kind of farming produce already specified in remarks on farming in the insular colony, fetches a much higher price in British Columbia than in Victoria. The terms on which land may be acquired in British Columbia are given at length in the Appendix. The pro- clamation of the governor entitles British subjects, and aliens who take the oath of allegiance to Her Majesty, to pre-empt unsurveyed lands not reserved by the Govern- ment for town sites, or available for mining purposes, or occupied as Indian settlements. 160 acres are allowed to be taken up by each bona-fide settler, on condition of the claim being recorded with the nearest resident magis- trate. The recording fee is 8s. When the Government survey shall have extended to the land thus selected, pay- ment is to be made at the rate of not less than 48. 2d. per acre. When improvements to the value of 10s. per acre shall have been made, and the magistrate satisfied of the permanent occupation of the settler, he shall be en- titled to a certificate of improvement. By this document the holder shall be empowered to sell, mortgage, or lease the land, subject to the unpaid instalments of pur- chase money. Priority of pre-emption is secured to the person in occupation who shall first record his claim. On full payment of the purchase money, the purchaser obtains a conveyance, which, however, reserves to the Crown precious metals and minerals, with the right to enter and work them by its assig-nees and licensees; but 296 AGRICULTURALRESOUROES or BRITISH COLUMBIA. if this right is exercised, reasonable compensation is to be made for the waste and damage done, to be settled, in case of dispute, by a jury of six. In addition to the 160 acres thus pre-empted, the person in possession may hold and purchase any unsur- veyed and unoccupied land on paying to the nearest magistrate 2.9. 1cl. as part of the purchase money, which will be payable when the land is surveyed. Any allotment thus sought to be acquired either by pre-emption or by purchase, must be of a rectangular form, the shortest side being at least two-thirds of the length of the longest side. If any person, holding under a pre-emptive claim, shall cease to occupy the land, the claim may be cancelled. Occupants may bring ej ectment or trespass against any . intruder, except a free miner searching for the precious metals or conveying water to his mine. By an Act, dated Jan. 1, 1863, military and naval officers of a certain rank are entitled, without pay, to free grants of unoccupied and unsurveyed country land in the following proportions :_- Acres Field oflicer of 25 years’ service, in the whole . . . 600 ,, 20 ,, . .. . 500 ,, 15, or less, years’ service . . . 400 Captains of 20 years’ service and upwards . . . . 400 ,, 15 ,, or less . . . . 300 Subalterns of 20 ,, and upwards . . . . 300 v 7 n n ' ' ' ' 200 CHAPTER XII. ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Bears—Racoons—Marten—Mink-— Skunk—Otters— Foxes —The Puma— Its Ravages—Adventure with a Puma—Wolves—Rats—Stags—Deer-- Mountain-Sheep—BIRns or PREY, &c. -Swans, &c.—REPTILES—FLORA —Scientific Names of Animals—List of Shells—Additional List of Plants. BEARs are not uncommon in these regions. I have seen specimens of the black bear both in the island and on the mainland. Except when wounded or suckling its young, and encountered near its hiding~place, this crea- ture is comparatively harmless to man. It is easily ‘ knocked over’ by the sportsman, and its skin, which fetches a high price, is chiefly used as a rug. The grizzly is not known in Vancouver Island. Its main haunt is the Rocky Mountains, though it has been shot considerably west of that range. The racoon is distributed in these colonies as through- out many other parts of North America. Martens are numerous and of varied colour. A good fur of this description cannot be bought first-hand under 6s. or 88. The mink and skunk are also denizens of the forests in these colonies. I have known the latter filthy animal find its way into a settler’s cabin, leaving the pro- prietor in the unfortunate position of either allowing the beast its own term of possession, in which case it 298 OTTERS—FOXES. might depart without leaving any unpleasant souvenir of its visit behind, or force it out, and thus evoke from the skunk that peculiarly objectionable and pungent odour which cannot readily be neutralised by fumigation, and by which it keeps all invaders at a distance. Otters are found on land and in the sea. The species pertaining to the latter habitat are held-in much greater estimation than those indigenous to terrafirma. The skin of an average sized sea-otter, undressed, is valued by the Indian hunters at from 12l. to l4l., and, when prepared for the Chinese market, will often fetch there 20l. ' Foxes, ‘ silver-grey,’ ‘ red,’ and ‘black,’ exist; but the latter quality is confined to British Columbia. Ocular testimony enables me to pronounce the black fox the most handsome animal of its kind to be found. The first of these varieties costs the purchaser 2l. or 31. when bought direct from an Indian trapper, and would realise in Eng- land probably 20l. or 30L The puma roams in certain parts of the island, as on the mainland, and often attains a large and even formidable stature. It is kn own also under the names of panther, Cali- fornian lion, and catamount. I happen to possess the skin of one shot last year in the island, measuring nine feet from the snout to the tip of the tail. But more recently I have learned of one being despatched in the neighbourhood of the Sooke mines, measuring ten feet from the snout to the root of the tail. It has been known, too, in Salt Spring Island, to the cost of the settlers. A farmer there, some time ago, hearing a huge pig near his dwelling giving forth unmistakable signs of having come to grief, went to the door and saw this stealthy and powerful foe of the farmer hurrying off with the choice morsel suspended by the nape of the neck. He arrived just in time to rescue the strugghng victim. The ravages of the panther among ADVENTURES WITH PUMAS. 299 sheep and poultry are of the most destructive character. Its leg and paw evince a much greater degree of strength than distinguishes any of the wild feline species that prowl in the jungles of Africa or India. A single blow from it must instantly disable any other animal inhabiting the same latitude. I am acquainted with a sheep-farmer at Sooke whose sons, when engaged in watching their flocks, encountered and killed some half-dozen of these animals within a couple of years. When wounded they are intensely ferocious, and will attack alike men and dogs. They ‘ die hard,’ unless struck with a rifle-ball in the centre of the breast. A member of Mr. Weir’s family—the gentleman just referred to-_informed me, when on a visit to their farm, that he once wounded a panther several times with his rifle, but that it still retained sufficient strength to chase and worry a large dog, long after he thought it must have bled to death. In the house of my friend several of these creatures, stuffed, presented rather a startling array to a guest on entering the room, but must prove much less agreeable objects when met in the lonely forest. Another gentleman who went out on a shooting excur- sion, sallied from the trail into the thicket, a few miles from Victoria, in search of game. He had the misfortune to be soon confronted by an enraged panther, which, doubtless, felt her lair to be unceremoniously intruded upon, and her whelps endangered. The animal sprang upon his back and pulled him down. He partially suc- ceeded in keeping her at bay by brandishing his fowling- piece, while he lay extended on the ground. Still the puma persisted in snapping at him till she tore his clothes into shreds. His awkward position incapacitated him from firing. At length the animal retreated. These instances of danger from the attack of the panther are, 300 WOLVES—BEAVERS—SQUIRRELS. however, exceptional, it usually being in dread of the presence of a human being. Wolves, of two species, red and black, occasionally prowl in the vicinity of sheep-cotes, especially in winter, but are not numerous, and where sheep are carefully herded, they may be successfully resisted. Traces of the dwellings of the beaver are observable adjacent to lakes and streams in both colonies. In one twelvemonth, 7 80 beaver-skins, a few years ago, were collected by a single establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in Vancouver Island. Like many other fur- bearing animals, this one is on the increase, since the influx of whites to these Pacific shores, in consequence of the Hudson’s Bay Company divesting itself to a consider- able extent of its fur-trading character, and trappers devoting their attention to the more exciting pursuits connected with gold—mining. ‘ It is impossible to go many miles into tne agricultural districts without seeing squirrels, which feed upon the cones of pine-trees. They are different generally from the species found in England. The hotel-keepers of Victoria employ men to shoot this as well as other sorts of game for the table. Rats are enemies to settlers in these colonies, as in all other new countries; and sometimes the marmot is domesticated, under the impression that rats avoid proximity to the latter animal. Neither hare nor rabbit is known to exist in Vancouver Island, though varieties of both inhabit British Columbia, differing, however, in appearance and habits from those belonging to the parent country. i The stag and elk (Canadian) abound, and some have been shot equal to a horse in stature, and weighing 600 lbs. Their antlers are very handsome. DEER—MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 301 Deer are found in both colonies in large numbers. In particular districts, and at certain parts of the year, the farmer need not pass many days without having an op- portunity of procuring venison, if he be a fair shot. I have known this creature to be so tame as to approach a farm-house and stand within a gun-shot of the door. But I cannot say that I ever found deer-flesh thoroughly palatable except when stewed. It is, however, a favourite dish with most persons in the country. The ordinary weight of deer is from 60 to 80 lbs, and they are fattest towards autumn. The mountain-sheep prevails in British Columbia. This is a large animal, weighing, when full-grown, several hundred pounds. It is covered with long hair, resembling coarse wool, and supplied with enormous crooked horns, upon which it is said to strike when throwing itself from precipices in seeking to escape pursuit. The flesh is esteemed equal to that of the domesticated sheep, but it ' is rarely the hunter bags or even gets a sight of them. They are exceedingly shy and solitary in their habits, always keeping on the tops of the most wild and rugged mountains. Even when the snow falls deep they do not come down, as do other animals, in quest of the milder climate and more abundant feed of the valleys. Birds of prey may be glanced at, of which the great fish eagle is entitled to primary notice. Couples of these white—headed birds may frequently be seen gliding ma- jestically through the air, or descending in a graceful swoop to their nest among the branches of some lofty pine. . The fish hawk, the harrier, and the sharp-shinned hawk are commonly met with. The great snow owl I have sometimes observed upon the housetops in Victoria in a bright morning. The pigmy owl is also found. HUMMING BIRDS—PIGEON S. The note of the cuckoo is to be heard, and wood- peckers are numerous. Humming-birds of several kinds exist, and are visible early in spring, flitting from tree to tree in search of opening buds. A night-hawk comes forth after sun-down on calm summer evenings, having a creaking sound, and is invariably accompanied with a smaller bird distinguished by a feeble monotonous chirp. The belted kingfisher and the flyeatchers have their representatives. Among the singing birds, which are few, are the violet green swallow, wrens, creepers, nuthatches, titmice, shore larks, finches, the red crossbill, snow bunting, sparrows, and the red-winged blackbird. But the cheerful warble of the English black- bird is greatly missed by emigrants from the parent country. The crow species includes the American raven, the fish crow, and the common crow. Blue jays I have seen in large numbers in the fall and beginning of winter. Pigeons, doves, and grouse (dusky, blue, rufi'ed, willow, and sharp-tailed, the sage-cock, prairie hen, and ptarmigan). All of these possess excellent flavour, and the blue grouse in particular weighs 41,; lbs. It is accustomed to perch on the highest branch of a pine-tree, and will stand repeated charges from a gun without moving ; it can only be brought down by the rifle. The chief obstacle to the enjoyment of a thorough sportsman in relation to these varieties of game is that they are too easily shot. The crane, golden plover, kill-deer, ring plover, the surf- bird, Bachman’s oyster-catcher, and turnstone; English snipe, grey snipe, Jack snipe, sandpiper, and sanderhngs. Swans frequent the lakes of both colonies, and innu- merable quantities of geese are ushered in with winter, among which may be enumerated the snow goose, the white-fronted goose, the Brant goose, and the Canada goose ; the latter often reaches 17 lbs. in weight. Ducks REPTILES—INSECTS. 303 are equally abundant, including the mallard, black duck, pin-tailed, green—winged teal, spoonbill, American wid- geon, summer duck, scaup duck, canvas-back, golden-eye, buffle-head, and harlequin duck. Among the sea ducks are the velvet duck, the surf duck, and the scoter. Among the fishing ducks are the goosander, the red-breasted mer- ganser, the hooded merganser, and another not named. In a sub-order of the same species may be specified the sooty albatross and two or three petrels. Among the gulls the glaucous-winged gull, the herring gull, and the western gull. Among the cormorants the violet-green cormorant. Among the divers the great northern diver, the black-throated, the Pacific, and the red—throated. The waters around Vancouver Island abound with the sea dove, the tufted puffin, and the horn-billed guillemot. In enumerating Reptiles, snakes in several varieties should not be overlooked, few if any of which are venom- ous. They are used by the natives as an article of diet, being eaten by them as soon as skinned. Lizards and bull frogs cross the path of the traveller in summer, and the incessant creaking of the latter in the quiet evenings of summer is as irritating as it is found to be in the West Indies. I can only remember to have seen a solitary worm since my arrival in the country. The Insect kingdom boasts some beautiful varieties of dragonflies, beetles, and butterflies. The insects felt to be most vexatious hitherto have been horseflies, blackflies, sandflies, and mosquitos. The two latter are so numer- ous as to prove an intolerable pest in many parts of British Columbia. But where the smoke of settlements ascends, and the land is brought under cultivation, those enemies of man and beast disappear. In the island they are rare, and their numbers annually diminish in New Westminster and the other growing centres on the main- 304 ' FLORA. land. On the Fraser it was my experience to find them most troublesome at the mouth of the Harrison. On a part of the trail to Cariboo, too, above Clinton, they attack with malignant effect, so that no traveller to the mines should go thither unprovided with a ‘ mosquito bar.’ The FLORA of the colonies present an interesting object of study to the practical botanist. Water-lilies, crow— foots, cressworts, berberry—worts, ‘ Oregon grape,’ violet— worts, cranesbills, rhammads, blue lupine, purple clover, and several varieties of vetch, grow everywhere in wild profusion. Roseworts of certain species are very numer- ous. In the month of May the plains are covered with the wild rose and sweetbrier, and are redolent of delightful fragrance. Wild apples, the mountain-ash, the service- tree, and cluster—berry are found. On clear ground the buckle-berry, blue-berry, salmon-berry, raspberry, wortle-berry, gooseberry, and the flowering currant abound. The conium, the dogwood-tree, the elder-tree, and the campanula also add picturesqueness to the land- scape. Cranberries are extensively consumed in the country, and have become an article of valuable export. They are used by the Indians as food, and are now gathered and put up in casks by the whites for sale in San Francisco. Several hundred barrels, containing 30 gallons each, are already annually exported by a few small traders. Hemp and flax grow wild; and from a certain wild nettle, the Urtioa eannabina, the natives manufacture twine, rope, and nets. Oak is abundant in the southern part of Vancouver Island, though very scarce in British Columbia. The astringent properties of the bark of this tree render it important for tanning pur- ' poses. The hazel-nut is common in the latter colony. The common birch, abundant and of large size in the . scIENTIrIc NAMEs or ANIMALS. 305 northern parts of British Columbia, is of inferior dimen- sions southward. The alder is large, and a favourite wood for turners. To Conifers reference has been made in preceding pages. The cedar (red and yellow) exists in con- siderable quantities, and often attains greater dimen- sions than the pine. It is sometimes found above 30 feet in girth near the base. From the bark articles of wear— ing apparel are made by the natives, and the houses of the settlers are usually roofed with ‘ shingles,’ answering the purpose of slates, made from this wood. Among the Grasses may be enumerated white pea, wild bean, ground nut, reed, meadow grass, white clover, bent spear grass, wild oat, wild timothy, sweet grass, &c. The fern, so prolific and annoying to the farmer, often reaches the height of from 6 to 8 feet. For some of the particulars in the above classification I acknowledge obligation to the list prepared by the late Dr. Wood, R. N. A The following scientific names of animals found in Vancouver Island has been adopted by Dr. Forbes, R. N ., from vol. 8, ‘ Pacific Railroad Reports ’- LIST OF ANIMALS. Felis concolor L. Lutra californica Gray. Lynx fasciatus Raf. Enhydra marina Fleming. Canis occidentalis var. griseo albus. Seiurus Douglasii. Canis occidentalis var. nubilus. Corvus canadensis. Vulpes macrourus Baird. Cervus Columbianus. Mustela Pennantii Ersrl. Mustela erminea. Putorius Vison Baird. Fiber zibethecus. Mustela americana Turton. Platyrhynehus leoninus. Procyon Hernandezii Baird. Phoca vitulina, and Arctocephalus Castor canadensis Kuhl. ursinus. Ursus americanus Pallas. Aplocerus montanus, Gulo luscus. Falco columbarius. 306 soIENTIrIC NAMEs or BIRDS. LIST OF BIRDS FOUND ON VANCOUVER ISLAND. Falco sparverius. Astur atricapillus. Accipiter fuscus. Buteo montanus. Halaeitus leucocephalus. Bubo virginianus. Nyctea nivea. Nyctale acadica. Glaucidium gnoma. Pious Harrisii. Pious Gairdneri. Sphyropicus , rub er. Hylatomus pileatus. Colaptes mexicanus. Selasphorus rufus. Chordeiles Popetue. Ceryle Alcyon. Contopus borealis. Turdus migratorius. Turdus naevius. Sialia mexicana. Regulus Calendula. Regulus satrapa. Anthus ludovicianus. Geothlypis Macgillivrayi. Helminthophaga celata. Dendroica Audubonii. Dendroica aastivi. Pyranga ludoviciana. Hirundo horreorum. Hirundo bicolor. Hirundo thalassina. Vireo gilvus. Vireo solitarius. Troglodytes hyemalis. Salpinctes obsoletus. Sitta aculeata. Parus rufescens. Carpodacus californicus. Chrysomitris pinus. Zonotrichia Gambelli. Zonotrichia coronata. J unco oregonus. Spizella socialis. Melospiza rufina. Passarella Townsendii. Guiraca melanoeephala. Pipilo oregonus. Sturnella neglecta. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus. Agelaius phoeniceus. Corvus carnivorus. Corvus caurinus. Cyanura Stellerii. Columba fasciata. Tetrao obscurus. Bonasa Sabinii. Grus canadensis. Ardea Herodias. Aphriza virgata. Haematopus niger. Strepsilas melanocephalus. Gallinago Wilsoni. Gambetta melanoleuca. Fulica americana. Cygnus americanus. Bernicla canadensis. Bernicla leucopareia. Bernicla Hutchinsii. Anser hyperborea. Anas Boschas. Nettion carolinensis. Mareca americana. Fulix Marila. Anthia Vallisneria. Bucephala americana. Bucephala albeola. Histrionicus torquatus. Harelda glacialis. Melanetta velvetina. Pelionetta perspicillata. Mergus americana. Mergus serrator. Lophodytes cucullatus. Graculus violaceus. Diomedea brachyura. SCIENTIFIC NAMES 0E SHELLS. 507 Larus glaucescens. Podiceps griseigena. Larus Suckleyi. Podiceps occidentalis. Colymbus torquatus. Podiceps comutus. Colymbus arcticus. Uria columba. - Colymbus septentrionalis. Brachyramphus marmoratus. LIST OF SHELLS, From the Rocks and Dredge off Esquimalt and Victoria Harbours. PALLIoBEANcHIATA : Terebratellidae, Terebratella cauria and pulvinata. LAMELLIBRANCHIATA : Solenidw—Solen sicarius. Tellinidae—Macoma nasuta, Strigilla caurina. Veneridce—Tapes Petitii. Cardiadw—Cardium Nuttalli. Mytilidae—Mytilus edulis, Modiola modiolus, Modiola nitens. PectinidwfPecten hericius. Ostraeidee—Ostrea conchaphila. SCUTIBRANCHIATA : Chitonida—Tonicia lineata, Mapalia vespertina, Ka- therina tunicata, Cryptochiton Stelleri. Acmwidre—Acmaea patina, Acmaea pelta, Acmaea per- sona, Acmeea spectrum, Scurria Mitra. Fissurellidaz—Glyphis aspera, Puncturella cucullata. Trochidw—Ziziphinus annulatus, Ziziphinus filosus. PEcrINIBRANcHIATA : Oalyptrazidaz—Galerus fastigiatus, Crepidula incurva. Cerithiadre—Cerithidea sacrata. Littorinidaz—Littorina stichana, Littorina plena. Naticidae—Natica clausa. Tritonidw—Argobuccinum oregonense. Purpuridce—Purpura decemcostata, Pui'pura emergi- nata, Purpura lactuca. Buccinidce—Nassa mendica. Muricidae—Chrysodomus antiquus, Chrysodomus Sit- chana. LIST OF ECONOMIC PLANTS NOT PREVIOUSLY GIVEN IN THESE PAGES. Populus tremuloides. Pyrus rivularis. Salix Scouleriana. x 2 308 ADDITIONAL LIST. Corylus americana. Cornus Drummcndii. Berberis aquifolium. Philadelphus macropetalus. Rubus nutkanus, leucodermis. Ribes divaricatum, niveum, and san- guineum Amelanchier canadensis. Sambucus glauca. Gaultheria Shallon. Trifolium repens. Glyceria aquatica. Poa pratensis? Festuca pratensis. SHRUBBERY UNDER GROWTH. Vaccinium ovatum, ovalifolium, and parvifolium. Symphoricarpus racemosus. Rubus spectabilis. Frangula Purshiana. Lonicera occidentalis. Hedera. Crataegus coccinea? Lonicera involucrata. Rosa fraxinifolia. GRASSES, LEGUMINOUS PLANTS, ETC. Phleum pratense. Stipa avenacea? J uncus. Primula veris vel Douglasii. In addition to the leguminous plants and grasses given above, are the following, extracted from a list kindly sent me by Professor Balfour, of the University of Edinburgh. They form part of a collection now being made by the ‘ British Columbia Botanical Association’ of Edinburgh, through their agent in these colonies. This spirited scientific body have already expended nearly 1,000l. in prosecuting their interesting labours :— Carex sp. Luzula sp. Cornus Nuttallii. Spiraea paniculata. Taxus sp. Spiraea opulifolia. Alnus orogona. Acer circinatum. Arbutus Menziesii. Panax horridum. Spiraea sp. Boraginaceae. Rumex sp. Liliaceae. Vicia sp. Convallaria sp. Epilobium sp. Rhododendron sp. Pinus ponderosa. Wellingtonia gigantea. Centaurea sp. Rhus sp. Cruciferae. Allium sp. Malva sp. Scrophulariaeeae. Andromeda sp. Sedum sp. Geranium sp. Picea amabilis. ADDITIONAL LIsT. 309 Saxifraga sp. Asphodeleae. Lilium Sp, Veronica sp. Oreodaphne sp. Umbelliferae. Polygonum sp. Labiatee. Ericacese. Artemisia sp. Lychnis sp. Lonicera Douglasii. Hieracium sp. Potentilla sp. Rubus leucodermis. Pyrola sp. Sonchus sp. Abies sp. 310 CHAPTER XIII. POLITICAL STATISTICS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company - Governor Blanshard—Germ of the Colonial Legislature—Appointment of Governor Douglas—Dispute between Independent Colonists and the Authorities—— Sources of Revenue -— First Bill of Appropriation —- Disproportionate Paraphernalia of Government—Rates of Taxation—Estimates for 1864 --Opposition of the Legislature to the Proposals of the Duke of Newcastle — The First Legislative Council of British Columbia - Reception of Governor Kennedy—The Question of Union between the two Colonies— Public Expenditure of the British Columbian Government in 1863— Check given to Immigration in 1858 by the restrictive Policy of the Colonial Government and the Hudson’s Bay Company—Testimony of the Grand Jury. Vancouver Island. IT has been shown that, by deed of grant from the Crown, the Hudson’s Bay Company were allowed abso- lute control of this colony for a period of ten years from January 1849. On the execution of that document, Richard Blanshard, Esq., was appointed first governor by Her Majesty. ' The charter provided that all civil and military ex- penses should be defrayed by the company, and his Excellency accepted office on the express understanding that the company should use proper exertion to attract population to the island, so that in a short time the local revenue from land sales _ and royalties on minerals would GOVERNOR BLANSHARD. 311 be sufficiently increased to admit of a civil list being framed for the maintenance of Government. In con- sideration of no salary being in the first instance attached to the newly created dignity, it was arranged that the governor should receive 1,000 acres of land adjacent to Victoria, and that his passage out should be paid by the company. After a residence of two years in the country his Excellency, who endeavoured to discharge his duties conscientiously, resigned office, on the ground of the unhandsome treatment he received from the local heads of the company, who failed to remunerate his services in any form. N ot even in regard to a governor’s residence was their pledge redeemed; and towards an outlay of 300l. incurred by Mr. Blanshard in the voyage out, all he received from them was 175l. Yet, in consequence of the high rate of prices occasioned by the gold-fever in the neighbouring state of California, it cost him 1,100l. per annum to live. The chief officers of the company were supplied with articles of domestic consumption at 33 per cent. advance upon cost price, the inferior oflicers at from 50 to 100 per cent, and independent settlers-- who were also compelled to purchase from the company —at the Californian rate, which was about 300 per cent. upon English invoice prices. The vexation experienced by Governor Blanshard was aggravated by this gratuitous officer of the Crown being obliged to pay for the neces- saries of life on the latter exorbitant scale?‘ On the retirement of Mr. Blanshard, Mr. Douglas was appointed as representative of Her Majesty—probably through the influence of some of the directors of the company in London, who were alive to the additional * Evidence of Governor Blanshard before the Committee of the House of Commons, on the affairs of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1857. 312 APPOINTMENT on MR. DOUGLAS. facility that would be afforded them in giving effect to their schemes of monopoly by having their chief factor at Victoria invested with the powers of Crown agent. It has been stated in the second Chapter how difficult it was for a gentleman, whose interests from xboyhood had been associated with the company, to resist altogether the temptation offered by his position to give the duties he owed his old employers, from whom he still derived the greater part of his income, precedence over those claimed by his Sovereign. The company were no longer restrained, by the presence of an impartial and independent representative of the Crown, from aggrandising themselves to the detriment of the general prosperity of the colony. But for the irre— sponsible control thus inconsiderately placed in the com- pany by the Imperial authorities, the large revenue appropr ated by the former from the sale of town allot- ments in Victoria would have passed to the colonial trea- sury, to which it legitimately belonged; and protracted disputes, still unsettled, between the Crown and the come pany as to their respective rights in the lands of the colony, would have been averted. The peculiarity of Mr. Blanshard’s situation as pioneer governor necessitated that he should unite in himself the functions of executive and judge. In the latter capacity he was chiefly occupied in adjusting differences between the company and their servants—the ordinary cause of grievance being some alleged breach of contract by the employers. The germ of colonial legislation was planted by Governor Blanshard in the formation of a legislative council, consist- ing of three members. The few settlers who were uncon— nected with the company expressed deep concern on the resignation of . the first governor, that the aegis which had INcIPIENT PARLIAMENT. 313 alone protected them from the apprehended despotism of the company should be withdrawn, and these defenceless colonists knew not how soon the lords of the soil might render their condition uncomfortable. By direction of the Right Hon. H. Labouchere, then H.M. Principal Secretary for the Colonies, Mr. Douglas, on assuming the. government, issued a proclamation in 1856, calling on freeholders, being British subjects, in the colony, to elect members to serve in the legislative as- sembly about to be constituted. The following districts were endowed with power to elect representatives, in the proportion given below :— District of Victoria . . . . 3 members. ,, Esquimalt and Metchosin . 2 ,, ,, Nanaimo . . . . 1 ,, Sooke . . . . 1 7) This incipient parliament, comprising seven members, was opened on August 12, 1856, by Governor Douglas, in a speech amusingly magniloquent for so unpretending an occasion. The qualification for voters was fixed at the value of twenty acres freehold, and candidates for legisla- tive honours were required to possess real property worth 300i. This is remarkable as the first instance of repre- sentative institutions being granted at so early a stage in the history of a British colony. Scarcely had Governor Douglas entered upon the enjoyment of his new dignity when, on the plea of pro- moting the settlement of the colony, he urged upon the Imperial Government the advisability of allowing the thousand acres set apart as a governor’s reserve to be thrown open for purchase. Whether it was by design or coincidence is not here asserted, but this land was bought almost immediately by his Excellency and the Surveyor- General, at a mere nominal figure. The governor, it will 314 NEPoTIsM 0F MR. DOUGLAS. be admitted, took disinterested and public ground, to some purpose, in his appeal to the Secretary for the Colonies; for while poor immigrants received no benefit from this concession of the home authorities, Mr. Douglas and his friend enriched themselves immensely by the opera- tion. Ever-recurring causes of irritation and discontent be- tween the settlers and the company kept the two parties in relations of perpetual discord. The first great signal for rupture, after Mr. Douglas entered upon office, was the appointment by him of his brother-in-law, Mr. Cameron, to the Chief J usticeship of the colony. This gentleman, though unversed in the mysteries of law before ascending the bench, has up to the present time exhibited a degree of prudence, firmness, and candour in his official decisions, which proves that he does not consider his position a sine- cure. Still, his relationship to the governor, the situation from which he was directly elevated, as clerk of the coal- works at N anaimo, and the disappointed ambition of rival competitors for the dignity he had attained, combined to render his appointment very unpopular. The breach be— tween the settlers and the executive was widened. They memorialised the Home Government against the services of the new judge being continued, arguing that, under so unlearned a dispenser of justice, and one in so much risk of being trammelled by his dependence on the patronage of the Hudson’s Bay Company, their lives and property were endangered. Another development of the family compact that arose beneath the rule of his Excellency was the election of Mr. Helmcken, his son-in-law, a surgeon of the company, to be Speaker of the House of Assembly. A gentleman. who married the governor’s niece became Colonial Secre- tary; a second son-in-law became Mr. Douglas’s private FIRST SUPPLY BILL. 315 secretary; and a third, Registrar-General of British Co- lumbia. The only available sources of revenue before 1858 were land sales and duty on licensed houses. The income of the island in 1853 was 220l.; in 1854, 460l.; and in 1855, 340l. The expenditure for the year 1855, up to Novem- ber 1, was 4,10”. 28. 3d. The first bill of appropriation was laid before the House in December ’56, and is a unique document which will, at some future day, be looked at as not the least interest- ing among the archives of the colony :— Whereas it is necessary that certain sums of money be voted for defraying the unavoidable expenses attending the conduction of the business of the House of Assembly of Vancouver Island, be it enacted :— 1st. That 50l. sterling be placed at the disposal of his Excel- lency the Governor, to defray the expenses of copying statistics and documents for the use of this house. 2nd. That 10l. sterling be granted to Mr. Robert Barr, for his past services as clerk of this house. 3rd. That 5l. sterling be granted to Mr. Andrew Muir, for his past services as sergeant-at-arms. 4th. That 25l. be allowed for the salary of the clerk of the house, for the year 1857. 5th. That 15l. be allowed for the salary of the sergeant-at- arms and messenger, for the year 1857. 6th. That 20l. sterling be granted for lighting, heating, and furnishing the House of Assembly for the year 1857. 7th. That 5l. sterling be granted for stationery, for the use of the members of the House of Assembly. 8th. That the above items be paid out of the revenue derived from the licences of July 16, 1856. In this primitive legislature the influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company continued to predominate till 1859, when the term of the company’s charter expired, and the colony fell under the immediate control of the Imperial Govern- 3 1 6 REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTION PREMATURE. ment. At the close of that year a new parliament was elected, when the number of representatives was increased to thirteen. Another election has since taken place, and the familiarity of Mr. Helmcken with ‘ May’s Parliamen- tary Practice,’ together with his natural shrewdness, has secured for him continuance of oflice as Speaker of the House up to the present. Next to the error of putting Crown authority in the hands of a chief trader of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was the indiscretion of granting a legislative assembly to so young a community. It is my decided impression that, even at the time I write, there is no necessity for such an institution. Till gentlemen of leisure, status, and ability could be found in sufficient numbers to apply themselves to the work of colonial legislation, and public opinion in the country has become more matured, with the ex- tended settlement of population, a governor and council would have been quite equal to tne legislative require- ments of the island. I do not say that any grave inconvenience has arisen hitherto from the apparatus for making laws already at work in the colony; still, a small legislative assembly, com- posed principally of men of small means, unpaid for their services, may be in danger of carrying or impeding measures from interested motives; and where the inha- bitants are not generally of so permanent a description as to feel induced to watch with jealous care the debates of the House, facilities for such a breach of public trust are not wanting. Were irresponsible power lodged in the hands of an accredited and well-tried governor appointed by the Crown, there would be a safer guarantee that useful laws would be more expeditiously ‘passed, and the interests of the people more efl’ectually promoted. The paraphernalia of government that now surrounds soURcEs or REVENUE. 317 our nascent colony is too elaborate to be suited to the simplicity of present wants, vividly recalling a picture in ‘ Punch ’ of Lord John Russell in the clothes of Sir Robert Peel, when the former succeeded to the premiership which had just been vacated by the latter. Those who remember the striking disparity apparent in the figures of the two men will at once perceive the force of the illus- tration. Besides a House of Assembly, there is an Executive Council, embracing a few officials of Government; and a Legislative Council, in which sit the Chief Justice, Treasurer, Attorney-General, Registrar-General, the Co- lonial Secretary (when not holding a seat in the Lower House), and several private citizens appointed by the Governor. The chief sources of colonial revenue at present avail- able are a tax of one per cent. assessed upon the market value of real estate, and a trading licence levied as follows z—Colonial traders pay an annual licence of five pounds, and on merchants and traders in general a half- yearly assessment is levied, as shown by schedule A in ‘ Trade Licences Amendment Act, 1862.’ Under £100, half-yearly . . £1 0 0 £100 and ,, 250 ,, . . 1 10 0 250 ,, 500 ,, 2 0 0 500 ,, 1,000 ,, 3 10 0 1,000 ,, 2,500 ,, 6 0 0 2,500 ,, 5,000 ,, 9 0 0 5,000 ,, 10,000 ,, l5 0 0 10,000 ,, 20,000 ,, 25 0 0 20,000 ,, 30,000 ,, 35 0 0 30,000 ,, 40,000 ,, 45 0 0 40,000 ,, 50,000 ,, 55 0 0 Above 50,000 ,, 60 0 0 Lawyers are charged at the rate of 10l.; bankers, 50L; civil engineers, architects, and surveyors, 5l.; 318 ESTIMATES FOR 1864. auctioneers, 50l.; real estate agents, 10l.; proprietors of billiard saloons, 51. per table; and keepers of bowling- alleys, 2!. 108. per annum. It will be seen, from the subjoined estimates of colonial expenditure for the year 1864, that liquor licences and land sales still yield a considerable proportion of public The proceeds from the sale of Crown lands, however, are intended to be applied to the support of income. the civil list. l—ll—JH LOP-HO @®N@@P@NH Estimates for the Year 1864. ABSTRACT OF PROBABLE REVENUE—HEADS OF REVENUE. . Real Estate Tax Trade Licences . . . . . Liquor Licences Land Sales Land Revenue . . . . . Harbour Dues . . . . Postage Dues . . . . . . Fines, Forfeitures, and Fees . . . Fees of Oflice . . . . . Miscellaneous . . . . . . Reimbursements . . . . . Lighthouses . . . . . Revenue for 1864 Arrears of Revenue , , . Due by the colony of British Columbia, on ac- count of temporary Loans, repayable on de- mand . . . . . . Due by the colony of British Columbia, on ac- count of Lighthouse expenditure . Advances to Crown Agents, London, to be ac- counted for . . . . Balance of 40,0001. Loan, undrawn 6,1681. . Advances to the heads of Departments, to be accounted for . . . . Due by the Corporation of the city of Victoria Due by the Home Government . Balance in Treasury $65,300 27,580 24,000 31,912 1,528 17,000 3,500 9,000 4,000 200 1,000 3,500 . $188,520 25,000 43,050 4,384.63 55,104.97 29,914.80 148.50 5,362 10,258.85 23,525.68 $385,869.43 ESTIMATES FOR 1864. 319 Abstract of the Sums required to defray the Expenses of the Colonial Government of Vancouver Island for 1864. HEADS OF EXPENDITURE. 1. Establishments :— Sii‘liilxs 5218358; Ofiice Rent Total The Governor . . $14,550 $14,550 Colonial Secretary . . 4,890 $500 $500 5,890 Treasurer _ . ' 4,1 . . 4, Auditor . . . . 1,095 - - 80 1,175 Surveyor-General . . 4,125 500 580 5,205 A‘ggegggr , = = = . . Harbour-Master - - 2,850 250 3,100 Postmaster . . . - - 2,800 175 2:975 Chief Justice . . . 6,380 - - 250 6,630 Attorney-General . . 2,455 - ' 250 2,705 Sheriff _ _ , , 1,000 250 100 1,350 Registrar-General . . 1,940 485 250 2,675 Commissioner of Police - - 11,735 100 11,835 Governor of Gaol . . - - 4,840 25 - 4,865 Magistrate, Nanaimo . - - 2,200 50 2,250 Legislative Council . . - - 500 100 600 House of Assembly . . - - 1,700 1:750 37450 $42,970 $28,360 $5,586 $76,916 2. Administration of Justice . . . . . 3,606 3. Charitable Allowances . . . . . 2,750 4. Police and Gaols . . . . . . 9,487 5. Rent . . . . . . . 1,760 6. Education . . . . . . . 5,000 7. Conveyance of Mails . . . . . 11,800 8. Works and Buildings . . . . . 78,078 9. Roads, Streets, and Bridges . . . . 51,800 10. Miscellaneous . . . . . . 26,112.50 11. Interest on 40,0001. Loan . . . . . 11,640 12. Sinking Fund for do. . . . . . 7,760 13. Lighthouses . . . . . . 7,000 14. Revenue Services . . . . . . 1,600 Total . . . . $295,309.50 The following sums, as compared with the tables that i 320 oPPosITIoN To THE CIVIL LIsT. precede, will show the steady advance made in the annual income of the colony. Actual Revenue for 1861 . . . . £25,291 0 l ,, 1862 . . . . 24,017 0 0 ,, 1863 . . . . 30,000 0 O The amount received in 1862 may seem to indicate retrogression in colonial prosperty. ,But the reason of this apparently adverse result was that the collection of yearly instalments, due in that year by farmers upon land bought from the Government, was postponed in conse- quence of heavy losses of stock and produce sustained by them from an unusually severe winter, for the rigours of which recent settlement had rendered them unprepared. But for this circumstance the revenue for the year 1862 would have considerably exceeded that of 1861. The civil list, detailed in the above estimates for 1864, was proposed by the Duke of Newcastle for the acceptance of the House of Assembly. His Grace intimated that the Crown lands of the colony—which were about to be con- veyed by the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Home Govern— ment, on the claims of the former being liquidated—should forthwith be assigned to the Local Legislature. The con- dition of this transfer of Crown property by the Home Government to the House was that the salaries of the governor and the heads of departments should be defrayed from the proceeds of Crown land sales. But the proposition of the Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies met with the almost unanimous opposition of the Assembly; the opinion advanced by the members being that the value, present and prospective, of the Crown lands was greatly over-estimated by the Duke of N ew— castle. Certain resolutions were passed by the House in February 1864, and the following quotation from these oPINIoN OF THE ASSEMBLY. 321 will give a general idea of the objections on which the attitude of the Assembly was based :— The Legislative Assembly having had under consideration that part of the despatch of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated June 15, 1863, wherein the pro- position is made to the effect that as soon as the Legislature of Vancouver_Island shall have provided by permanent Act a civil list, amounting in all to 5,800l. (which his Grace considers the prospects of the revenue appear to render no more than fitting), that his Grace will be prepared to hold the Crown revenue of Vancouver Island at the disposal of the Legislature, and to place the colony under a governor, distinct from British Columbia, begs leave most respectfully to observe :— That the annual revenue of Vancouver Island, including that received from the sale of Crown lands, amounts to 35,000l., and that the population does not exceed 7,500 persons. That the ordinary expenses of Government are not less than 27,000l. per annum; thus leaving a very small sum for the great necessity of the colony, viz., internal improvements. That the sum received from the sale of Crown lands in 1863 amounted to 4,500l., much of this arising from the payment of instalments upon land sold some years ago at ll. per acre. Moreover, there is reason to believe as well on account of land having been reduced to 48. per acre, as also of the amount of land being comparatively small, that the revenue from this source in future years will at all events not be greater. It may further be said that a considerable sum will be requisite for the extinction of Indian title to, and the surveying of, such land; and as a Government residence for Her Majesty’s repre- sentative does not exist, a still further outlay will be needed for the erection of such an edifice. The House is therefore of opinion that neither the condition of the general revenue, nor the income derived from Crown revenues, would justify the acceptation of the proposition of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. In the middle of 1863, the Duke of Newcastle sanc- tioned the constitution of a Legislative Council for British Y 322 RECEPTION OF GOVERNOR KENNEDY. Columbia, to be composed one half of Government officials and the other half of members elected by the people of the colony. At the close of the same year the announcement was formally made that a Governor was to be sent out for each of the colonies. It was then that the disputed civil list was first submitted for the considera- tion of the House of Assembly in Vancouver Island, and the conclusion arrived at that, as the latter colony was un- equal to maintaining eificiently a separate staff of officials, its union with British Columbia should be urgently sought. - The decision of the House to this effect had just been transmitted to the Home Government when, in March ’64., Captain Kennedy, the new Governor of the island, landed from England. The colonists, eXulting in the last link of their connection with the sway, directly and in- directly, of the Hudson’s Bay Company being broken, received the new representative of their Sovereign with manifestations of enthusiastic loyalty and respect. So delighted were they at the contrast between the guona’am fur-trapper and his gentlemanly successor that, for days after the arrival of the latter, shouts of joy and emblems of congratulation were witnessed in every direction. But‘ the gratification of Governor Kennedy by this warm reception was, doubtless, considerably moderated on his learning that his salary, in common with that of other officials, had been struck from the estimates for the year, by a unanimous vote of the Assembly. But as a man accustomed to quick and accurate observation, the Governor soon perceived that the resolutions of the House on the subject could not possibly he meant as any personal adront. The Legislature, having custody of the public rights simple, felt compelled to join issue with the Imperial Government on a measure which, if adopted according to TWO GOVERNORS UNNECESSARY. 323 the instructions of the Duke of Newcastle, must, in the opinion of the House, have entailed taxation, which would be found oppressive to a population so small as is at pre— sent in the colony. It is no evidence of unproductiveness that at so early a period of colonial. growth the expenditure of a dispropor- tionately heavy civil list cannot be met. At the same time I am unable to agree with that part of the statements recorded by both Houses of the Legislature that present incapacity to hold a separate existence as a colony argues that sufiicient revenues, from Crown lands and royalties on minerals, will not eventually be forthcoming to support comfortably an oflicial staff. Still, the purport of the opinion expressed in both Houses concerning the desirable— ness of union, every one anxious for the prosperity of the country must approve. The enquiry would naturally occur to an intelligent visitor from any Australian or Atlantic colony, why should British possessions, divided by threescore miles of water- passage, containing an aggregate population of but fifteen or twenty thousand, and whose interests are indissolubly bound up together, be launched upon a career of separate existence ? The colony of New South l/Vales, for example, continued to embrace a vast tract of country which was not cut up into a plurality of colonies till an extensive increase ‘of population had created that necessity. But this natural law governing the formation of other new settle- ments has been singularly reversed in the instance under consideration. And on whom rests the blame of this unhappy schism? Had Sir James Douglas been as anxious to conciliate from the first the not unaccountable preju- dices of the people of New Westminster as he was to assert petty dignity, and to frown upon all who did not offer that exact measure of worship which he thought due to him as Y 2 ESTIMATES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA FOR 1863. the Grand Lama, the breach between the two colonies would never have occurred.”“ British Columbia. The affairs of this colony are administered by a Governor and Legislative Council. The heads of departments in- clude a description of functionaries similar to those who conduct the public business of Vancouver Island. The Treasurer is ex-oflicio Master of the Mint, his corps con- sisting of a Chief Assayer and Chief Melter, with their assistants. The accompanying financial statement is taken from the speech of Governor Douglas, delivered at the opening of the first session of the Legislative Council, held at West- minster in January ’64, and shows a remarkably progres- sive spirit in a population that does not exceed 7,000 or 8,000, and many of that number of a migratory class. Expenditure of the Colony for the Year 1863. Debtor balance from 1862 . . . . . £9,302 Redemption of Road Bonds, created 1862 . . . 12,650 ’ Repayment of Advances to Imperial Government . . 7 ,000 Civil Establishments, including Salaries, Allowances, Ofiice Con- tingencies . . . . . . 31,615 Administration of Justice, Police Gaols . . . . 5,761 Transports and other Expenses, Works and Buildings . . 15,288 Public Roads . . . . . 83,937 Interest on Loans and Sinking Fund . . . . 13,725 Colonial Pay and Maintenance of Detachment of Royal Engineers 7,057 Conveyance of Mails . . . . . . . 2,223 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . 4,302 Total . . . . £192,860 "“ Governor Seymour, of British Columbia, showed admirable sense in the speech with which he opened the Legislative Council of that colony last December, when he gave it as his conviction that one governor of the colonies west of the Rocky Mountains was, for the present, sufficient. ESTIMATES CONTINUED. Brought forward (Expenditure) The Public Revenue for the same period has produced, in round numbers . . . £110,000 Bonds created and Loans contracted in aid of Revenue 65,805 Excess of Expenditure over Income Due to Imperial Government in Repayment of Expenditure made on account of the Barracks and other Military Buildings erected for the use of Royal Engineers at New Westminster Total . . . 0 Charge to be brought against the Revenue of 1864 :— Road Bonds falling due in ’64 £4,250 Interest on Loans . . 8,000 Sinking Fund . . . . 6,500 Expenditure on Civil Establishments, viz. Salaries, Allowances, and Contingencies . . . . . Other ordinary Expenses, viz. :— Revenue Services _ £425 Administration of Justice 1,900 Police and Gaols 3,650 Charitable Allowances 400 Education 500 Rent . 150 Transport . . 8,265 Conveyance of Mails . 4,000 Works and Buildings . . 3,900 Roads, Streets, and Bridges (Repairs 5,000 Miscellaneous Services . . 3,500 800 Lighthouses . . Total of ordinary, necessary, and probable Expen- diture for 1864 . . . . Estimated Revenue from all sources for 1864 . £120,000 Expenditure . . . . 107,910 Surplus for 1864 325 £192,860 175,805 17,055 10,700 £27,755 27,490 £107,910 “ £12,090 Instead of a surplus, however, the unforeseen expenses attending the pursuit and trial of Indians concerned in the fearful massacres perpetrated in the colony last year, amounting altogether to 16,000l., will cause the public accounts for ’64 to show a small deficit. 826 POLICY or GOVERNOR DOUGLAS. Comparative Statement of Customs Revenue (exclusive of Road Tolls) from 1859-1863. 1859 . . . . . $88,945.89 1830 . . . . . 171,010.03 1831 . . . . . - 181,701.94 1832 * . . . . . 284,017.34 1833 . . . . . 273,131.10 A serious check was given to the advancement of this colony by the restrictive policy of Governor Douglas, in his double capacity as agent of the Hudson’s Bay Company and representative of the Crown in 1858, when a large immigration afforded an opportunity for rapid develop— ment which may not soon return. The despatches of Sir Bulwer Lytton, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, repeatedly urged upon the Governor the adoption of a liberal policy, and, as the sequel shows, not without suflicient reason. His Excellency issued orders that every person entering Fraser River should be charged $2 head money; that each miner should pay a royalty of $5, and that no one should be allowed to trade without first obtaining a permit, for which another charge was made. This latter arrangement, however, was a mere ruse, by which the public were made to suppose that they were at liberty to do business in British Columbia, though the monopoly of the company remained uninterrupted; for when permits were applied for they were not to be had. The truth was that the company sought to exclude all goods from the country except such as might be shipped by themselves or bought at their stores. A permit was required to legalise the act of cutting down a tree or picking up drift-wood on the beach for cooking purposes! For every cord of wood sold by an axeman * The special increase this year was occasioned by unusually large immi- gration. POLICY or GOVERNOR DOUGLAS. 327 he was charged ten per cent. N o shelter could be erected between the head of the miner and the nightly chill Without a tax of 37% being paid for the privilege. N o canoe, navigated by white men, not servants of the com~ pany, could ascend the Fraser without a ‘sufferance ’ charge of 8 6 being exacted. There was a similar impost upon vessels, amounting to $12. Head-money and licence to trade, to run up a log shanty or pitch a tent, were charges believed to have been made by the Governor as chief factor of the company, under warrant of their claim to the exclusive right of trading in the territory, though that alleged right had relation, according to the terms of the charter, only to transactions with the Indians. A mule-tax was subsequently attempted to be imposed by Mr. Douglas in behalf of the Crown, but was overruled by the united voice of the inhabitants. There was every propriety in measures being planned for raising ‘a revenue to defray expenses connected with Government and the public works of the colony. But it was thought the tariff already in force—given in a pre- vious chapter—with certain other taxes, would yield sufficient to meet present wants. To saddle with an incubus of taxation adventurous pioneers, intrepid ex~ plorers, and enterprising traders, who were staking their all in developing a country bristling with formidable difficulties of access, evinced a degree of governmental inexperience and mismanagement without parallel in the history of British colonisation. The most liberal encou- ragement ought to have been extended to those hardy and industrious immigrants, irrespective of their nationality, who were willing to bear the tremendous risks necessarily incident to the primary stage of colonial settlement. But his Excellency entertained undisguised and indiscrimi- nate prejudice against persons hailing from California. 328 CHECK T0 IMMIGRATION IN 1858. Doubtless the first tide of immigration from that State wafted to the colony many unruly members of society. But that class is by no means confined to the United States; and justice compels me to state that but for the energy and perseverance brought to bear by those from the neighbouring Republic, our resources would still have remained comparatively sealed. The capitalists of Great Britain have thus far appeared even less interested in British Columbia than they are in many a foreign country. It might naturally be supposed that after witnessing the disastrous results of the policy I have indicated in the reduction of the population from 30,000 to one-fifteenth part of that number—which was the state of things on my arrival, eighteen months after the excitement of March ’58——the Governor would have shown signs of regret for previous indiscretion. Yet in his first conversation with me at Government House he still clung to the opinion that ‘ foreigners ought not to be encouraged to extract the precious metals from our soil to enrich their own territory.’ Rather than permit the merchants of California, on whom we were unavoidably dependent for supplies, in the first instance-owing to our great distance from other parts of the British empire—to profit by the trade which would be created by throwing open our mines to the world, his Excellency would keep our mineral treasures locked up. Had so glaring a fallacy been acted upon by the authorities of California in 1849, when crowds rushed to that State in quest of gold, and barriers been delibe- rately thrown in the way of traders from Chili, whence most grain imports were brought to feed the gold-seekers, how injurious must have been the effect upon the settle- ment of the magnificent lands watered by the Sacramento .and the San Joachin! The representatives of every clime, REn-TAPEIsM. 329 however, were admitted with equal welcome to compete in the race for the precious metal, and in fifteen years a population of nearly a million has collected in a State the most prosperous in the world. True to the exclusive propensities nurtured under the regime of the company, his Excellency dreaded rapid progress as associated with anarchy, foreign annexation, and other frightful appari- tions of a mind habituated to the associations of semi— barbarism. The absurdity of his conduct could not have been more flagrant had he imagined the wealth of the colony to be most effectually secured by retaining the gold in the earth. It seemed to have been his impression that unless our resources were disembedded by purely English hands, colonial impoverishment must inevitably ensue. But no one need be informed that the riches of a country are only fictitious till its productions are evolved by capital and labour, and occasion money to be put in circulation. Multitudes hastened in former years to California and Australia from every part of Europe, with the intention of simply acquiring a competency, and afterwards returning to their native country. But in most cases their affections became gradually loosened from their former homes, and entwined around their new abode, till at length they resolved to make the latter a permanent place of residence. Thus would it have been with thousands who visited British Columbia seven years ago, the benefit of whose means and industry were hopelessly lost to the country through the blunders of the local executive. The cumbrous system of ‘ red-tapeism ’ which hindered the development of the mines, proved equally mischievous in preventing the settlement of agricultural districts. Land in ’58 could rarely be had in British Columbia on any terms, not even at the Government price. The uni~ 330 No LAND AT ANY PRICE. ‘form reply to all who made application for farming tracts was, that the land must first be surveyed under ofiicial direction, and put up at auction, before it could be taken possession of, and that all squatters would be visited with summary ejectment. Such was the repulsive salutation with which hundreds were met on their arrival, who had broken up fond ties elsewhere, and undertaken an expen- sive voyage, with the view of cultivating the soil-men who were at once unhindered by natural obstacles, and furnished with the means of improving farming allotments. Nor did this injudicious mode of treatment on the part of the authorities result merely in the exclusion of the parties immediately concerned, but also in that of many of their relations, who would probably have been subsequently attracted to the country by their representations. Mr. D. G. F. Macdonald, whom I cannot recommend as an infallible guide in general to intending emigrants, nevertheless records a well-authenticated illustration of this ofiicial folly. He applied to the Chief Commissioner of Lands, in behalf of certain clients, for a thousand acres of land, in March 185 9. A proclamation had been issued by the Governor, dated February of that year, to the effect ‘ that the price of land not being intended for the sites of towns, and not being expected to be mineral lands, shall be ten shillings per acre, payable one half in cash at the time of the sale, and the other half at the end of two years from such sale. Provided that under special circum- stances some other price, or some other terms of payment, may from time to time be specially announced for parti- cular localities.’ After considerable delay, the Chief Com- ' missioner, doubtless at the suggestion of the Governor, declined to entertain the application of Mr. Macdonald, though. made in exact conformity to the terms of the proclamation. The latter gentleman was obliged to inform DOINGS IN THE LAND OFFICE. 331 his clients that the lands could not be had at any price till first surveyed and put up at public auction, no efforts being made by the authorities to facilitate the object sought. Many other applicants for land, having all the qualities suitable for rendering them successful pioneer farmers, driven away by the narrow and dilatory policy of those in power, have since distributed themselves in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Witnesses examined recently before the Crown Lands Committee in Vancouver Island, in ’64, brought to light culpable acts committed in the Land Office of that colony in ’58, whereby the desires and hopes of intending settlers were similarly disappointed. When a wish was expressed by an applicant to record a piece of land, and the Colonial Surveyor suspected it to be of superior quality, his custom was to ask the person to call in a day or two that he might obtain time to ascertain whether or not it had been previously disposed of. It is reported that in the meantime he communicated with certain of his land- speculating friends; and should they feel inclined to buy it, the one having a prior right of application was put off with the story that the holding on which he had set his mind was already the property of another.* The high price of land demanded by the Government in British Columbia at the outset was of itself a sufficiently powerful drawback to the progress of agricultural settle- ment, without the addition of such annoyances as have been described. What could have induced the Govern- ment to charge 108. per acre for land in that colony, when it could be ‘pre-empted’ south of the 49th parallel at little more than 48. per acre, it is difficult to conceive. The policy of the United States Government, admirably suited to promote the spread of agriculture, allows to every * Evidence of Mr. Homfray, C.E., before the Crown Lands Committee. 332 GRAND JURY TESTIMONY. head of a family 160 acres of unsold land, whether sur- veyed or not, at the figure just specified, payable in " instalments. A liberal modification of this system now obtains in British territory on both sides of the Gulf of Georgia. But the change was not brought about till one remonstrance after another was addressed to the Governor, and multitudes, with patience exhausted, had made their exit from the country. The testimony of the grand jury of the colony, com- posed of the most intelligent citizens, in deliberating upon its grievances in 1860, substantiates the view of the subject that has been advanced above. It was asserted in their published declaration that, about the period to which my remarks refer, two hundred British subjects had been com- pelled to leave the country, within a few weeks, in conse- quence of the unjustifiable delay that was suffered to elapse in providing them with land for settlement, and that many had expended a great part of their limited means while awaiting the decision of the Government. The grand jury ‘ expressed their unqualified disapproval of land being sold by auction, as that course enabled the I speculator to purchase to the detriment of the settler.’ Every facility ought ungrudgingly to be afforded the industrious bona-fide tiller of the ground entering the wilds of a new country, with perhaps a family,‘ and subject to the endurance of unavoidable hardships and privations. So far from throwing barriers in his way, it were more expedient to convey the land to him in free grant as an inducement to exertion. But that the monopoly of land— speculators may be repressed, would, without the least hesitation or pity for their condition, advocate that their holdings, whether consisting of town or city property, should be taxed double. The general statistics presented in this volume will ere MIsRULE TERMINATED. 333 this have convinced the reader that the period of govern- mental empiricism and misrule has disappeared, and that the colonies have at length entered on a career of pros- perity the future of which will disappoint the fears of the most incredulous, and surpass the expectations of the most hopeful. NOTE. A period of severe financial depression was experienced in Victoria during last winter, arising from over speculation in trading and mining. Certain colonial politicians have taken occasion to ascribe this panic to the free-port system, and have for the moment succeeded in carrying with them in this View many farmers and mechanics, who not unnaturally desire protection for their several industries. But the wealthier classes, though in the minority, as electoral voters, are of a very different opinion. It is reported that Go- vernor Kennedy—desiring, properly enough, to be supported in a manner more befitting the Representative of Her Majesty than he has been hithGl'tO —sanctions the proposal in order to swell the revenue of the island by the imposition of a tariff. But to adopt this expedient would inevitably arrest the progress of the colony. We have no industrial interest in Vancouver Island worth protecting, and if any impediment be thrown in the way of the free ingress of trade to Victoria, the chief source of local prosperity will be seriously injured. The trappings of Government, no doubt, have their advantage, provided they be not in advance of the extent and necessities of the settlement. But when out of proportion to the numbers and ability of the population, and when staple interests are sacrificed to sustain them, they must prove the opposite of beneficial. If free scope be given to the opera- tions of trade, the wealth of the city will be rapidly augmented and ex- pended by merchants through whose hands it passes, in the erection of costly warehousm "nd dwellings and in domestic luxuries. Employment will thus be given to every sort of handicraft in the colony, and commodities for the supply of the inhabitants will be obtainable at moderate prices. If agricultural and manufacturing interests be protected, as of the first con- sideration, the rate of living, generally, will be increased; and while com- merce will consequently be checked, the’ former pursuits, which must for many years, in any case, be of secondary importance, will not be materially benefited. A. recent mail brings intelligence of a change in the Customs tariff of British Columbia. With the design of encouraging direct shipments from foreign ports to New Westminster, an Act has been passed by which duties in this entrepo‘t shall be henceforth leviable on the invoice value of goods at the place of shipment, instead of, as formerly, on their value at lVew Westminster. An Act has also passed the Legislative Council of British Columbia, authorising an expor duty on gold. 334 CHAPTER XIV. PROPOSED INTEROCEANIC RAILWAY— EMIGRANT ROUTE AND TELEGRAPH—THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE GROWTH OF THE COLONIES. Westward, Ho !——Trade with the East coveted by Western Nations from remotest Antiquity—The Tyrians, &c.—Alexander the Great—Antiochus —Mahomet—-The Arabians—Effect of the Discovery of a Passage to India via the Cape of Good Hope—America found in the Search for the shortest Route to the East—Why has this Communication, so indus- triously sought, never been practically realised P—Eastern Trade now to flow across to the American Side of the Pacific, and great Cities to grow up in its Track— The Americans preparing to receive and distribute Eastern Commerce by the Construction of an Inter-Oceanic Railway— Would such a Line on the British Side pay ?—It must prove the shortest possible Route to Australia and China as well as British Columbia—The political Utility of the Scheme—How transcendent its Influence upon Victoria—Most- eligible Tract of Country for the proposed Railway “3 Singular natural Features of the great Valleys through which the Line would pass, favoring its Construction—Central Position of Red River Settlement—Road vz'ci St. Paul’s—Alleged Difficulties in the Way of ex- tending the Line from Fort Garry to Canada—Railway Enterprise not likely to take immediate Effect—Emigrant Route imperatively demanded— The Course it should take from Lake Superior—How are the territorial Rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company to be adjusted ?—Dr. Rae and the Telegraph—Climate and Soil of the Country between Canada and British Columbia—The Adaptability of Red River and Saskatchewan for C010- nisation—The Gold Discoveries East of the Rocky Mountains and their Attractions—Passes in the Range—Lord Milton’s J ourney—Distances from Lake Superior to Cariboo—Strides of Russia in opening up Water and Telegraphic Communication between the vAmoor River, Sitka, and St. Petersburg—Designs of Napoleon III. in Relation to Mexico and Trade in the Pacific—By whom is the desired Route to be formed ?— Note. THE prospects and advantages of Victoria as a convenient ‘depot for storing British and French goods intended for Irma-m ‘1 l ' Q 1' 8'? LAWRENCE MAW’ 0F QQUNTRY u- be Cros s ed BY PROPOSED WAGGON ROAD & TELEGRAPH. English Miles. > ‘v ‘I Hdvflwultoc. Ln» ‘A! Aw W ta‘tAn a m I an,“ _ 120 .. Znndam Long/um 1.5 w. RAILWAY SCHEME SLOW BUT SURE. 335 distribution throughout countries on the American shores of the Pacific, have already been pointed out. The free- port system adopted in that city, taken in connection with our exports of timber and fish, which meet with a pro- fitable and increasing market in China, give Victoria unrivalled facilities for ultimately becoming also a vast emporium for Eastern commerce. The day is approach- ing when the choice products of China, Japan, and India will be discharged at our Wharves for trans-shipment not only to the order of buyers in the adjoining American, Mexican, and other States on the coast, but to the consign- ment of merchants in the cities of Canada, the Northern United States touching the boundary of British North America, and in those future centres of population whose industry will yet enliven and reclaim the trackless but fertile solitudes lying between the Rocky Mountains and Lake Huron. Does the reader enquire by what mode of transit this merchandise is to be conveyed to those destinations in the interior, on the frontier, and on the banks of the St. Lau- rence? I reply, by a British North American railway which shall unite the Atlantic with the Pacific. I have ceased to be sanguine respecting the speedy accomplish- ment of this project under the parsimonious policy pur- sued by the Home Government in reference to the colonies, and considering the indifference with which they are regarded by the British public generally. But the tide of human migration that has since the creation of our race been rolling westward from Asia, still advances rest- lessly toward the lands of the setting sun, undeterred by the turbulent waters of the Atlantic or the lonely wilds of the great American continent. As certainly as Europe, once the abode of barbarians, has become densely studded with the homes of civilisation, so will the expanse of 336 TRADE WITH THE EAsT. prairie and forest on British soil, extending from ocean to ocean, become cheerful with the sound of well-remune— rated industry, and beautiful with the ornaments‘ of cultivation. The multiplying commercial necessities of this multitude, whose watchward is ‘ Westward, ho!’ will unavoidably create the great machinery of transit to which I have referred. As time progresses, and the relation of England to eastern countries grows still more intimate, the expe- diency of making an interoceanic railway to run the entire distance through British America will be more and more felt both on commercial and political grounds. Control of trade with the East has been coveted as a prime source of wealth by western nations from the remotest antiquity. Mercantile communities engaged, from age to age in carrying eastern freight, have? in- variably prospered from the undertaking, and the grandest cities of ancient and modern times have owed much of their splendour to the fact of this rich traffic passing through them. In the degree in which that all-absorbing trade was at any time diverted from an accustomed channel, the commercial centres that had previously re- ceived an impulse from it declined. The Tjfrians, Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English afford monumental proof of these statements. Alexander the Great, directly he had obtained a foot~ ing in India, set about opening up communication between that country and his western possessions. Failing to discover a suitable overland route, he sent a fleet down the Indus to explore the passage thence to the mouth of the Euphrates. Not satisfied with the route via the valley of the latter river, he resolved to bring the wealth of India to Europe by the Red Sea and the Nile. He fixed on the western mouth of that stream as the site of the city ANCIENT COMMERCE WITH MECCA. 337 which was to perpetuate the memory of his name and his commercial sagacity. But in proportion as Alexandria flourished, Petra, Palmyra, Tyre, and Constantinople de- cayed. Antiochus the Great, Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah, all sought, like the mighty general referred to, to enrich their kingdoms by encouraging commerce with India and the countries beyond; and what privileges they could not secure from eastern nations by request, they endeavoured to extort by force of arms.* Mahomet-himself once an experienced and a shrewd merchant—permitted his followers to associate objects of commerce with their religious pilgrimages to Mecca; and it is difficult to say how much they were indebted to this cause for the astonishing spread of their faith in the eastern parts of Asia. Large caravans of pilgrims from the distant regions of the East, as well as from the shores of the Atlantic, travelled to Mecca, and the hope of dis- posing of their wares profitably at that religious mart gave a considerable impulse to commerce by sea and land. In the holy city were exposed for sale the chintzes and muslins of Bengal, the shawls of Cashmere, the spicts * In the Persian era extensive commerce was carried on between the Greek cities on the Black Sea and all the interior of Sythia, north and east from Siberia to India. Different caravan routes were used, and cities grew up at both ends of these routes, and large de’pé‘ts were established on the way . . . The Hindoos in their most ancient works are represented as a commercial people. Their commodities were known in the markets of Phoenicia, Carthage, Egypt, and Babylon. In the Arabian M'ghts and in the Rama- yana, merchants appear as having travelled from one place to another all over the world, and as men possessed of liberal views, high rank, and of the highest intelligence. . . . A regular chain of mercantile nations extended at a very remote day from China to India and to the Black Sea, and to the countries on the Mediterranean, and also to Arabia and Egypt, through the cities of the Indus, the Euphrates, and the Red Sea. Gold was so plentiful that iron was more precious. Their armour and their horses’ bridle-bits were plated with it, as also many of their vessels—Trade and Letters, by Dr. W. A. Scott, p. 150. Z 338 BASSORAH—CONSTANTINOPLE AND cmNA. of Malabar, the diamonds of Golconda, the pearls of Kilcare, the cinnamon of Ceylon, the nutmegs and cloves of the Moluccas, and-the silks of China. The transactions at the annual fair in Mecca were for many years the largest in the world. The Arabians, under Caliph Omar, witnessed a remark- able improvement in their condition from the potent cause now under consideration. From being ~barbarian hordes, violent robbers, ‘ dwellers in tents,’ and despisers of civilisation, they became patrons of art, contributors to science and literature, and founders of cities. So highly did they come to value mercantile relations with the East, that they built Bassorah to protect their monopoly of eastern trade; and it is significant that their overwhelm- ing power as conquerors and as propagators of religion was contemporaneous with their being the exclusive car- riers between China and Europe. Their trade was uni— versal in the Indian Archipelago, and their vessels plied from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea to all the ports of China. So numerous were the Saracens at one period in Canton that the emperor granted his sanction to their having a cadi of their own religion. Trade then flowed from the north-west of China to Constantinople, and in— fused into that city new life. So marked was the in- fluence thus exerted on Constantinople that Robertson asserts that the decline of the Roman empire, of which it was then the capital, was retarded in consequence. When the trade of India was attracted by the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates, and the Syrian desert, ‘ Tadmor in the Wilderness ’ burst into splendour like a gigantic tro- pical blossom. In presence of great and ambitious neigh- bours, it long maintained its prosperity, and even rivalled ‘ the eternal city.’ Egypt, Mesopotamia, and a large section of Asia Minor, were subdued by its arms, and its THE TRADE OF INDIA—ITS COURSE. 339 renowned Queen Zenobia did not shrink from contesting dominion with a great Roman emperor. When, subse- quently, eastern commerce was diverted from the Persian to the Arabian Gulf, the sun of Babylon, Bassorah, Palmyra, and Tyre went down, and Petra arose as the medium of supplying Europe with Oriental merchandise, and subsequently Alexandria became renowned in the same capacity. The glory of Venice, ‘ the bride of the sea;’ of Genoa, ‘ the superb, the city of palaces;’ of Florence, the metropolis of the arts; of Bruges, the great distributing centre of eastern goods for western Europe under the Hanseatic league; of Antwerp, Lisbon, and London,—the glory, I repeat, of all these cities, whether as seats of commerce, manufactures, learning, or art, is derived, in various degrees, from their being mouths to receive Oriental freight for the supply of countries by which they were respectively surrounded. The discovery of a path to India by the Cape of Good Hope led to a revolution, not only in the route between Europe and the eastern parts of Asia, but also in what is known as the political‘ balance of power.’ The golden tide now swept the shores of Portugal, and by sharing the boon that had enriched so many other peoples, she swelled into the proportions of a commercial empire, vying in opulence, political wisdom, and energy with the proudest nations of that time. The next great historical event bearing upon commerce with the East, and the issues of which are destined to be fully realised only on the Pacific shores of the western world, was the discovery of America. The hope that stimulated the ambition and reused the energy of Columbus, in undertaking that first exploratory voyage westward, was that across the untracked waters of the Atlantic, ‘ lay the true, the shortest, and the best way to the ' z 2 340 OBJECT or THE SEARCH FOR THE riches of the East.’ All the earlier expeditions of dis- covery from Europe to the shores of the western con- tinent had their origin in this idea. It was in prosecuting the search of a passage to the East that the seaboard of America came to be more accurately known. It was while exploring for a maritime route to China that John Cabot, in the reign of Henry VII., discovered the coast of Newfoundland and afterwards entered the St. Laurence. The thought that gave inspiration to all the luckless attempts that have been made by England, during the last seventy years, to find a north-west passage, was that tratfic with the East might be facilitated. At length the enterprise ‘has been demonstrated to be impossible. It has been well said that, in passing through the icy portals of the Arctic Sea in 1850_1851, M‘Clure, as far as mercantile interests were concerned, closed the gates behind him.* In these heroic adventures the instinct and aspiration of ages were not altogether mistaken. America is geographically or by nature—that is, in other words, is in the order of creation—~a connecting link between the continents of Europe and Asia, and not a monstrous barrier between them. It lies in the track of their nearest and best connection, and this fact needs only to be fully recognised to render it in practice what it unquestionably is in the essential points of distance and direction. It may be asked, if this be so, how can it be explained that this communication, always thus earnestly longed for and in- dustriously sought, has never yet been made a practical reality? Chiefly, I should answer, because that communication was never sought in the way in which it does exist, and because it is not to be found-—it is not there—in the shape in which it has nearly always been sought. A maritime passage has been the object of all preceding ages, and, practically and generally speaking, * Mr. Pemberton states that Arctic expeditions from 1800 to 1845 alone cost England upwards of 1,000,000Z. sterling. NoRTH-wEsT PASSAGE—WHY A FAILURE? 84.] there is none; but what there is——a passage across the continent by rivers, lakes, and land—has become of greater value than could have ever been a merely maritime passage. Two irresistible agents are at work bringing to light the incalculable value of that conformation so long deemed an insuperable obstacle. They have changed the requirements for the attainment of the objects of the north-west passage, and have disclosed the inexhaustible latent wealth of a land instead of a maritime passage. Railroads and the electric telegraph will cause new commerce and new activity to spring up at every step along the distance. . . . It is too late, alas! too late, to lament over the waste of life, of money, and of energy, that have been expended in repeated Arctic voyages, which were impossible of success, so far as related to any passage of practical use; but they serve to illustrate very forcibly the predominance of the ideas of maritime effort- and of maritime connection with the Pacific. . . . The lavish and continued expenditure thus incurred appears in striking contrast to the rigid refusal simultaneously main- tained of all aid to the prosecution of the same work and of the same object in its practicable form by land; and this refusal, amounting almost to opposition, has extended from the days of M ‘Kenzie, the first great discoverer of both the northern and western coasts of the continent, and is not yet perfectly dispelled.‘ It has been shown how the transportation of ‘eastern commodities in a westerly direction in by-gone ages, by v. rious routes, affected successively the growth of cities that served as mediums of this commerce. By a similar process great commercial centres are destined to spring up on the American coast of the Pacific. The young and thriving populations that swarm with such fabulous rapi- dity on the western shores of the American continent will soon be found emulating the zeal and enterprise of ancient nations in regard to commerce with the East; and as that "“ Paper read on ‘ Central British North America,’ by Col. Synge, R.E., F.R.G.S., July 21, 1864, before the British North American Association. 342 TRADE WITH THE PAcIEIe THROUGH B. N. AMERICA. traffic has in the past been wafted westward to Europe, it is now beginning to flow eastward for transmission over the American continent. That nation, therefore, which possesses the greatest ‘topographical facilities for uniting the two oceans by a railway, and is forward in improving them, will unquestionably become master of the situation. The fear, however, cannot be altogether repressed that, notwithstanding the obvious physical advantages presented by our territory for the execution of this great and desir- able work, those advantages may be nullified by our national indifference about the matter, and our designs forestalled by our more progressive neighbours. ' Would that the cogent appeal of Lord Bury, some years since (a noble- man who has no superior in the British Legislature in acquaintance with this subject), were duly pondered by the Government and the people :-- _ Our trade in the Pacific Ocean with China and with India must ultimately be carried on through our North American possessions; at any rate, our political and commercial supremacy will have utterly departed from us if we neglect that very great and im- portant consideration, and if we fail to carry out to its fullest extent the physical advantages which the country ofi’ers to us, and which we have only to stretch out our hands to take ad- vantage of. The House of Representatives at Washington, several years ago, as is well known, passed a Bill for the comple- tion of ' an iron road from the Atlantic to the Pacific States. The line, already as far west as Atchison in Missouri, is steadily extending to California, and another line from ‘the proposed terminus in that State is advancing to meet it?‘ The peculiar natural obstacles that oppose the construction of an interoceanic railway through it The House ‘of Representatives at Washington passed a Bill in February last, granting a subsidy to a line of steamers about to be established for carrying mails from San Francisco to China. WOULD A RAILWAY PAY? 343 American territory, as contrasted with the much fewer trials of engineering skill to be met with on the British side, furnish an opportunity of our yet being first, if we will, to complete this momentous enterprise, even at the eleventh hour. Ever since the discovery of gold in Cali- fornia, the ablest military engineers of the United States have been engaged in searching for a practicable outlet in the Rocky Mountains; but not a single pass has been detected for 1,000 miles south of the 49th parallel less than 6,000 feet high. In 1855, Mr. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, stated that ‘the only practicable route for railway communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of North America is through the Hud- A son’s Bay territory, on account of the desert land from the north boundary of the United States to the extreme south of Texas.’ In 1858, the Governor of Minnesota also admitted that ‘ a great interoceanic communication is more likely to be constructed through the Saskatchewan basin than across the American desert—the cretaceous and comparatively rainless areas of the southern latitudes within the territories of the United States.’ But the practical enquiry is, Would the proposed work be satisfactory as an investment? There can be no doubt that the outlay would be large, but it is believed that the amount of direct traffic which would be created between ‘Australia, China, India, Japan, and England, by a railway from Halifax to the Gulf of Georgia, would soon more than cover interest upon the capital expended. The dis~ tance between Liverpool and Vancouver Island, which, in}? Panama, is over 9,000 miles, would be reduced by the railway to 5,650. There would also be a saving of twenty-two days in this passage as compared with the quickest existing route. If the intended railway were connected with a line of steamers plying between Victoria TO HONG—KONG AND AUSTRALIA VIA VICTORIA. (V. I.), Sydney, and New Zealand, mails, quick. freight, and cabin passengers to and from our colonies in the southern hemisphere would, for the most part, be secured for this route. Vancouver Island is nearer to Sydney than Panama is by 900 miles, and, with the exception of the proposed route by a trans-American railway, the latter is the most expeditious that has yet been found. But with this interoceanic communication, the time to New Zealand would be reduced to forty'two, and to Sydney to forty’ seven days, being at least ten days less than by steam from England via Panama. - The following table will illustrate the distance and time ‘in the Vancouver Island route from England to Hong- Kong, as contrasted with the present mail route via the Isthmus of Suez :— Distance overland by Suez from Southampton to _ Hong-Kong . . . . . 9,467 miles—50—6O days. Distance from South- - ampton to Halifax 2,532 miles—9 days’- steam. Distance from Halifax _ to Vancouver Island 2,536 ,, 6 ,, rail. Distance from Van- couver Island to Hong-Kong . 6,053 ,, 21 ,, steam. \ 11,121 miles—36 days. As compared with routes now used between England, China, and Australia, this one possesses the advantage of shortening the time spent at sea, as well as of being actually the quickest. A ‘great proportion of passengers to those parts of the globe, who now travel by Suez or the Cape of Good Hope, might be expected to select in pre— ference the railway through British North America, as less trying to the constitution, as well as more expeditious than the routes now in use. In these busy days, when the saying ‘Time is money’ is more remarkably exempli- fied than ever, this proposition in reference to our postal POLITICAL UTILITY OF THE TRANS—AMERICAN ROUTE. 345 relations and passenger communications with the countries above mentioned cannot very much longer escape the attention of political economists and men of business. Another noteworthy circumstance may be stated as placing the success of the project here advocated beyond dispute. The present passage by steamer from New York to San Francisco extends over twenty-four days; by the contemplated iron road, with regular steam communica- tion between Victoria and San Francisco, the passage would be reduced to thirteen days. ‘A considerable part of the teeming multitudes that with freight and treasure are continually in transit between California and the Atlantic States would, in that case, be induced to prefer a mode of conveyance which should combine speed and exemption from the inconveniences of a tedious voyage through the tropics.* But the importance of this railroad scheme is enhanced when its political utility is considered. British Columbia and Vancouver Island constitute the western terminus of a future belt of settlements that shall stretch eventually from ocean to ocean; and military emergencies may occur, if not in the present, in some coming generation, when necessity for such a great highway to our eastern possessions, wholly through British territory, may be strongly felt. Happily, Great Britain lives at present on terms of amity with the rest of the civilised world. Can we be certain, however, that in the extension of French power eastward, British and French interests will never come in collision ? Is it impossible to predict what may be the issue of the noiseless but real self—aggrandising policy of France in seeking fresh acquisitions of territory "‘ If our railway be not made within seven years, this latter remark will cease to have force. In spite of physical difficulties, I believe the Americans will have theirs finished in that period. 346 TRUE NoRTH wEsT PAssAGE. in the Mediterranean, and in expending so vast an amount upon the formation of the canal across the Isthmus of Suez? In the event of war with that or any other European Power interrupting the existing overland passage from England by the Red Sea, it is almost needless to remark that our Indian empire would be placed in immi- nent jeopardy. Should we, under these circumstances, be destitute of those facilities for the expeditious transport (of troops and military stores which the proposed line of railway could alone adequately supply, actum est would be aptly descriptive of all we hold dear in the East. On the supposition of this true north-west passage being made,-how transcendent the prospects of Victoria! Our geographical position and surrounding resources in every variety are of themselves advantages sufficient to ensure for us a great future. But with the increased impetus to trade and commerce that such a railway would give, how immensely would that progress be accelerated, and how much more brilliant would that future become! Our central situation in relation to extensive lines of convey- ance southward and eastward, by land and by sea, would at once elevate our port into an emporium for the supply of British and eastern merchandise to all the countries on the coast, as well as a point of transit for goods and passengers bound to and from England and the East. Apropos of this subject, an able article in a recent number of the ‘ Money Market Review’ contains the following :— That under these circumstances the railway will be made, sooner or later, there can be no doubt. . . . With interests so numerous, so vast, and with such means at command, the diffi~ culty of constructing this Hudson’s Bay Railway ought to assume the most moderate proportions. Great Britain, Europe, Canada, the States of America, British Columbia, New Zealand, Austra- lia, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the International Financial Society, all want the railway, and would all gain by the railway; ELIGIBLE TRAcT OF COUNTRY. 347 and it would be amazing if, with such interests and such re- sources, it could not be made, and be made properly. In India, State guarantees have been given, and are promised upon rail- way capital sufficient to construct this line ten times over; and it is a question whether any one Indian railway is more useful than this even for State purposes. In introducing the question of the most eligible tract of country for laying down the proposed line of railway, it may be mentioned generally that the principle known as ‘great circle sailing,’ by which distance is shortened in long voyages, may be advantageously followed in travel- ling westward across the American continent. Commu- nication with the East is made shorter and shorter the farther north its line of route is removed. The applica- tion of a string to the measurement of the distance between two places on a geographical globe will at once elucidate the system of sailing or travelling on ‘ the spherical line of shortest distance.’ The greatest breadth of the western continent happening to lie in British North American ter- ritory, here, by an apparent paradox, but nevertheless on the principle just adverted to—universally acknowledged in practical navigation—we have the shortest possible route from England to the East. It is an interesting cir- cumstance that where we desired the connection between eastern Asia and western Europe, should be formed through the American continent, there ‘ almost every possible faci- lity for its formation is lavishly afforded.’ Here, where the climate is the most healthful of the continent, within territories still acknowledging the flag of England, still forming part of the empire, the most interested of any nation in quick and in secure communication with the East, and in ‘ whatever tends to advance the cause of civilisation and of com- merce ; here Nature has marked out the line across the continent, and has abundantly combined every facility for its completion)‘ . ‘1* Paper by Col. Synge, p. 7. SINGULAR FACT 1N AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY. The great water systems of this region are an instructive object of study, and, as connected with the topic under consideration, have never received the attention they de- serve. The direction in which the streams of a country flow usually determine the character it will assume. Rivers are the best pioneers of civilisation. In countries where they freeze, they form the best of winter roads; and where they are navigable, they decide the course and direction of commerce: they do this even in the era of railroads. . . . As a rule, a railroad admits nowhere of more easy construction than along the banks or in the direction of a navigable stream, whereas to execute a line across‘ the direction of many water- courses is, in every sense, a very cross-grained and expensive operation. Now it is a singular fact in the geography of America that in the direction of the St. Laurence, and there only, the rivers of America take a direction east and west. The Mississippi and the Missouri, having their sources close to the British frontier, disembogue into the Gulf of Mexico. The M‘Kenzie, after winding its way through nearly six- teen parallels of latitude, discharges into the Arctic Sea. On the other hand, in that track which possesses the climate most favourable for an overland route—as if by special design of a Supreme Power—the waters of the St. Laurence penetrate well nigh half way across the country. The central water system is perhaps the most curious of any on the continent. It combines the characteristics of the others, and embraces both the north and south, the east and west direc- tions. Type and figure of the country which it fertilises, it seems to stretch out its friendly arms in every direction to greet the advance of civilisation, and to facilitate intercourse in every direction, and to enable a vast country to be opened almost without an effort. It connects with the St. Laurence system by the chain of lakes and rivers that finally merge in the Winnipeg River. . . . By the various branches of the Saskat- QUICKEST ROUTE ACROSS. 349 chewan, it penetrates into the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and indicates the practicable passes through that otherwise stern barrier, and, by the Assiniboine and Qu’Appelle Rivers, it tra- verses the vast central plain in nearly a straight line?“e Let us suppose we are ourneying from east to west, and want to go by the quickest route across the American continent :— Whether our place of starting be Europe, the West Coast of Africa, the West Indies, or the Eastern Coast of the North American Continent—if our goal be the Pacific or the East, our best route, nay almost our only one, is across the great plain of central British America. There is, in fact, the point of junction where all the traffic of the continent from the South, from the East, and even from the North, most naturally unites, if its destination be the yet further West, until that word is lost in its aim and goal, the East or the Antipodes. We are hemmed in to this position. We cannot alter the earth’s spheroidit'z ; we cannot change relative distances; we cannot do away with the physical conformation of the earth. We cannot, though we may nearly double the distance, get rid of the great arid and rainless desert in the territory of the adjoining republic. There we can find no rivers coursing in any direction to aid us. We cannot— at least, for any practical purpose—we cannot hope to cross over that long continuation of barren and mountainous land; we cannot travel the mountains when they offer no faci- lities to our hand. Can it be uneconomic to open a country having this generality of access, and yet holding such a mono- poly of advantage? Consider for a moment. Adjoining are the new territories of the United States, ready to pour in their contributions and their wealth. Whether from Minnesota by the Red River or by the Mississippi from the States of the South, and from any point, in fact, between New Orleans and the northern extremity of Maine from Canada, or from the Gulf Provinces; even if we look to the far North, if the utmost ab- breviation of distance has been the object, and the far East the goal, by taking advantage of the proper season we may shorten * Paper by Col. Synge, p. 9. 350 FORT GARRY VIA sT. PAUL’s. the distance from Europe 1,500 miles by proceeding across Hudson’s Bay. But from wherever we may come, we necessarily unite in that great stream of trafiic that, bound for the Pacific or the East, meets on the plains of the Red River or the Sas- hatchewan. It is a simple fact, but one that must exert an irresistible force in favour of this route to the Pacific, that it thus unites midway across the continent all the innumerable and widely-divergent lines of railway and of lake and river naviga- tion that cover the eastern portion of the continent, and radiate over its every part. Here they all centre, here they all unite.* It is highly probable that in consequence of the district of country from the eastern shores of Lake Huron to Red River being as yet unpopulated, and access to the latter settlement being already so convenient through Minnesota, the railway when commenced will be first opened from Fort Garry, and that the space intervening between Red River and the present western terminus of the Grand Trunk will be completed as settlement advances. , In anticipation of this being the order of events, the inha- bitants of Minnesota are pushing on a line to connect with the proposed railway to the Pacific on British soil. Fort Garry, it is well known, is the chief trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company in their territory. As the crow flies it is 550 miles from St. Paul’s (Min), or about 650 miles by the regular route. The railway projected on the American side is to run from St. Paul’s via Pembina. The road has been surveyed as far as Crow Wing, the head of navigation on the Mississippi, 150 miles above St. Paul’s. Eight miles of it, from St. Paul’s to St. Anthony, are in operation, and the track is laid many miles farther. It is completed, I believe, to Anoka, 32 miles from St. Paul’s. It is graded to St. Cloud, 75 miles from that city; and this section of the track is in course of being laid. The directors hope to reach Crow Wing some time in * Paper, p. 12. DIFFICULTIES vIA CANADA T0 RED RIVER. 351 1866. The road is known as the ‘ St. Paul’s and Pacific Railway,’ and is being constructed, as has been stated, with the view of securing a connection with the British line, which, judging by present appearances, will be of tardier realisation than our enterprising neighbours think for. ' From Crow Wing it is intended that the route shall pass by Otter Tail Lake to the junction of the Shayennai River with the Red River on the north. A ‘ city’ called George Town has been laid out at this point, but its pro- gress has been temporarily interrupted by Indian troubles. The road will follow the west bank of Red River to Pem- bina, and thence down the stream to Fort Garry. From that point the valley of the Assiniboine and the ‘ Divide ’ of the Saskatchewan will be traversed. The pass chosen in the Rocky Mountains will probably be either the Athabasca or the Myette. The chief difficulty alleged to stand in the way of extending a railway from Red River to Canada is the , rocky nature of the north shore of Lake Superior. It is admitted that the portion of country close to the shore presents a rugged and barren appearance. But gentlemen, connected with the lumber trade, who have penetrated backward into the interior and westward from Lake Temiskaminque, concur in testifying that a fine level hardwood country is found within easy distance, well suited for a railway track. While firmly convinced that the railway scheme must become a reality, it were utopian to expect that it should take effect soon, while the British public are so sceptical as to its utility, and the region to be crossed by it is so sparsely populated. But, for the purpose of opening up the rich lands of the interior, and establishing direct communication between the parent country and our north 552' n EMIGRANT ROUTE URGENT. Pacific colonies, an EMIGRANT ROUTE is imperatively de- manded, and is as practicable as it is necessary. Several lines are available to Red River, beyond which the course is plain. - The present communication with Fort Garry is by La Crosse, Wisconsin, the north-west terminus of railway transit in the United States, to St. Paul’s; 208 miles by river; thence by stage to George Town on the Red River, 200 miles; and from that point to Fort Garry, 480 miles by steamer-a total distance of 978 miles. The route from Toronto vid N ipigon Bay and Lake of the Woods, 1,050 miles. The entire distance from the same starting point vid Detroit, Grand Haven, Milwaukee, La Crosse, St. Paul, and George Town, is 1,676-there being a dif- ference in favour of the former route of 650 miles. From the most westerly British port on Lake Superior to Red River settlement the distance is about 370 miles, and much of this is navigable. From the lower end of the Lake of the Woods to the foot of Rainy Lake is navigable in one reach of 156 miles; thence through Rainy Lake, &c. there is a navigable reach of 77 miles (though some say there is a break making 44 and 33 miles); thence there are 28 miles making fine navigable reaches, the Winnipeg River being nearly as large as the Ottawa. From the last 28 miles the distance is about 115 miles to Lake Superior. If the road were made through this tract the whole country would be easily accessible. There are navigable waters, how- ever, a great part of the last-named distance, though in smaller reaches. I have only given those on which steamers could be used whenever desirable.ale But a route less circuitous and diflicult than that by Winnipeg River has been ascertained since the above * Report of Select Committee appointed by the Legislature of Canada to receive and collect evidence as to the rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1857, p. 20. FROM LAKE SUPERIOR To LAKE OF THE woons. 353 evidence was given. A line of about 90 miles in length, and of a nearly uniform level, lying partly over open prairie and partly through wooded country, leads from Fort Garry to the north-west angle of the Lake of the Woods. The soil at the eastern end of Lake Plat, which is part of the Lake of the Woods, is inferior, but improves toward the western extremity. The former lake is part of a chain of navigation, offering but a single impediment in 160 miles, which consists of a sudden descent of 22 feet in the river in a short distance. With the view of opening fully the country between Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, a variety of minor deviations in the route have been proposed, and among these a line between N ipigon Bay on Lake Superior and Fort Francis on Rainy Lake. A prominent settler at Red River gives the distance between these two points at 105 miles of land transit, and 150 miles of water com- munication. The sum required for making roads on the portages between Lake Superior and Fort Garry has been variously estimated, according to the line proposed and the amount of improvement contemplated. Mr. M‘D. Dawson, formerly head of the Woods and Forests branch of the Crown Land Department in Canada, and acknowledged to be one of the greatest authorities in that colony on all questions pertaining to Hudson’s Bay territory (to whom _I am indebted for a valuable inter- view on this subject), states that :— To make an excellent waggon-road clear through from a British port on Lake Superior to Fort Garry on Red River— allowances for curvatures bringing the distance up to 400 miles —would take, say 95,000l. Such a road, at a cost of 240l. per mile, would immediately transfer the trade from St. Paul’s to Lake Superior; would speedily pour a large population into the country, and would likewise become settled throughout its A A 354 . 'NEW HuDsoN’s BAY coMPANY. entire length, with such occasional exceptions, no doubt, as usually occur in the average of road lines in the interior of Canada. . . . But it is not necessary to make even this-outlay to attain the end desired. 260 miles are navigable on the route in three or, at most, four separate reaches, the data for which I have taken from the actual survey made in 1826 under the Treaty of Ghent. . . . 25,000l. to 30,000l. expended on the 115 miles from Lake Superior to the first navigable reach referred to might at once be said to open up the country. In conversation with the Hon. George Brown, President of the Legislative Council of Canada, last autumn, that gentleman informed me that 10,000l., voted by the Colo- nial Parliament in the previous session, would assuredly be expended, without delay, in initiating the route through Canada to communicate with Red River?‘ Those anxious to see British Columbia and Vancouver Island colonised by emigrants from Great Britain hailed the reconstruction of the Hudson’s Bay Company as likely to bring about a solution of the difliculties that had so long retarded the settlement of the interior, and to inaugurate a policy favourable to the realisation of hopes deferred respecting the formation of a highway from ocean to ocean. But the remarks of the governor of the company, Sir Edmund Head, at a meeting of the share- holders held on the 28th November last, are calculated to excite the enquiry whether the dependence we have been encouraged to place on the liberal promises of the company has any solid foundation. ' In reply to the question of a shareholder as to the intention of the directors in reference to the opening up of the territory east of the Rocky Mountains, Sir Edmund, * If Red River and Saskatchewan could be at once erected into Crown colonies, and included in Mr. Brown’s scheme of British North American Confederation, an impulse would be given to the Emigrant Overland Route that would ensure its immediate accomplishment. THEIR INFLUENCE UPON COLONISATION. 355 ‘with less ofiicial reticence than might have been expected on such an occasion, said :- They (the company) would do all they could to open the territory, and to cause roads to be made ON sUcH TERMS As THE COMPANY COULD AFFORD, but it was not intended by them to sacrifice the fur trade. He aslced, Were the proprietors pre- pared to sacrifice that trade producing a certain income, and to go headlong into another as a speculation ?* In the earlier part of the proceedings the governor said that— At the present moment the fur trade was not a failing trade ; on the contrary, the proceeds had been increasing for some little time back. The actual proceeds of the fur trade in 186 l amounted to 210,509l.198. 2d.; in 1862,to 216, test. 98. 9a.; in 1863, to 222,729l. 15s. 5d.; and in 1864, to 262,869l. 4s. 4d. (cheers). . . -. At that moment they had every reason to think that the imports of the present year (not yet made up) would consider- ably exceed those of the last. They would probably be 30,000l. or 40,000l. above the imports of the last year in value. It is not unnatural that the company should determine to pursue that course which they deem most compatible with their own interests. Only let not the friends of British Columbia, and of the territory intervening between Canada and that colony, any longer flatter themselves that an association, the most thriving source of whose income consists of fur-trapping, will be so unselfish as, for public benefit, to ‘ kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.’ The gratifying statistics of the last report submitted to the proprietors clearly indicate that the advance of civilisation west of Red River would more than ever prove antago- nistic to their staple interest. Dr. Rae was despatched by the directors last summer to find a suitable route for laying down a line of tele- * The Morning Star, November 29, 1864. A A 2 .356 , THEIR PnoPosEn TELEGRAPH. graph from Red River to the Pacific; and at a dinner given in his honour in Victoria, he announced that the undertaking would be finished in less than two years. He also gave it as his opinion that no serious obstacle to the formation of an overland Waggon-road existed; but the sole object of his mission was to arrange for the erec- tion of the telegraph. This cannot fail to confer some advantage upon our colonies in the far West. I do the company no injustice, however, in expressing the sus- picion that, while this great work would appear to be prompted by a wish to reclaim the wilderness, it may really be designed for their own convenience. In seeming to conduce to the general good, the scheme may have the intended effect of simply keeping those interested in the extension of British North American colonisation in good humour. Still, looked at in the light of the course hitherto pursued by the company, the conclusion can with difficulty be resisted that the telegraph may but tend to strengthen the monopoly of the company, and keep the interior locked against the introduction of those facilities of emigrant transit essential to the. speedy settle- ment of British Columbia and the sister colony. A telegraph is not the most urgent want of those colonies, important as it may be. They are already in communi- cation with the coast of the Atlantic by an uninterrupted telegraphic line from New York vid San Francisco and Puget Sound;* and if the well-being of our possessions in the Pacific, or of those east of the Rocky Mountains * Since writing the above, the subjoined letter has come to hand :— To James Gamble, Esq., San Francisco, Sept. 29, 1864. Supt. Cal. State Telegraph 00., Victoria. I am sorry to have to inform you that the submarine cable intended for the line to Vancouver Island and British Columbia lies at the bottom of the ocean, off Cape Horn. The ‘Thebes ’ foundered there last July. Two new WILL THEY ENCOURAGE A ROAD P “ ' 357 were a primary consideration with the company, they would have begun with mahing a road instead of a tele— graph. But the latter in their hands-and especially after the confession of Sir Edmund Head above-men— tioned—cannot be regarded as necessarily a precursor of the former. Our hope is that the negotiations now pending between the Company and the Imperial Govern- ment on the subject of their respective rights and privi- leges may disappoint our worst apprehensions. As misrepresentations respecting the soil and climate of Central British North America have been industriously circulated by certain parties interested in concealing the real character of the region, it is time to enquire whether that tract of country be fit for settlement. It was cus- tomary for the heads of the Hudson’s Bay Company, for very obvious reasons, to promote the impression, till within the last ten years, that the 49th parallel of latitude was a sort of natural boundary between fertility and deso- lation on the western continent; and when truth was at length to some extent disclosed on the matter, their state- ments were modified, but still leaned to the side of depreciating their territory as a place of settlement. Sir George Simpson, in his evidence before the Select Com- mittee of the House of Commons on the affairs of the company in 1857, declares that the ground behind the cables will be immediately ordered, so that we may reasonably calculate upon receiving at least one of them in time to lay next spring. Meantime you will please carry out. my instructions to push forward the construction of the line to Victoria and New \Vestminster the same as if the cable had arrived safely. In the matter of the line to New Westminster, I advise you, if you find that route at all practicable, to run up from Seattle, on the east side of the Sound and Straits, so that a cable will not be indispensable to make that connection with a short cable across Fraser River, which can be supplied from this oflice. The line will be completed at the earliest day practicable. . H. N. CARPENTER, President. 358 REGION BETWEEN FORT WILLIAM AND FORT GARRY. immediate bank of Rainy Lake River, between 48° and- 49° of latitude, was permanently frozen. Colonel Lefroy condemns both soil and climate of portions where agricul- ture is carried on with success. In the report of the meeting of the Hudson’s Bay Company shareholders, from which I have already quoted, Mr. Dallas is made to say, that while in other respects the country in the proposed route on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains is well adapted for settlement, ‘the climate was most inhospitable, and the country was not habitable except by Indians, Esguimaux, or like people.’ Now, with regard to the interval between Fort William on Lake Superior, and Fort Garry, which has been repre- sented as so barren and unfriendly to settlement, Colonel Synge (who has been occupied with the study of British North America for twenty years) asserts that-— It comprises large and compact tracts of great fertility, and of extreme beauty. These vary from about 20,000 to 200,000 acres in size. The strangely formidable character which has been given to the difficulties presented by this section of country has no doubt arisen from that having been asserted positively and absolutely which is only relatively and comparatively true. It does not present those marvellous facilities, and that entire absence of great engineering difi‘iculties which, as far as I am aware, is to be met nowhere else on the whole surface of the earth to such an extent as on the prairies of the West. Sir G. Simpson and M‘Kenzie both eulogise the quali- ties of the valley of the Kamenis Toquoiah, and the soil is known to be good toward the western extremity of the Lake of the Woods. Much rich and beautifully-wooded land is found near where the road would pass on White Mouth and Rat Rivers. - As to the adaptability of Red River for colonisation, it were superfluous to speak. Every one of the ten thousand AGRICULTURAL WEALTH or RED RIVER. 359 . settlers in that neighbourhood is a witness to its uncom— mon agricultural wealth. For 400 miles up the Assini- boine, to its junction with Moose River, there is nothing to be seen but prairie covered with long red grass. ‘On the east, north, and south,’ says Sir G. Simpson, ‘ there was not a mound or tree to vary the vast expanse of green sward; while to the west were the gleaming bays of the Assiniboine, separated from each other by wooded points of considerable depth.’ The yield of wheat in Red River, as compared with the adjacent States of America, will demonstrate the productiveness of the district. In Min- nesota it stands at 20 bushels to the acre ; Wisconsin, at 14 ; Pennsylvania, at 15 ; Massachusetts, at 16 ; and Red River, at 40. The average weight in the latter settlement is from 64 to 67 lbs. per imperial bushel ; that of the best Illinois wheat is from 60 to 65 lbs. per bushel. N o obstacle exists to navigation between Fort Garry and the single rapid in the Saskatchewan. Capt. Palliser found a valuable water communication between the South Saskatchewan and Red River. ‘A good-sized boat,’ says he, ‘and even perhaps a small steamer, might descend from the South Saskatchewan, ascend the West Qui- Appelle River, cross the Qui-Appelle lakes, and then descend the Qui-Appelle into Red River.’ Wheat may be cultivated as far north as lat. 60°, and barley ripens in 62° on the M‘Kenzie River. M. Bourgeau, botanist to the Palliser Expedition, in a letter to Sir W. Hooker, writes thus in regard to the Saskatchewan district :— This district is much more adapted to the culture of the staple crops of temperate climates—wheat, rye, barley, oats, &c. —-than one would have been inclined to believe from its high latitude. In effect, the few attempts at the culture of cereals already made in the vicinity of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts demonstrate, by their success, how easy it would be to 360 FROM FORT GARRY To SASKATCHEWAN. obtain products sufiiciently abundant largely to remunerate the efforts of the agriculturist. The prairies offer natural pasturage as favourable for the maintenance of numerous herds as if they had been artificially created. The construction of houses for habitation and for pioneer development would involve but little expense, because in many parts of the country it would be easy to find clay for bricks, and more particularly near Battle River. The other parts most favourable for cultivation would be in the neighbourhood, and also along the south of North Saskatchewan. In the latter district extend rich and vast prairies, interspersed with woods and forests, where thickwood plants furnish excellent pasturage for domestic animals.* Mr. Dallas, too, whose interest would not be likely to bias him in favour of the colonisation of the country, felt obliged, with his characteristic candour, to acknowledge at the meeting above referred to, that ‘the whole of the country was more or less eminently adapted for settle— ment, and was exceedingly healthy. About two years ago he rode through the country, and saw there horses and cattle as fat as any on the pastures of England, and those cattle spent the winter out, without a morsel of hay.’ How this statement can be reconciled with what has been already quoted in regard to the inhospitable character of the region, it is difficult to imagine. Let us hope that the latter allusion in the report is inaccurate. But the re- sources of the Saskatchewan are not confined to agricul- ture. I believe the mineral deposits of the country to be boundless. A vast coal formation has been traced from the 49th parallel far beyond the 60th, running north and south, parallel with the Rocky Mountains; and as rich gold diggings have attracted throngs of miners to Pike’s Peak and elsewhere on the east side of that mountain chain in American territory, so I am confident that large numbers will be induced, when communication with "“ Explorations by Captain Palliser, p. 250. GOLD MINEs or SASKATCHEWAN. 361 Canada is opened, to mine on the Saskatchewan. I have been told by several persons who have crossed the conti- nent on the British side that they had ‘ prospected ’ suc— cessfully for the precious metal on many streams. Already, in spite of defective means of transit, adventurous spirits are dropping into the auriferous locality. For the past two years the Saskatchewan mines have been worked with good results. Gold has been discovered all along that river, but not exclusively there. The Bow, Red Deer, Peace, and Athabasca Rivers have also been tested, and found to yield from $3 to $6 per day per man. Indeed, every stream leading from the Rocky Mountains contains gold in greater or less degree; and this is what might be expected a priori. The ore is primarily in the mountains; and there is no reason why it should not be as abundant on the eastern as on the western slope. The gold found on Fraser River was of a very fine grain near its mouth, but gradually became coarser as the mountains were approached, clearly showing that the gold must have been washed from the rocky ridge, and by wear and tear in its course to the ocean was made fine. The case is the same with the auriferous streams on the eastern slope. On the Saskatchewan, a few miles north of Edmonton, miners make easily from $6 to $10 per day, and the .Red River ‘Nor’-VVester’ (newspaper) mentions one instance of a man making from $15 to $25 per day.* - ' At no distant period the resistless influence of the dis- coveries east and west of the Rocky Mountains in British territory will tempt emigrants from Europe and the Atlantic provinces westward; and ere many years pass over, emigration may set in, and settlements rise up on the banks of the streams connecting the western with the eastern parts of the continent, at a rate defying all the barriers that a monopolising association can set up, and surpassing the expectations of the most sanguine. _A steamer above the rapid in the Saskatchewan, pre- * From the Canadian News for November, 1864. 362 PAssEs IN THE RocKY MoUNTAINs. viously indicated, and a very short portage, will open the navigation of that river to Acton or Rocky Mountain House. We have seen that depressions in the passes of the mountains are much greater north of 49° lat. than on the American side. These passes are also so numerous and well distributed as to leave us at no loss in entering what- ever portion of British Columbia, from north to south, we may desire. ' The branch expedition into the Rocky Mountains . . . proved very satisfactory, and established the fact that several passes across these mountains are available for horses, and by which, with a reasonable outlay, a road could be made connect-ing the Kootanie and Columbia Valleys with the plains of the Saskat- chewan. These passes are four in number; the Kananaskis * Pass, the Vermillion 1‘ Pass, the British Kootanie Pass, and the Kicking Horse Pass. All these passes traverse the Watershed of the continent within British territory. Besides these, there are three lesser passes connecting the waters of a transverse water- shed, between the head waters of the Kootanie and those of the Columbia. A pass also was subsequently traversed by Dr. Hector between the head waters of the North and South Sas- katchewan. The passes between the Kootanie and Columbia Rivers are the Lake Pass and the Beaver Foot Pass, and that from the head waters of the North to those of the South Sas— katchewan is called the Little Fork Pass. . . . Of all the passes traversed by our expedition, the most favourable and inexpensive, to render available for wheel conveyances, would appear to be the Vermillion Pass, as the ascent along it to the height of land is the most gradual of them all}: About three years after the explorations here recorded were made, another pass attracted attention as connecting to best advantage with the chief gold mines of British ~ ”“ Extreme height, 5,985 feet. 1' Extreme height, 4,944 feet. 1 Palliser’s Explorations in British North America, p. 14. THE LEATHER PAss. 363 Columbia, in Cariboo. The ‘ Leather,’ ‘ Myette,’ or ‘ J as- per’ Pass had formerly been used by the Hudson’s Bay Company as a portage from the Athabasca River to the great artery of British Columbia. It was known as the ‘ old Columbia trail,’ but had long been abandoned on account of the frequent casualties which occurred in the descent of the Fraser from that point. It lies in lat. 54°. In ’62 this pass was crossed by several parties, embracing more than 200 persons in all. One of these companies consisted of 146 men, 1 woman, and 3 children, with 130 oxen and 70 horses. Viscount Milton and friends, whose adventures were narrated last November before the Royal Geographical Society, crossed in ’6 3. From the lips of many of these immigrants have I been interested in listening to the account of their journey, all of them concurring in the practicability of this pass for road or railway. It exhibits the two important features of gradual ascent and the least altitude of any passes yet found, being 400 or 500 feet lower than the Vermillion, which stands next in respect to depression, and is 1,000 feet lower than any of the other passes. The remark- able facilities of ascent in the Leather Pass are evident from the following facts :-——Fort Edmonton, on the river Saskatchewan (in 113° 49’ west long. and 53° 29’ north lat), is 2,728 feet above sea level. Jasper House is 400 miles from Edmonton. To the height of the pass, 4,500 feet above sea level, is from 100 to 150 miles more, with a further ascent of 822 feet in that distance. This gives a clear ascent of from 6 to 9 feet in a mile, or a mean clear ascent of from 3% to 3%,- feet in the whole distance from Fort Edmonton.* There is no part of British Columbia that is not acces- "‘ Col. Synge. 364 EXPERIEN'oE or vIscoUNT MILToN. sible by the aid of these passes. The Vermillion leads from the South Saskatchewan to the Columbia; the Kama- naskis from the same branch of the former river to the Kootanie River; the Kicking Horse from the same river to the Columbia ; the M‘Kenzie Pass from the Peace River‘ to the Fraser; and the Leather into the Cariboo district. Viscount Milton and Mr. Cheadle, who crossed when the streams were greatly swollen, unitedly describe their experience in these words :- Finding that the season was too far advanced to allow of our crossing the mountains before winter, we travelled on as far as Fort Carlton, on the north branch of the Saskatchewan, and, turning almost due north for about seventy miles, built a rough log but at a beautiful place called La Belle Prairie, and went into winter quarters. We spent our time in hunting and trap--’ ping, and served an apprenticeship in hardship and privation, most useful to us in our subsequent ditliculties. When the thaw set in at the beginning of April, we again started westward along the North Saskatchewan by Fort Pitt to Edmonton. . . . Here we made our final preparations for crossing the mountains. . . . On the 3rd of June we left Edmonton with a train of twelve horses, six of them packed with our baggage, pernmican and flour. . . . From Lake St. Ann’s, 50 miles beyond Edmonton, to Jasper House, at the foot of the mountains, the forest is almost unbroken. Having forded the Pembina River, we reached the M‘Leod on June 16. . . . After striking the Atha- basca River, we followed its right bank until, arriving opposite ‘Jasper House, we were now fairly in the Rocky Mountains; and high up a mountain side, whit-her the trail led us, we had one of the most magnificent views it was ever our fortune to behold. Hundreds of feet below rushed the torrent of the Athabasca, now swollen to its height, bearing along great pine trees like‘ straws in the powerful current; around us on every side huge snow-capped mountains towered up with strange fantastic peaks; in the valley beneath, the little white building surrounded by a perfect garden of wild flowers of the most brilliant and varied RAILWAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS EASY. 365 colours, edged along the mountain-slopes by the brightest green. Crossing the Athabasca by raft, we now followed the Myette, which stream we were compelled to traverse no less than six times. Swollen like the Athabasca, the waters raged and boiled round the great rocks and boulders which beset its bed. Leaving the Myette, we came upon several small streams run- ning to the west, and thus learned that we had unconsciously passed the height of land, and shortly after struck the Fraser a little above its expansion into Moose Lake. . . . We reached Tete Jaunes’ Cache, on the west side of the mountains, on July 17; but although we had crossed the main ridge, we were still surrounded by snow-clad mountains, which stretched away as far as the eye could reach in every direction. . . . We now crossed the Fraser and struck almost due south, following the emigrants’ trail of the preceding summer. . . . In six days after leaving the Cache we came to the junction of the two main branches of the North Thompson. From this description it will be seen that the passage of the Rocky Mountains is the only work of any moment that requires to be executed west of Fort Garry. Those soaring and snow-capped heights are no longer invested with terrors, and every one must be satis- fied that especially the Vermillion Pass, with a descent to the Kootanie River of but 1 in 135, and the Leather Pass with an ascent equally imperceptible, could easily be rendered available for regular communication, since both have been traversed by waggons in their present roadless condition. Engineering skill has already overcome phy- sical obstacles of infinitely greater magnitude in cutting paths through the Alleghaines in the United States, the Soemmering heights in Austria, and the Bhore Ghauts in India. The railway from Kankan to the Deccan through the last-named mountains had to contend with an elevaa tion, in a very short distance, from a base 196 feet to an altitude 2,627 feet, with a gradient of 1 in 48. Twelve 366 sTRIDEs or RussIA oN THE PACIFIC. tunnels were formed equal to 2,535 yards; also eight viaducts, eighteen bridges, and eighteen culverts, at a cost of 41,118l. per mile, making a total of 597,222l.* - The distance from Lake Superior to Cariboo is 1,874 miles, and from Edmonton 694. From Jasper House to Tete J aunes’ Cache at the head of the Fraser is 144 miles, and thence to Cariboo about 150 miles. From Cariboo to the head of navigation connecting with the Gulf of Georgia the distance is 300 or 400 miles, according to the route adopted—if from Richfield via Quesnelle mouth to Bentinck Arm or Bute Inlet it is shorter; if via Ques- nelle mouth to Yale it is longerrl' _ In comparison with the difficulties successfully grap- pled with by Russia in opening internal communications through her sparsely populated and immensely more inhos- pitable territory, and in extending her trade with China through the interior of Asia—those attaching to our overland enterprise are of the most Lilliputian character. That Great Northern Power, whose aggressive policy was regarded by Napoleon I. with more alarm than that of any other single European country, has recently established herself in rapidly augmenting maritime strength on the banks of the Amoor River, in the vicinity of China and Japan. She alone of all European nations has possessions extending in unbroken continuity from the Baltic to the Pacific, and all her energies are bent to the gigantic task of completing clear and easy transit from her Asiatic shores via Siberia to St. Petersburg. Russia is active, moreover, in building a line of tele- graph over this route, which cannot now be far from the mouth of the Amoor. I heard of their having reached Irkoutsk nearly two years since. The American lines * Col. Synge. t The quickest of all these routes is decidedly the one by Bute Inlet. DESIGNS 0F NAPOLEON IN MEXICO. 367 have a representative in Russia who has been specially en- gaged there for several years in securing certain privileges. From the Amoor the Russian line will be extended with as much expedition as possible to Sitka, the port of the Russian fur-hunting company in Russian America. When visiting the manager of the American Tele- graphic Company, in Montreal, lately, he informed me that he had been called on that day by a gentleman who was about to proceed to the West Coast Of America, under the direction of that company, for the purpose of survey- ing the route for the line which ere long is to connect Sitka with Victoria. Russia has granted our go-a-head neighbours the exclusive right of way from the mouth of Sitka harbour, and the additional privilege, in perpetuity, of establishing posts at pleasure anywhere in Russian territory.* I saw no less than five Russian ships of war in Panama Bay, bound for the possessions of the Czar in the North Pacific, and, as a further proof of the importance he attaches to national interests in that part of world, a prince about the same time was sent as Governor of Sitka. Chevalier, too, in his recent volume on Mexico, helps us to unravel the secret of Napoleon IH.’s conquest of that country. The erection of a barrier against the ap- plication of the Munro doctrine by the United States, and the development of the boundless resources of Mexico, are but subordinate acts in the great drama to be played there under French appointment. The acute eye of the “‘ When this line has been carried from Sitka to Victoria, the latter will ultimately become a telegraphic centre as well as the meeting-point of many lines of conveyance for freight and passengers. When the Atlantic cable is laid, and a telegraph put through from that ocean to the Pacific, in British territory, and when the Russian line shall have been completed, Victoria will be in communication with Western Europe from the east and from the west. That city is already, or very soon about to be, as has been stated, connected with the Atlantic seaboard by the line bid Puget Sound and San Francisco. 368 CLIMATE OF PROPOSED ROUTE. Emperor cannot fail to discern that the marvels of com- merce and civilisation by which so high a degree of lustre has been shed on the European coasts of the Atlantic are about to be repeated with probably tenfold greater bril- liance on the American shores of the Pacific. He has deeply pondered the history of eastern trade, now flow- ing eastward as in the past it has done only westward. He sees the imperative necessity of possessing an uninter- rupted route over soil of which he has absolute command. Mexico affords this desired facility, stretching as it does from ocean to ocean‘. A railway is in progress from Vera Cruz in the Gulf of Mexico, and now rapidly approaches the city of Mexico. Thence it is destined to be carried west- ward to Acapulco, the ancient port for Spanish trade with Manilla 011 the one hand and Spain on the other. From this centre he has resolved there shall be lines of French steamers plying to China, Japan, the Sandwich Islands, and the more fertile portions of Southern Polynesia. Will England, who through the ignorance and neglect of her, former rulers has already thrown away much rich terri~ tory on that North West coast, and who still has so much at stake in the Pacific, idly stand by and witness rival European Powers multiplying means of communication with that ocean and busily laying foundations of future empires? will she be satisfied to follow that penny-wise policy which grudges expenditure in forming a British North American route that will at once bring ample financial compensation and bind her possessions all round the northern hemisphere in real unity? As erroneous impressions have obtained in regard to the climate of the proposed emigrant route, I invite the attention of the reader to the observations on temperature, in the chapter on Agriculture in Vancouver Island, in con- nection with a few additional remarks now to be submitted on the subject. CLIMATE OF THE INTERIOR. 369 Western parts of Europe and Asia are warmer than are the eastern sections of those continents situated in the same parallels of latitude-the west having an ocean to the windward of it, moderating the prevailing winds, which are westerly. The same cause operates to produce corresponding elfects on the continent of America-only in a greater degree ; the ocean to the windward of it being larger and warmer than that which washes its eastern shores. The isothermal line, therefore, runs farther north 011 the west coast of America than on the east. That line, starting from New York and drawn across the continent, would pass through Lake Winnipeg to Fort Simpson, which is 1,000 miles north of the commercial capital of the United States. The northern shore of Lake Huron enjoys the mean summer temperature of Bordeaux, in the south of France (70° Fahr.), while Cumberland House, in lat. 54° long. 102°, on the Saskatchewan, exceeds in this respect Brussels and Paris. Even supposing that equal parallels of latitude should coincide with equal lines of mean temperature all round the globe—which we do not find to be the case—what is there to prevent regions as high as the 60th parallel in the western hemisphere being as productive as those of the same latitude and altitude in the eastern? That parallel passes through Christiana in Norway, to the north of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and through St. Petersburg. But on the principle just afiirmed, places in America corresponding in altitude to those in Europe which I have specified, ought to prove more genial as homes of civilisation. One of the witnesses before the Committee of the House of Commons in ’57, stated that on the 1st of May the Saskatchewan country was free from snow, and the river B B 370 WHo Is To MAKE THE RoAD? full of water ; and Capt. Palliser records that on January 9, 1858, there was little or no snow on the ground from Edmonton to Rocky Mountain House. I trust the overwhelming importance of the topic dis- cussed in this part of the volume will be deemed a sufl‘i- cient justification of the length to which these statements have extended. Desire to promote and facilitate trade with the East has been shown to have been the incentive to exploration among ancient nations and the origin of most maritime discoveries in more modern times. So far from rivalry for the possession of this rich prize abating, civilised peoples of our day are animated by more spirited emulation, and devising more vigorous measures than ever for its attainment. Attempts to find a northern sea pas- sage to the attractive shores of the East—long and doggedly persisted in--have been finally abandoned; and the application of steam to land-transit and of electricity to the transmission of messages has revolutionised our ideas of the value attaching to the fertile solitudes between Canada and the Rocky Mountains. Science, commerce, and political economy have arrived at signal unanimity respecting that territory as affording the most pleasant and expeditious route to China and Australia, combining also the marked convenience of its running wholly through British dominions. One question remains. To whom are we to look for doing this work? Canada can only be expected to per- form that part which goes to her western boundary. Her claim to the regions beyond is not likely to be again pressed, on the ground of ancient French title, and, if pressed, certain never to be acknowledged. Whether the enterprise is carried through by England, the Hudson’s Bay Company, or private capitalists under con- cessions and privileges granted by the Imperial Govern- DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 371 ment or by the company, depends upon the result of negotiations now in progress between the latter and the former. It is unnecessary here to enter upon the perplexed and interminable enquiry whether the possessory rights of the company rest on valid grounds, though evidence is before me which goes far to prove their title invalid. Should the Crown, however, refrain from enforcing its right to absolute ownership of the intermediate territory between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains, it is at least in a position to effect some compromise with the company, whereby the rigour of their claims shall be modified and the accomplishment of the undertaking secured. I cannot believe that the present able Secretary of State for the Colonies will permit the tangled relations between the company and the Imperial Government to remain any longer unadjusted. NOTE. In the House of Commons, June 30, 1864, on a motion to go into Committee of Supply—— Mr. A. MILLS rose to call attention to the territories at present Occupied by the Hudson’s Bay Company. He said these terri- tories were granted to the company by a charter of Charles II. in 1670. By the treaty of Ryswich, in 1696, it was admitted that these territories belonged to France. In 1713 the treaty of Utrecht admitted that three-fourths belonged to France; and it was not until the treaty of Paris in 1763 that they were pretended to be the property of the Crown of England. All legal authorities, however, held that whatever defects there might be in the charter of the company, they had been cured by prescription during 200 years, and supported by numerous Acts of Parliament. There was a large tract of country em- bracing 60,000 or 70,000 square miles, and which was admitted by all testimony to be most fertile land, which it would be well 12132 372 SPEECH 0F MB. A. MILLS. to make the subject of enquiry. That question was now prac- tically shut up, and the question was how it was to be opened. It would be admitted by all that the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific by a chain of settlements would be of advantage, and that an opening for the China trade through British terri- tory would be a matter of great importance. N o doubt it would be of practical importance to fuse into a federal union all the British territories in North America. The colony of Canada had expressed its readiness to take upon itself a certain amount of the financial responsibility of opening up this district. The colony of Canada, however, required a stipulation that the boundary of Canada should be defined. The Hudson’s Bay Company last year appeared under new auspices; but they had not lost their old character, and appeared to be as much opposed as ever to colonisation and civilisation. The Hudson’s Bay Company said they would not go before any tribunal; they would not open the question of boundary; they would stand upon their rights, and those rights they were prepared to up- hold. The question was, would Imperial England allow any obstruction of that kind? The reply of Mr. Dallas, the chief officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company in their territory, to this proposal of the colony of Canada was, that its adoption would interfere with the trade of the company. He did not apprehend that the right honourable gentleman the Secretary for the vColonies would refuse to afford facilities for the settlement of the question; but he wanted him to state that no obstruction would be offered on the part of the Government, if the colony of Canada wished to raise this question as between themselves and the Hudson’s Bay Company. There were, no doubt, good reasons, in a financial point of view, why Great Britain should not undertake to establish a new colony in North America. . . . He would not say whether the Red River settlement should 'be ultimately annexed to British Columbia or to Canada, but he wished to call the attention of the Colonial Secretary to the immense importance of facilitating a union between all our colonies in North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, » which union the colonies themselves desired to see accomplished. vHe believed that for the furtherance of English interests at that vIEws OF MR. WATKIN AND MR. OARDWELL. 373 time, when those vast territories would become self-supporting and independent of the mother-country, the wisest policy the Government could adopt was to promote that union. Mr. WATKIN said, what Canada proposed was simply to pay part of the expense of connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific by means of telegraphic and postal communication. It was Canada that put impediments in the way of the settlement of this question of the Hudson’s Bay Company territory. Was it not extraordinary that in these days a private company should be allowed to hold, under a charter of Charles II., so immense a territory, and have the power almost of levying war, and cer- tainly of defending by military force the frontiers of that terri- tory? Unless Her Majesty’s Government were prepared to take immediate steps in reference to this question, nothing in the world could prevent that which might be hereafter a thriving and valuable British colony from becoming a mere American settlement. Mr. CARDWELL would not go into the past history of the Hudson’s Bay Company, because it was almost as vast as their territory. He would commence by referring to the committee that took place in 1857, and of which the hon. gentleman was a member. That committee, noticing the desire which existed for a settlement respecting this territory, recommended that an offer should be made to Canada that if she thought proper she might become the possessor of the territory, if she would incur the expense of annexing it. Immediately after the report of the committee, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies made proposals to Canada and to the Hudson’s Bay Company. Acting under the advice of the law ofiicers of the Crown, he felt that it was wholly impossible for him to dispute the validity of a charter that had existed for centuries; but he made to the company and to Canada that other proposal which the hon. gentleman suggested we should make, viz., that the question of the boundaries of Canada should be referred to the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. To that proposal the company were willing to assent, but Canada, he believed, declined to assent. (Hear.) The demand of Canada was that the validity of the charter should be referred to the Judicial 374 MR. ,LYALL’s DEFENCE or THE COMPANY. Committee, and the company most naturally objected to that course. The Colonial Secretary then gave notice that he should open new negotiations. In 1862 a negotiation was opened by the late Colonial Secretary with a private company to connect the Pacific with the Atlantic by telegraphic communication and post roads. Afterwards the Hudson’s Bay Company united with that private company, and negotiations were continued for a surrender of the whole territories of the company to the Crown. Those negotiations obtained the consent of that House, and a proposal was arrived at that the Hudson’s Bay Company should be compensated from the proceeds of the sale of lands. The details of that proposal, however, were not agreed to; and at that point he (Mr. Cardwell) succeeded to his present office. The hon. gentleman, as he understood, pointed out that it was the duty of the Colonial Office to give Canada every opportunity for entering into this negotiation; but the hon. gentleman would see that that course had been anticipated. His (Mr. Cardwell’s) notice in the course of his communications was that, if a colony was to be founded in the territory referred to, some pro- vision should be made for its expenses towards the maintenance of good government and its future settlement. That provision must be made either by the company, by the colony of Canada, or by the Imperial exchequer. Having negotiated with the company for the surrender of its interests to the Crown, he had also renewed to the colony of Canada the proposal made on the recommendation of the committee of 1857, and invited it, in case it should refuse the responsibility offered, to inform the Crown what were its views as to the western boundary, so that the question might be settled, and the territory put in a fair way of government and settlement. Having thus succinctly, as he hoped, put the matter before the House, he should have great pleasure in laying the papers on the table as soon as they were ready. Mr. LYALL assured the hon. gentleman that he was mistaken in supposing that the Hudson’s Bay Company had sent out telegraphic wires for the purpose of connecting Minnesota with the Red River, and thereby increasing the influence of the United States in the Hudson’s Bay territory. The directors REMARKS OF coLONEL SYKES. 375 who came into office a year ago took into consideration the sub- ject of communication between Columbia and Canada in associ- ation with the question of communication with China, and they had sent out wires for that purpose. But if Canada were not prepared to do her part in Overcoming the natural difficulties of the country between her and the Red River settlement, it would be necessary for the. company to connect with Minnesota, from which they were only distant about fifty miles. With respect to the new government of the company, they were by no means disposed to retard colonisation; they waited, however, for roads and other communications; and it was felt, moreover, that greater powers must be obtained by the company in order to establish good order in the settlement. The whole subject was under the consideration of the Colonial Ofiice, and be trusted that an extended colonisation of a great territory would be pro— meted. Colonel SYKEs urged the great importance of communicating with Columbia. We could not get there at all except by Panama and Cape Horn. So that Columbia were connected with Canada, what mattered it whether the communication were effected by the colony of Canada or by an independent com- pany? The result would be that direct communication with China would be established. The undertaking was one of great importance, and if it could be effected by a little pressure on the Hudson’s Bay Company, it would be politic for the Govern- ment to exercise it. The hon. gentleman who brought the question forward was entitled to the thanks of the House for so doing. Memorial of the People of Red River Settlement to the British and Canadian Governments. The people of the Red River settlement hereby desire briefly to set forth their views and wishes in reference to the proposed opening up of the road from Canada to British Columbia through the Red River and Saskatchewan region, and the establishing of a telegraphic line along the same. The people of Red River have long since earnestly desired to 376' MEMORIAL OF RED RIVER SETTLERS see the Lake Superior rout-e opened up for commerce and emigration, and they rejoice to hear of the proposal to open up a road and establish a line of telegraphic communication through the interior to British Columbia entirely within British terri- tory, believing that such works would greatly benefit this country, while subserving at the same time both Canadian and Imperial interests. . . . It is true that this route, for reasons which need not here be alluded to, has of late years been neglected; yet, when the fact is generally known that this was the regular route by which the North-‘Nest Fur Company imported and exported heavy cargoes for more than a quarter of a century, and which the Hudson’s Bay Company have used more or less for three-quarters of a century, it must be granted that the natural difficulties cannot be so great as they are commonly reported to be. We, the people of this settlement, are so anxious to have a proper outlet in this direction, that we are quite prepared our- selves to undertake at our own expense the opening of a road from this settlement to Lake of the Woods, a distance of 90 or 100 miles, if England or Canada will guarantee the opening of the section from Lake of the Woods to Lake Superior. From our intimate knowledge of the country lying between this place and the Rocky Mountains, we consider the project of a road in that direction perfectly practicable, at a comparatively small outlay. At all times, during the summer season, loaded carts go from this place to Carlton, Fort Pitt, and Edmonton, on the Upper Saskatchewan; and last summer a party of Canadians, about 200 in number (en route to British Columbia), passed over the same road, and went with their vehicles to the very base of the Rocky Mountains; clearly showing that along the whole way there are, even at present, no insuperable ob- stacles to the passage of carts and waggons. . The whole country through which the proposed road would run, almost from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains, is remarkably level. The surface of this vast region is, generally speaking, like the ocean ‘surface in a calm; and, besides being so remarkably level, it is, for the most part, free from those heavy forests which, in Canada and elsewhere, cause such delay ' TO BRITISH AND OANADIAN GOVERNMENTS. 377 and expense in roadmaking. ‘We believe a railway could be here laid at a cheaper rate than in most countries. . Canada would derive great benefit from the overland carrying- trade, which would spring up immediately on the establishment of this route, and the constantly-growing traflic of this district and British Columbia would thereafter be an ever-increasing source of profit. This is the most natural highway by which commerce and general business with the East could be carried on; it would be also the most expeditious. And, as a result of such com- merce and traffic along this route, Central British America would rapidly fill up with an industrious loyal people; and thus from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia, Great Britain would have an unbroken series of colonies, a grand confederation of loyal and flourishing provinces, skirting the whole United ‘States frontier, and commanding at once the Atlantic and Pacific. In this connection we feel bound to observe that American influence is rapidly gaining ground here; and if action is long delayed very unpleasant complications may arise. Thus, both politically and commercially, the opening up of this country, and the making through it a national highway, would immensely sub- serve Imperial interests, and contribute to the stability and glorious prestige of the British empire. These views the people of Red River desire most respectfully to present for the consideration of the British and Canadian Governments, and they earnestly hope that this year may witness the formal commencement of operations with a view to a telegraphic line, and a road from Lake Superior to this settlement, if not through the whole extent of country from Canada to British Columbia. (Signed) JAMES Ross, Chairman of Public Meetings. Red River Settlement, January 21, 1863. CHAPTER XV. SOCIETY IN VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Varieties of Race represented in Victoria—Tschudi’s Classification of human Hybrids—The ultimate Effect of present heterogeneous Mixture of Types upon the Character of the Population —Civil Disabilities im- posed on Negroes and Chinamen in California, to discourage their Resi- dence—Missionary Labour among the Chinese—Visit to a Buddhist Temple—Address of the Chinese of Victoria to the Governor—Condition of the N egroes—Difi'erences between them and the Whites—Sir James Douglas—Verdant Simplicity of New Comers—English and American Ladies compared—Tone of Society in 1859—Defalcations of Government Officials—Escapade of a Quack-—‘ Widows’ and their Adventures— Temptations of Young Men—The ‘ Skedaddler ’—Excitement of Colo- nial Life, and its Effect on the Brain—Intelligence of the Community— The social Pyramid inverted—Life at the Mines—Miners’ Ten Com- mandments. IT was remarked by an intelligent shipmaster, whom I met in Victoria, that he had not found in any of the numerous ports he had visited during a long sea-faring career, so mixed a population as existed in that city. Though containing at present an average of only 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants, one cannot pass along the principal thoroughfares without meeting representatives of almost every tribe and nationality under heaven. Within a limited space may be seen-of Europeans, Russians, Austrians, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Danes, Swedes, French, Germans, Spaniards, Swiss, Scotch, English and Irish; of Africans, Negroes from the United States and the West Indies; of Asiatics, Lascars and Chinamen ; of Americans, Indians, Mexicans, Chilanos, and citizens of VARIETIES OF RACE. 87 9 the North American Republic ; and of Polynesians, Malays from the Sandwich Islands. Among the many remarkable matrimonial alliances to be met with, I have known Europeans married to pure squaws, Indian half-breeds and Mulatto females respec- tively. One case has come under my observation of a negro married to a white woman, and another of a man descended from a Hindoo mother married to a wife of Indian extraction. A gentleman of large property, re- ported to be of Mulatto origin, is married to a half-breed Indian. From these heterogeneous unions, and from illicit commerce between the various races just enumerated, it is evident that our population cannot escape the infusion of a considerable hybrid offspring. Apart from the effect of intercourse between the Mongolian and other races in our midst, we may certainly calculate upon twenty-three crosses, in different degrees, resulting from the blending of the Caucasian, the aboriginal American and the negro. The following is the arrangement of Tschudi as adopted by N ott and Gliddon in their able work entitled ‘ Types of Mankind’ :——— Parents Children White father and Negro mother Mulatto ,, Indian ,, Mestiza )7 Indian ,, Negro ,, Chino White ,, Mulatto ,, Cuarteron ,, ,, Mestiza ,, Creole (pale brownish complexion) ,, ,, Chino ,, Chino-blanco ,, ,, Cuarterona ,, Quintero ,, ,, Quintera ,, White Negro ,, Indian ,, Zambo v ,, Mulatto ,, Zambo-negro » ,; Mestiza» ,, Mulatto-oscuro ,, ,, Chino ,, Zambo-chino ,, ,, Zamba ,, Zambo-negro (perfectly black) ,, ,, Quintera ,, Mulatto (rather dark) Indian *‘“ ,, Mulatto ,, Chino-oscuro 380 EFFECT OF MIXTURE OF TYPES. Parents ' Children Indian father and Mestiza mother Mestizo-claro (frequently very beautiful) ,, ,, Chino ,, Chino-cola ,, ,, Zamba ,, Zambo-claro ,, ,, Chino-001a,, Indian (with frizzly hair) ,, ,, Quintera ,, Mestizo (rather brown) Mulatto ,, Zamba ,, Zambo (a miserable race) ,, ,, Mestiza ,, Chino (rather clear complexion) ,, ,, Chino ,, Chino (rather dark). It is to be feared that these varieties of humanity do not occupy our soil and multiply their kind, in every instance, without detriment to that type which we desire should preponderate. What is to be the effect, upon that section of posterity which will, in future centuries, inhabit the British North American shores of the Pacific, of this commingling of races so diverse in physiological, psychological, intellectual, moral, religious, and political aspects? ' Circumstances of climate, scenery, race, and natural productions have combined to determine the particular mould in which the thought and life of other peoples, ancient and modern, have been cast. What then will be the resultant of the manifold and unequal forces operating in the formation of distinctive national charac— teristics in these colonies? This is an interesting and momentous problem which coming ages alone can solve. In description of resources Vancouver Island may resemble the parent country, and thus merit the proud title of ‘ the England of the Pacific.’ But the peculiar elements composing the nucleus of the population render it physically impossible for that exact form of national character we have been accustomed ‘to ascribe to Great Britain to be perpetuated in the island of the Far West. Does the presence, so largely, of inferior races forbode the fatal tainting of the young nation’s blood and signal its premature decay, or will the vitality of the governing race CIVIL DlSABlLlTIES OF CHINESE AND NEGROES. triumph over the contamination with which more primi- tive types threaten to impregnate it P This is the important enquiry that engrosses the attention of ethnological specu- lators in the nascent communities of the North Pacific. It is gravely argued by some that to the Caucasian race has been assigned supremacy over the rest of man- kind; that no new combination of distinct existing races can improve its towering excellence; that in proportion to the rapidity with which deleterious elements are intro- duced, must in course of time be the ratio of its degeneracy and final extinction; that as in the twelfth century, under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his successors, the Kirghis and the Calmucs from the north of China were hurled upon Russia, so hordes of modern Asiatics from the former country, lured by the gold of California and British Columbia, may, at some remote period, again inundate these new lands and blast them with desolation. This dark apprehension is shared extensively by the fore— most minds in California. Civil disabilities and statutory restrictions have, in consequence, been imposed by the State Legislature with the design of checking their immigration. As in the case of negroes in that State, the testimony of the Chinese is not accepted as legal evidence in courts of justice, and they are burdened with taxation beyond what would be endured by the white race. It is maintained also, that while by intermarrying with descendants of Europeans we are but reproducing our own Caucasian type, by commingling with eastern Asiatics we are creating debased hybrids; that the primary law of nature teaches self~preservation ; and that such protec- tive enactments as have been referred to are essential to the perpetuation and advancement of the nation.* * Signs have lately appeared in the American Legislature of the social taboo being removed from negro citizens in the States. 382 HABITs or THE cHINEsE. Happily both these coloured races are admitted to the enjoyment of civil privileges in these colonies upon terms of perfect equality with white foreigners, and are alike eligible for naturalisation. Yet even on the British side of the boundary there is a disposition to look coldly upon the immigration of Celestials. It is alleged that so large an amount of Chinese labour must have the effect of reducing the price of white labour. But such an opinion is without foundation; for those Chinamen, who arrive without capital, are only capable of engaging in menial employments, such as cooking, hawking tea, and keeping laundries. It is but few skilled labourers, I presume, that would desire to compete with them in these callings. Nor can their presence at the mines at all interfere with the enterprises of the superior race ; for it is well known that they are unable to resort to those mechanical appli- ances requisite in the working of rich diggings; that they always keep at a respectful distance from the whites, and are content with such small returns as may be yielded by abandoned ‘ claims,’ from which the whites have already taken the cream. As to the fear that, if access to the country were not made strait for them, they might ultimately overrun and devastate it like ‘a plague of locusts, nothing could be more groundless. No people have a more intelligent acquaintance with ‘ the law of supply and demand.’ They are generally under the direction of shrewd merchants among their own countrymen, who never encourage the poorer classes to leave China without being certain that a fair prospect of occupation exists for them in the parts to which they are imported; and in this respect the judgment of those leading Chinamen is rarely at fault. It must be acknowledged to their credit that in California, British Columbia, and Vancouver Island, an THEIR INFLUENCE UPON TRADE.‘ 383 unemployed Chinaman is seldom to be met with, and a more industrious and law-abiding class does not reside in these dependencies. In their social and domestic habits, however, Ifrankly admit there is room for much improve- ment as far as cleanliness is concerned. It is natural that a race so exclusive and so much avoided by their white fellow-citizens on the coast, should give preference to the manufactures of their own country. Much of the clothing they Wear and many of their articles of food come from China. They contrive, it is true, to spend as little of their earnings as possible on their adopted soil-most of the money made by the humbler classes among them being remitted home for the laudable object of contributing to the support of needy relatives. But it is a mistake to regard the trade done and the capital acquired by them as so much wealth diverted from the channels of white industry, since but for their presence in the country the greater part of that trade would not have been created; nor would that capital have been accumulated. They cannot prevent commercial advantage accruing to the colonies from their influence, if they would. It is often British bottoms that convey them from China, and they are obliged to buy hardware, water- proof boots, and pork from us. Poultry, too, being esteemed a great luxury, is in great demand among them. When they have lived among the civilised for a time, it not unfrequently happens that they adopt the European and American costume entire. After a protected expenditure of missionary labour upon the attempted evangelisation of the 40,000 Chinese scattered throughout California, the number who have even had the curiosity to Wait on the ministrations of Christian instructors is very insignificant. Having been the guest for some weeks of an American missionary to the Chinese 384 RELATIONS on THE CHINESE TO CHRISTIANITY. in San Francisco, I have pleasure in testifying that tardy success in the work of their conversion is owing neither to want of ability or zeal on the part of that pious and excellent agent. Efforts have been made by a clergyman in British Columbia, under the direction of the bishop, for the same object, but, as far as I can ascertain, hitherto without any visible result. The minds of the Chinese generally are by no means unin- terested in religious matters. Most of them I have met are a reading people, and ingenious in their remarks on that subject. In conversation with one settled in Victoria, who could make himself intelligible in broken English, I observed that he had some acquaintance with the Biblical account of the creation and the fall of man; but with the cavalier manner of a sceptic, he simply declared it legendary, and showed a preference for the view of those events contained in the sacred books of Buddhism as more interesting. The question of truth did not trouble him in either case ; for he smiled at the Pagan and Christian views of the matter as equally fictitious. It was with the same theoretic air that he discussed with me the facts of Christianity. He had heard of the mission of the Saviour; but could not be induced to think that it had anything to do with him as a celestial. ‘ Jesus Christ,’ said he, ‘ very good God for Englishman, but He no do for Chinaman.’ I heard of one of that race who was present on a certain occasion, when differences of religious creed were in debate. The various shades of Christian belief, I understand, are intolerably perplexing to intelligent Chinamen who visit our shores. ‘ John’ is said to have listened to the controversy, without edification, till his patience could hold out no longer, and calling the atten~ tion of the Christian combatants, he interposed the vIsIT To A BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 385 following latitudinarian remark, to the surprise of them all : ‘ Religions different ; reason one ; we all brothers.’ A striking feature in the social organisation of the Chinese in California is that they have planted temples of Buddha in the very heart of the Christian institutions of that State. ' Through the kindness of the excellent missionary above alluded to, I was conducted through one of their large establishments in San Francisco—a brick building several stories high, and covering a considerable plot of ground. Here immigrants from China consigned to a certain native company in that city, are accommodated with board and lodging till situations can be obtained for them. The house is divided into stores, apartments for the use of new arrivals and invalids, a small theatre, and a place of worship. In passing through the rooms my friend and I were received with a profusion of courtesy, for which we were partially indebted to the acquaintance of Mr. Loomis with the Chinese language. Seats were placed for us, and- small cups of tea, with cigarillas. Asour time was limited, we were obliged to decline these offers of hospitality—an act which I fear did not raise their estimate of our politeness. My friend, whom they already knew, was interrogated with their accustomed inquisitiveness as to my name, profession, residence, &c. We next entered the temple—a hall 60 feet by 40, emblazoned with devices, consisting of pictorial represen- tations and brief quotations from their sacred books, done in gilt, and appropriate to the frame of mind sought to be excited in such a place. At the end of the room fronting the entrance was an altar elaborately decorated. In the centre of this semi~circular niche stood a huge idol of grotesque form, calculated to inspire the spectator with terror and disgust. The face of this monster faintly o O 386 eHINEsE ADDREss To THE GovERNoR. resembled that of a human being, but the proportions of his body and the disposition of his numerous and contorted limbs baflle description. On one side of him were suspended agreat bell and drum, which apparatus, it- was explained, was intended to wake the god on the approach of worshippers. I observed but one Chinaman paying his vows while I was present, and on the altar was an offering of fruit. The Chinese of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, only numbering at present about 2,000, have not yet attempted the erection of any place of devotion. But when attracted in greater force, the pious among them, according to the Buddhist standard, may be expected to erect fanes in which to celebrate traditional rites. I do not find their monotonous course of life in these colonies relieved by more than one holiday demonstration in twelve months: that takes place at the beginning of their new year, which is ushered in by an incessant ‘firing of crackers, enveloping their quarter of the town in a cloud of smoke for an entire day. The following is the literal translation of an address presented by them to Governor Kennedy on his arrival last year, and will give some idea of their admirable discernment on commercial topics, especially in relation to the future of Victoria as a free port :— In the reign of Tong Chee, 3rd year, 2nd month, 26th day. V. I., 1864 year, 4th month, 2nd day. Us Chinese men greeting thee Excellency in first degree Arthur Edward Kennedy, thee in first rank country name Vancouver with hangers to it. All us here be dwellers at Victoria this Island and Columbia British. ' Much wish to show mind of dutiful loyalty to this kingdom, mother Victoria Queen, for square and equal rule of us. THE TREATMENT WE OWE THEM. Just now must humbly offer much joined mind of compliments to thee Excellency Governor Kennedy, on stepping to this land of Vancouver, that thee be no longer in danger of typhoon us much delighted. Us be here from year 1858,and count over two thousand Chinese. Chinese countrymen much like that so few of us have been chastised for breaking kingdom rule. This kingdom rule very different from China. Chinese seem much devoted to Victoria Queen for protection and distributive rule of him Excellency old Governor Sir James Douglas, so re- verse California ruling when applied to us Chinese countrymen. Us, believing success will come in obeying rulers, not breaking inks, holding on to what is right and true. In trading, hope is good and look out large big prospects for time to come. Us like this no charge place; see it will grow and grow higher to highest; can see a Canton will be in Victoria of this Pacific. The maritime enterprises will add up wonderfully, and come quick. China has silks, tea, rice, and sugar, etc. Here is him-- her, coal, minerals, and fish, an exhaustless supply which no other land can surpass. In ending, us confide in gracious hope in thee, first degrees, and first rank, and first links, and trust our California neighbours may‘ not exercise prejudice to our grief. Us merchants in Chinese goods in Victoria, mark our names in behalf of us and Chinese countrymen. Wishing good luck and prosperity, to all ranks, and will con- tinue to be faithful and true. Us Chinese men much please Excellency continue to give favour. Us remember to thee. Whether, therefore, we consider the antiquity of these Mongols, their natural ingenuity, or the encouragement afforded by their national institutions to talent, integrity, and industry, the most cogent reasons exist for our extending to them a cordial welcome. Let the colonists show the fruits of a superior civilisation and religion, not 0 c 2 388 4 THE NEGRO ELEMENT. in ridiculing and despising these Pagan strangers, but in treating them with the gentle forbearance due to a less favoured portion of the family of mankind, and they will continue to be useful and inoffensive members of society. The prejudice which characterises race or colour as a disqualification for the exercise of civil rights reflects dis- honour upon the civilised community that indulges it. The descendants of the African race resident in the colonies are entitled to some notice. About 300 of them inhabit Victoria, and upwards of 100 are scattered throughout the farming settlements of the island and British Columbia. The chief part came to the country some time previous to the immigration of ’58, driven from California by social taboo and civil disabilities. They invested the sums they brought with them in land, and by the sudden advance in the value of real estate which fol- lowed the influx of gold seekers, most of them immediately found themselves possessed of a competency. It was not surprising, under these circumstances, that some, formerly‘ habituated to servitude or reproached as representatives of a barbarous race, should, on being delivered from the yoke of social oppression, fail to show much considera- tion for the indurated prejudices of the whites, most of whom at that period were either Americans or British subjects, who sympathised with the ideas prevailing in the United States respecting the social status of the coloured people. _ Whereas they had been restricted in California to worship Almighty God in their own churches or in a part of those frequented by whites, designed for the exclusive accommodation of persons of colour, they were permitted on coming to Vancouver Island free range of unoccupied pews, in the only church then erected in the colony. The church-going immigrants in the mass sooIAL ANTIPATHIEs. ' 389~ wafted to our shores in ’58 were at once brought into a proximity with coloured worshippers which was repugnant to past associations. It is difficult to analyse this social prejudice between the races, and impossible to defend it. 7 But I have been astonished to observe its manifestations in Christian gentlemen whose intelligence and general consistency were exemplary. The negro supporters of the church, regarding themselves as the ‘ old families’ of the country and the monied aristocracy, and wincing under the recollection of social wrongs endured by them under the American flag, were not disposed to give way in the slightest to the whims and scruples of the whites. Many of the latter remonstrated with the clergyman against allowing the congregation to assume a speckled appearance—a spectacle deemed by them novel and inconvenient. They insisted that they were pre- pared to treat the ‘blacks’ with the utmost humanity and respect, in their own place; but that the Creator had made a distinction which it was sinful to ignore; that the promiscuous arrangement might lead to the sexes in both races falling in love with each other, entering into marriage, and thus occasioning the deteriora— tion of the whites without the elevation of the negroes being effected. The worthy parson, being direct from the parent country, and till then wholly inexperienced in the social relations of the conflicting races, felt at liberty to ' take only philanthropic and religious ground in dealing with the question. He maintained that the stains of men’s sin, in common, were so dark, that mere difference in colour was an affair of supreme insignificance before the Almighty, in comparison, and that the separation desired by the whites was of carnal suggestion, which Christianity demanded should be repressed. He is said even to have gone so deeply into the subject in a particular 390 INTEREERENeE or cLERGYMEN. sermon as to assert that the disposition of nerves, tendons, and arteries, and the essential faculties of the soul were alike in white and black—the sole distinction between them consisting of colouring matter under the skin, the projection of the lower jaw, and the wool by which the scalp was covered. But these well-intentioned arguments made no im- pression upon the obstinate views by which the bulk of the whites were influenced. In many cases they resented the imagined injury offered to their feelings by withdrawing from church altogether. While the community was in a ferment on the question, a zealous N onconformist fresh from the anti-slavery ‘ platform ’ of Canada, hastened to espouse the cause of the African. The coloured people, proud of so able a champion, rallied round him, and soon outnumbered the white adherents in his congregation. In making his public de'but, he uncompromisingly announced to a congregation chiefly composed of whites, that no distinction should be allowed under his ministry in pew arrangements on the score of colour. The whites took alarm and the following Sunday two-thirds of those in attendance were of the negro race. This preponderance of colour in the chapel, however, did not accord with the objects the negroes were ambitious of attaining. They gradually withdrew to the fashionable church where they could enjoy the satisfaction of mingling more largely with the superior race; and, like the ass in the fable, between the two bundles of hay, - the devoted friend of the African was thus starved out by the desertion of oppressors and oppressed together. So ungratefully are the disinterested services of philanthropy sometimes requited! Many were of opinion that a difficulty of so exceptional an order might have been successfully overcome by more prudent FRACAS on THE WHITE AND COLOURED. 391 reticence on the part of these conscientious ministers. Evidently the most effective method of allaying it was not to attack the position taken by the whites when their social antipathies were excited to fever heat, and the attitude assumed by the blacks was not so conciliatory as it ought to have been. A little good nature, cautious management, and expedient neutrality on the part of the clergy, would, I have no doubt, soon have brought the antagonists to a proper understanding, and silenced this strife for precedence in the religious assembly. The same prejudice of race continues, unfortunately, to interfere with harmony in social gatherings for the purposes of amusement. More than once has the presence of coloured persons in the pit of the theatre occasioned scenes of violence and bloodshed, followed by litigation. When, a few years since, a literary institute was attempted to be formed, and the signatures of one or two respectable negroes appeared in the list of subscribers, the movement came to an untimely close. A white member of a temperance society, which was eminently useful in the community, proposed the name of a coloured man for admission, intentionally avoiding to disclose at the time any information as to his race, and when it was discovered that the society had been beguiled, ignorantly, into accepting a negro as a brother teetotaller, it broke up. There is nothing in the constitution of the colony to exclude a British born negro from the municipal council or the legislature, and yet, however well qualified he might be by talent and education for the honour, his elec- tion could not be carried in the present state of public feeling. The negroes are perfectly justified in claiming those civil rights which British law confers upon them, and they are resolved not to desist struggling till these are fully achieved. 392 coURsE To. BE TAKEN BY NEGROES. Having by commendable zeal succeeded in organising a rifle corps and a brass band, they expressed a wish to appear in uniform, on occasion of a public procession formed to escort the present Governor to his residence on landing in the colony. But the prejudice of the whites ruled it otherwise. When they sought an opportunity of showing esteem for the retiring Governor at a banquet given to that gentleman, admission was refused them. When the ‘common-school ’ system is introduced, in which the families of both races are equally entitled to partici- pate, I foresee that storms will arise. Many of this people in the country are necessarily endowed with very limited intelligence, while some are well-informed and eloquent in speech. But, as a race, they compare favourably with whites of corresponding social position, in industry and uprightness. It was remarked by Sydney Smith that ‘ we cannot extort friendship from those whose regard we covet, with a cocked pistol.’ If ever, therefore, the fusion of races sought by persons of colour is to be brought about, that end will not be accelerated by our negro brethren adopting coercive and resentful measures. Their lot in the social scale should be borne with philosophic patience and Christian resignation. They should guard against causing their fellow-citizens needless irritation, and remember that prejudices long fostered by association cannot be conquered in a moment. The manners of the white residents toward each other strike one accustomed to the taciturnity for which society in England is proverbial, as remarkably free and hearty. This rule, however, is not without exceptions. The Government officials constitute the centre of the social system (still in a formative state), and around it multitudes of broken-down gentlemen and certain needy sIR JAMES DoUGLAs. 393 tradespeople rotate. The most wealthy members of the community have, in general, more money than culture—a condition of things always incident to the early stage of colonial development. Many of them owe their improved circumstances simply to being the lucky possessors of real estate at a time when it could be bought for a nominal amount. Some who eight years ago were journeymen smiths, carpenters, butchers, bakers, public-house keepers, or proprietors of small curiosity shops in San Francisco or Victoria, are now in the receipt of thousands of pounds a year. Among this class there are those who hear their prosperity with moderation, while others indicate the limited extent of their acquaintance with the world by an air of amusing assumption. There is a resident in the country who, in consideration of his past official relation to it, as first Governor of British Columbia, deserves passing notice in this place. I refer to Sir James Douglas. This gentleman is completely un- known in England, except at the Colonial Oflice and to a few directors of the Hudson’s Bay Company. But being a local celebrity, the reader may not object to be introduced to so interesting a character. In stature he exceeds six feet. His countenance, by its weather-beaten appearance, still tells of many years spent in fur-trapping adventure, in the wilds of the interior. Introduced at the age of fifteen or sixteen from the West Indies, the reputed place ‘of his birth, into the service of the company, and deprived, during the greater part of his life, of the advantages of society, except that of Indians, half-breeds, and persons like himself occupying humble situations in the employ of the company, every praise is due to him for not being indifferent to mental culture in those mountain solitudes in which the flower of his manhood was passed. The stateliness of his person- of which he always seems proudly conscious—- 394 HIs DEPoRTMENT. ’ and his natural force of character suggest the reflec- tion to an observer, how vastly more agreeable would have been his address and powerful the influence of his character and abilities had he enjoyed in early life a liberal education and intercourse with persons of refinement and culture. De Quincey describes the well-known Dr. Parr, as the ‘ Birmingham Dr. Johnson ’—-an expression signifying that the former was but an electro-plated imita- tion of the latter. The application of this remark may be left to the reader in reference to the pretentious deport- ment of Sir James. His efforts to appear grand, and even august, were ludicrously out of proportion to the insignificant population he governed —— numbering less than the inhabitants of many a country town in England. When he spoke to anyone within the precincts of the Government House, his Quixotic notions of his oflice, which he evidently thought splendid, prompted him to make choice of the sesguipedalian diction he employed in his despatches. The angle of his head, the oflicial tone, the extension of his hand, the bland smile which never reached beyond the corners of his mouth—all these stiff and artificial arrangements were carefully’got up and daily repeated by him under the delusion that the public imagined him to be natural and a perfect Brummell in politeness. His manners always gave one the impression that to make up for early disadvantages he had religiously adjusted his whole bearing to the standard of Lord Chesterfield, and it is needless to say how amusing was the combination of his lordship and this dignified old fur- trapper. His attitude toward the oflicials serving under his government was austere and distant. This he had acquired under the sort of military regime observed between the officers and servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company. .I PETTY DIPLOMACY. 395 have heard magistrates addressed by him in a pom- pous manner that no English gentleman would assume toward his porter. But Sir James solemnly felt that ‘ the machine of state’ could only be kept in motion by his delivering commands, with head erect, and with that rotund and peremptory utterance which at once betrayed and excused vulgarity. He was rarely visible at his desk or in the street with- out being arrayed in semi-military uniform ; but the climax of his extravagance was probably capped by his being followed perpetually, whether taking an airing in the country or going to visit, by an imposing orderly, duly armed and in uniform. In so small and practical a town as Victoria, the temptation of the local wits to satirise so preposterous a spectacle was irresistible. Petty diplomacy was a passion with Sir J ames--doubt— less developed, from his youth, in the wheedling mode of transacting business with the Indians, adopted by the company in the interior. He never sent away any sup- pliant for governmental favours without holding out some hope, which, at the same moment, he, in many cases, determined to frustrate. A favourite plan of his with any whom he thus sought to keep in good humour was to exhaust their patience by expedient and indefinite post~ ponement of the object desired. A certain description of immigrants fresh from England, imagine in their verdant simplicity that their recent arrival from that great centre of knowledge and civilisation gives them a right to patronise colonists whose condition they deem benighted from long exile. The class I refer to have a weakness .for manufacturing stories of better days, departed greatness, and rich relations. One person whom I knew professed to be a University man; to have been familiar with a European prince; heir of a large estate 396 VERDANT SIMPLICITY or NEW-COMERS. and ward of a gentleman. of influence‘ in England. The‘ curiosity of a friend being excited to learn particulars respecting the mysterious history he. supposed to attach to this hero, wrote home to parties claimed by him as former associates. Cn investigation, it appeared that he was a bankrupt draper and an outlaw, who had changed his name. ’ Amusing disclosures are sometimes made about certain ladies who are anxious to impress the public by exagge- rated representations of their former position in society at home. These elegant specimens of afl’ectation entertain visitors, languidly, with narratives, intended to set forth the contrast asserted to exist between present hardships and former affluence. But, by an unhappy coincidence, some one usually turns up who knows all about their antecedents ; and then the truth comes out, assigning them a very different place in society from what they pretended to. One lady, who had contracted the inconvenient habit of dropping her h’s, and using singular verbs with plural nouns, provoked enquiry into the past .by expatiating on the magnificence of her ancestral mansion—the number of stories it contained, its turrets and battlements, and the fine view of the sea it commanded. The fact was, to speak without figure, she was the daughter of a worthy lighthouse-keeper ! If the character of people is respectable, humble origin is felt to be much less a barrier to advancement in the colonies than in England. But in no part of the empire are shanzs so readily detected. Let it not be supposed, however, that our female society is entirely composed of this or of any other class that is doubtful. It must be confessed, that there are too many females in both colonies, as everywhere else, that, reflect AMERIOAN AND ENGLIsH LADIEs. 397 as little credit upon the land of their adoption as they did on the land of their birth. Still, we have among us ladies of birth and education, and, what is yet more important, of moral qualities that would render them an ornament to their sex in any part of the world. Refugees from bankruptcy, disgrace, or family strife. suffered in some other part of the world, are to be met with in Victoria every few yards. But among the unfor- tunate are some of the most estimable men I have ever seen. The tone of society has become decidedly more British since 1859 ; but still, as then, the American element pre~ vails. Citizens of the United States may easily be known by their spare, erect, and manly figure. The business men among them are, for the most part, attired in super- fine cloth, most frequently of a dark colour, and high- heeled, broad-toed boots, of admirable fit. The coloured shooting—jacket, so frequently worn by Englishmen in the colony during the week, has no attraction for Ame- ricans. For ethereal beauty, handsomeness, liveliness, and general intelligence, American ladies must be allowed to be eminently distinguished. That high refinement, which can only result from breeding and education, and is to be found in the foremost rank of British society, is without parallel among Americans. But it is my impression that the average of educated American ladies cannot be equalled, in interesting expression of counte- nance and brightness of intellect, by English ladies of the middle-class generally. The charming sweetness of the American beauty, however, fades prematurely, and at the age of 30, when a well-developed English lady is but in her prime, the smooth visage and transparent complexion of our fair cousin have been for years invaded by wrinkles. 398 cHAPTER or occURRENcEs. Americans appear to 'me defective in conversational power. However rapid and distinct their speech may be, the diction employed by them is so stilted, and their forms of expression are so elaborate, as to contrast unfavourably with the terse idiomatic phraseology used by those En- glishmen who are competent to wield their own language. A tolerably correct idea of white society in Victoria,iat the period when I arrived in the colony, may be gathered from the chapter of occurrences which took place in the small wooden hotel at which I put up, then affording the best public accommodation to be obtained in the place. On entering the restaurant the morning of my arrival, the first customer I saw was a tall gentleman with hair of a very red hue, immense moustache, and beard of the same colour and size. This happened to be a man of good family, whose name I recollected to have seen figure in the ‘Times,’ as co-respondent in a case tried a few months previously before Sir Cresswell Cresswell. Having been mulcted in heavy damages, he absconded from the parent country. Notwithstanding the brit- tleness of Mr. G ’s reputation, he was promoted, shortly afterwards, to the responsible situation of Colonial Treasurer, through the consideration of Governor Douglas. But the force of former habits returned to this hero of the Divorce Court, though his natural infirmity now assumed a new manifestatioii. His extravagance plunged him in debt. When the public ledger was examined, a large balance was struck against him, and no satisfac- tory account could be given by him of the missing cash. He was imprisoned in the common gaol, to await trial for embezzlement; but as the surveillance of the authorities over him was not sufficiently strict, he escaped and joined one of the contending American armies, in which he fell. DEFALCATIONS OF OFFICIALS. 399 At the same dinner-table, that first day of my acquain- tance with the city, there was an American doctor who had made the sphere of his practice in a neighbouring State too hot for him by misconduct. This man, then about 40, I found had, up to a few years before, followed the humble calling of a barber. There was also present a worthy ex-consul of a European nation, who had lost a fortune through over-speculation. Next morning I was awakened by a Government official of British Columbia holloaing to the notorious red-haired gentleman above described, whose room was separated from mine by only a thin wooden partition, informing him that .the law- adviser of the Crown for one of the colonies had been challenged to a duel by a brother barrister. While referring to lawyers, it may be added that the Supreme Court in both colonies has several times been disgraced by contemptuous badgering of the bench on the part of certain members of the bar, calculated to shock all one’s ideas of judicial dignity. The experience of the colonists at this period was varied by some excitement connected with the trial of a treasury clerk, who had, on the day after my arrival, been committed to prison for one year, charged with robbing the colonial ‘ till.’ Not long afterwards the postmaster absconded, with a considerable amount of public money. This official had already earned notoriety as prime mover in riots created at Ballarat, in Australia. His course was finished, consistently, a couple of years later, at a gam- bling-house in Germany, where, becoming inextricably involved in ‘ debts of honour,’ he died by his own hand. How Governor Douglas could be induced to elevate such men to responsible Government situations, it is difficult to understand. Tired of hotel life, I took up my abode in a respectable 400 THE UNMARRIED COUPLE. family, the lady of which was threatened, as I believe unjustly, with prosecution for libel, by another lady zealous for her reputation. New quarters soon opened to me, where there appeared every reason to hope that the atmosphere would be free from the troubles of litigation. For a time domestic peace continued unruffled. But one day, while at dinner, two policemen came for the purpose of searching the premises; and I can testify that diges- tion was not greatly assisted by the process. A fellow- boarder was non inventus est, leaving behind him debts to a considerable amount. My embarrassment was increased by mine host, who was the partner of the defaulter in business, being arrested on suspicion of being implicated in the fraud; but he was honourably acquitted. Again I felt compelled to beat a retreat. It is not uncommon for persons of plausible address coming into the colonies, to impose on the public, and insinuate themselves into respectable society. But in a longer or shorter time, the cloven foot is disclosed, and they are obliged to withdraw into obscurity or leave the country. Two persons I knew something of, passed for a while as husband and wife, even with many who were particular about the company they kept. At length the gentleman went to Cariboo, and during his absence a so-called pro- fessional gentleman became so intimate with the lady as to call forth severe comment on the nature of the relations he sustained to her. After the return of Mr. A from British Columbia, the door was besieged by the quack. The former, who opened to him, was asked by the new suitor ‘ if J was at home ’-_alluding to the supposed wife of Mr. A-_-. The latter aflfected intense indignation that his wzfe should be spoken of by a stranger in so ‘familiar a manner. But the doctor, nothing daunted, ADvENTUREs OF WIDows. 401 reminded Mr. A that he was her rightful owner, as she was engaged to be married to him, and had never stood in that sacred relation to Mr. A The pre- tended husband, as an American expressed it, ‘ wilted down,’ and was obliged, after a residence of some half- dozen years under the same roof with his mistress, to resign in favour of the partner to whom she was about to be legally attached. A number of females have found their way into the country who give themselves out as widows, without being entitled to that sad but honourable designation. Some singular coincidences came under my observation, a few years since, respecting one of this class. I was in- vited to perform the ceremony of marriage between the woman in question, who had just come to the country, and a settler. Six months afterwards, I received a letter from a gentleman of high professional reputation in Eng- land, to whose name were appended several learned titles, and who presided over one of the most important public institutions in London. His object in writing was to ascertain the particulars of the marriage referred to, not, as he remarked, with a view to throwing any impediment in the way, for he assured me the lady (all females are known as ladies on this side the world) had not before been married. Yet, with his knowledge, she took his name, and represented herself as a bereaved wife. The facts warranted me in drawing only a conclusion that involved dishonour to the parties. An evening or two after the receipt of this communi- cation, a friend, who had lived in California, called on me, and happened casually, in conversation, to review the prominent events of early mining days in San Francisco. Among other pioneer characters he recalled the lady un- der consideration, who was then exhibited, he said, in an D D 402 TERMs or THE MARRIAGE AeT. indecorous manner, in imitation of statuary—a very suc- cessful method of obtaining money from vicious men in those rude times. The exhibitor of that obscene spectacle was not ashamed to be addressed as her husband. The name of the man reported by my friend agreed with that attached to the letter from England, and the married de- signation by which, as a pretended widow, the unhappy woman desired to be known. An instance of the intriguing disposition of some of these nondescript females may be related. It may be interesting to some bachelor or maiden readers, who contemplate seeking their fortune in this new land, and prefer a quiet celebration of their nuptials, to know that the Marriage Act of Vancouver Island provides for matri- mony being entered upon, if so deemed expedient by the lovers, within a brief space after their minds are made up on the momentous question of having the knot tied. By paying a fee of ten dollars, and making a de- claration under oath at Government House that no legal impediment exists to the union, the bridegroom can pro- cure a special licence under the hand and seal of the Governor. On presenting this document to a clergy- man or minister, and advancing to him a further sum of not less than ll. 28. 6d.,the desired privilege may be had. Most candidates for connubial felicity in these colo- nies prefer being married in the evening, and in a private house. A message having come from a Mrs. P————, request- ing my services at her house in the evening, to unite her in matrimony to a lucky miner, I communicated to the messenger, for the information of this lady, the law on the subject that has just been stated. On reaching the house at the hour appointed for the ceremony, I was ushered by a servant into a brilliantly-lighted parlour, but EXTRAORDINARY WEDDING SCENE. 403 neither bride, bridegroom, guest, nor witness to the pro- posed transaction was to be seen. In a few moments, the rustling of a silk dress in the hall announced that some female form was at hand. My suspense was soon relieved by a lady coming towards the sofa on which I was seated, who impressed me as neither shy nor mirthful. Without any attempt at form, she took a seat near me. Having no index by her movements what position she was to occupy in the business of the evening, I refrained, out of regard to propriety, from breaking silence, lest any enquiries I might make should appear impertinent. At length, looking at me with a lackadaisical stare, she said : ‘ Are you the minister?’ ‘ Yes,’ I replied; ‘ may I take the liberty of asking whether you are the bride?’ ‘ I am,’ said the lady. ‘ Then, I presume,’ said I, ‘ that your intended husband has procured the special licence, and that all your arrangements are made?’ ‘ Who are you?’ she said with a troubled and half-defiant air. ‘ Are you not a regular minister? _ We need no licence in the States for this sort of thing I’ ‘ I have simply to say,’ said I, ‘ that some one has deceived me. I asked your mes- senger explicitly if the necessary sanction of the Governor had been obtained, and was answered in the affirmative. It is a waste of time and a breach of courtesy to bring me here at this late hour, when you know the legal con- ditions of your proposed marriage have not been complied with.’ With emphasis and gesticulation she exclaimed: ‘ I must be married to-night! You don’t know how peculiar the case is. If the thing be not done to-night, it may never be. If you only knew what a peculiar man my intended husband is You can make it all right, if you like.’ Then, coaxingly, she added, as if she thought I were only teasing her for a bribe, ‘I’ll give you my note for a hundred and fifty dollars, if you marry us to- DB2 404 CONDUCT OF THE HEROINE. night, and you can easily do all the. Government wants afterwards.’ ‘I beg your pardon,’ said I. ‘ Unless the bridegroom first go through the forms prescribed by the a Government, any oflicial act done by me is valueless, and if the gentleman were to leave you, you could have no recourse at law against him. But why does he not come and speak for himself? and where are your witnesses? The whole affair is incomprehensible l’ FYes ; he ’s in the next room. I ’ll send him in ; but he ’s a peculiar man.’ At length the victim whose fate was about to be decided was introduced—just the kind of subject whom the arts of a designing woman would be likely to fasci- nate. He appeared to be embarking in a cause of which he was either afraid or ashamed. He expressed his willingness to enter into the pending contract ; but every- thing about his manner bespoke great reluctance. I explained what steps were requisite to be taken to render his marriage legal, and promised to wait twenty minutes for his return from the offlce where the licence was to be obtained; assuring him, at the, ‘same time, that if he wished to postpone’ the ceremony I would cheerfully re- tire. With a sullen gravity, more befitting what related to a death-warrant, he went to procure that which most men, on such an occasion, would regard as ‘a harbinger of joy. While he had gone, a female friend came into the room, followed by the redoubtable heroine of the evening, who had in her hand a tray supporting three bumpers of champagne, to be drunk, contrary to all precedent, in anticipation of the coming event. Resolved to set my face against this innovation upon decorum, I declined to accept what was proffered. But the bride, having less scrupulousness, imbibed liberally—perhaps in the hope of acquiring nerve to bear the ordeal that was before her. THE PLOT UNRAvELLED. 405 By the time the gentleman returned, she had succeeded in attaining a very convivial state; and, indeed, while the mar- riage-service was being read, proved almost incapable of standing erect. Her affection for her husband, warmed with wine, could not be restrained till the ceremony was decently ended. As soon as the act was over, she con— soled the creature she had snared in her toils, by reminding him that she had him fast now. ‘Faugh I’ said the hus- band, dreaming of freedom which was no longer his, ‘ I can please myself about that. There ’s a steamer for San Francisco to-morrow.’ The next day the plot was unravelled. The lucky miner had been introduced to this worthless woman by her paramour. This equally bad character had met the dupe accidentally at the mines, and arranged with his mistress that she should captivate him, and that when she had won his love, bets should be exchanged between them, on the probabilities of their marriage within so many days. The bait took. The gentleman was to lose $1,000 if untrue to his engagement, and she the same amount if she should alter her mind. Her end, which was to gain money, was achieved whichever way his humour might incline. The third party referred to, no doubt, realised a large commis- sion on the transaction. In a few weeks her husband discovered, by proof as disagreeable as it was convincing, that her former lover had resumed his place in her heart, and he, consequently, was under the painful necessity-— which was the form in which duty presented itself to him at the moment—of blackening the eyes of this scoundrel. Within the same period she had exhausted a credit of $5,000, placed in the bank for her use. Her husband felt compelled to adopt the plan customary in such cases, of publishing a notice in the newspapers that he should not be any longer responsible for her debts. She replied 406 YOUNG coLoNIsT's. through the same medium; and to complete her retaliation, and shame him, if possible, into making some pecuniary compromise, she announced her appearance at a low singing-room. Many ‘ roughs ’ went, from curiosity, to witness this exhibition. As she seemed disposed neither to sing nor dance for their amusement, one fellow shouted that ‘ they hadn’t got the worth of their money.’ At this remark she hurled a stool at his head, and the company separated in confusion. Her course since then need not be traced. If clergymen in the country were permitted to divorce as well as to marry, it is to be feared they might often be invited to undo, in Penelope fashion, at the end of the year what they did at the beginning of it. Without afflicting righteous minds with more anecdotes of this description—though they might be recited by the score—it may just be observed, that ‘ the social evil,’ if it do not prevail in greater ratio than it does in the parent country, at least rears its head more unblushingly, and prostitutes are reputed to be the richest of their sex. Nor is scandal confined to unmarried or obscure circles in the community. Single ‘young men, many of them well connected and possessing-a good education, form a large portion of the population. The habits of some indicate them to have been ‘ black sheep ’ in the domestic fold at home; others of good reputation are sometimes to be found, who fail in success for want of the tact, energy, and endurance requisite to conquer the difficulties peculiar to colonial life. Others are distinguished by an indomitable spirit that smil- ingly breasts the passing wave of misfortune; they never lose an affable and modest bearing, or a regard for integrity, under the most trying disappointments, but pursue their _ aims in the unfaltering assurance that victory, though de- layed, will eventually reward their struggles. The beams THEIR TEMPTATIONS AND DANGERS. 407 of a prosperous future are reflected in the glance of such men, and the community instinctively makes way for their promotion. If, however, there be any vulnerable point in the cha- racter of the young and inexperienced colonist, it is cer- tain to be hit by the arrow of temptation. It is impossible for the imaginative youth, surrounded with the blandish- ments of fashionable English life, the associations of the Church,the proprieties of the debating club, or the restraints - of fond relationship, to over-estimate the fiery trial that awaits him, when thrown like a fledged bird from the maternal nest into the society of strangers, for the most part selfish, and interested in the ‘ greenhorn’ only as far as they can profit by the attentions they pay him. Should his concern for speedily entering on a money-making career outweigh that better judgment which compasses its end by cautious measures and slow degrees, and looks out first for a right start, nothing is more probable than that he will be pounced upon by those disguised falcons that are ever on the watch for such a quarry. Once persuaded by their sophistry that under their counsel he is on the high-road to wealth, he will be induced, in his imagined shrewdness, to accom— modate himself to their habits, under the impression that the flattering compliment he thus shows will have the effect of quickening their disinterested zeal in his behalf. He complacently argues within himself: ‘ These persons are evidently smart; but how fortunate I am to be smarter still, and able to ‘manage them!’ The speculation into which he has been lured, of course, bursts; his obliging friends ( I ) have got all they wanted out of him, and he is left to console himself as best he can under his losses. If of an excitable nature, he is likely to drown his sor- rows in something stronger than water. It is, alas! the old and oft-told story. 408 LEISURE OCCUPATIONS. But the picture has a reverse side. Should favourable ’ prospects open up, exceeding, as sometimes happens, his most sanguine expectations, one of the nervous tempera- ment just described might be tempted to find vent for his gratification in a symposium, graced by the presence of those ‘ jolly good fellows ’ that, like swallows, flutter around one in the sunshine of prosperity, but disappear when the winter of adversity approaches. Over the mortal remains of how many promising characters, wrecked on the shoals and reefs against which friendly warning has been given above, have I been called to perform sad oflicesl Many still meet one’s observation in the streets of Victoria, who, unless a merciful Providence interpose, are doomed to the drunkard’s grave. Frequently have I been delighted to see the beneficial change effected by marriage, in arrest- ing the progress of dissipation. It is only to be regretted that the paucity of respectable females in Vancouver Island and British Columbia limits so much the opportunities of single men who desire to cultivate domestic virtues, and lead sober lives. From a volunteer rifle corps which has been organised under encouraging auspices, I anticipate much good, in affording the class referred to amusing oc- cupation for part of their leisure.* Happy will it be, too, for the comfort and morals of young men, when the ‘ shanty ’ life, involving the inconvenience of cooking with their own hands, and the restaurant, which fosters home feelings to even a smaller extent, are more generally displaced by lodging-houses, kept by private families, at moderate rates, and in the style familiar to clerks and warehousemen in England. The proximity of the United States to these colonies offers special facilities to fraudulent debtors for escaping from jus- * I am happy to learn that at length a public reading-room and library have been formed in Victoria. -- a THE ‘ sxEDADDLER.’ 409 tice. Washington territory may be reached in a few hours, or a passage to California effected in a few days ; and once on American soil, the defaulter usually finds no difficulty in eluding detection, A curious exception to this rule, however, which Occurred last year, may not be uninterest— ing. - A Jew brought a lot of jewellery to Victoria, which, for a time, he exhibited to the utmost advantage. Finding that the Scotch possessed considerable influence in the country, he gave himself out as of that nationality—a strong German accent notwithstanding. Learning next that the Church of England was the leading religious body, he invested in a pew and a gilt prayer—book. His credit was above suspicion : so he commenced a career of reckless speculation; leased land, built houses, and imported goods. Every money-lender in town was ready to discount his bills. When due, they were renewed. He mortgaged his goods while any were in the store. When casks of rum were exhausted, he filled them with treacle and water. When bales of dry goods were disposed of, he supplied their place with rags. By thus duping accom- modating friends, he was enabled to obtain money far be- _ yond the value of the stock mortgaged. At length the crisis came. He placed his family safely on board the steamer for California. Certain creditors, suspecting that the bird was about to take wing, sent the bailiff, armed with a capias for his arrest. To avoid his pursuers he put out in a small boat, intending to hail the steamer when a few miles from land. _ But this signal was unheeded, and he turned the boat’s'prow to the American side. When the news spread the following day, the creditors hired a steam- boat and went in search. Reaching Port Townsend after ' dusk they went through the place in quest of their prey. During their absence, the runaway walked on board, ima- 410 INsANITY IN THE coLoNIEs. gining the vessel to be en route for Olympia—a more distant American port in Puget Sound. He at once retired to his state-room and slept. He was waked an hour or two later by a policeman who took him prisoner, and to his utter amazement he found himself back in the city whence he sought to disappear. The intense pitch to which the feelings of people are strung in a gold-producing country is a frequent cause of insanity. Whether that malady exist in a greater degree in this community than in one of a more settled description, I am not sufficiently versed in the statistics of the subject to aver. But certainly a much larger proportion of cases have been personally known to me here than in the same period I ever saw in the much denser populations of England. I can reckon up eight persons—all of whom I have been on speaking terms with, and most of whom I knew intimately, who, in four years and a half, have become lunatics, and as such are either living or dead. There was a quiet and respectable man, about thirty, who kept a school in Victoria. He became unmanned by pecuniary difficulties, and took leave of friends he had been visiting, with unusual seriousness and formality, and the same evening attached a rope to the wall of his room, thence suspending himself by the neck. Two days after, the owner of the apartment went to collect the rent, and cut the body down. - Two-other unfortunate persons laboured under the hal- lucination that certain friends had conspired to mix poison with their food. Another was a medical man, who called on me, offering for sale a very old copy of an Italian Bible, which he assured me was valued by English ‘book-hunters’ at a hundred pounds ; but being em- barrassed he was willing to let me have it for ten pounds. Still he never produced the book. , The occasion of his THE RELIGIOUS MANIAC. 411 narrow circumstances was related by him with great earnestness and originality. The local Government, he said, had a spite against him without any provocation, and employed some Chinamen to annoy him_,_by invisible agency. This consisted of a projectile which could be darted through the air at any distance. It was impercep- tible to natural vision, but by an affinity established be- tween it and a pimple at the back of the doctor’s head, it went straight from the hand which threw it to that object. The result of this contact was that, according to his testimony, he was invariably brought down, wherever he might be, unless already in a reclining posture. He went into a learned explanation of the invention of this subtle and dangerous weapon, ascribed by him to the combined genius of a Jesuit priest and a Chinaman, who together brought it to light in the reign of Henry VII.’ The influence, however, which turned the doctor from a perpendicular to a horizontal position, I fear, answers more correctly to the slang description of Americans : ‘ Chain-lightning, warranted to kill at 100 yards.’ Angliee, ‘ grog.’ Another gentleman, formerly a parish schoolmaster in Scotland, and respectably educated at a Scotch university, fell a prey to mental aberration. Having often felt inter- ested in his conversation on metaphysical subjects, of which he was passionately fond, my sense of sorrow may be judged of on visiting him, after he showed signs of mad— ness, in the common gaol—the only place at present appro— priated for lunatics in Victoria. Now his form was bent, his features haggard, his mouth awry, and his speech a loud, incessant, and incoherent jabber. Perhaps the most interesting case of this kind that came under my notice was that of a religious maniac. Upon every point but one he appeared sane. His ruling idea was,‘ 4.12 socIAL PYRAMID INVERTED. that the Almighty had revealed to him the vision of a spiritual and united kingdom to arise from the ruins of the dismembered republic of America. The Saviour was to be the acknowledged head, and preside in person over its destinies. He believed himself to have been divinely inspired, and infallibly directed in preparing a national emblem for the new empire. Under the power of this afilatus, he felt called upon to employ the services of the best professional draughtsman he could command, to sketch the proposed design, and other artists were enlisted, at great expense, to execute it. I have but a faint remembrance of a lamb, a dove, and some words of Scripture being inscribed upon the flag. But the devout enthusiast told me that he had placed the standard of the Heavenly King in safe keeping, confident that, ere long, He would descend, take it from its place of custody, and proclaim his reign! In so small a town, it is astonishing from how many parts of the world information converges as to a focus. Within a few hours I have met in the streets of Victoria persons who had respectively crossed the Andes, ascended Mont Blanc, fought in the Crimea, explored the North- West passage, seen Pekin, ransacked Mexican antiquities, lived on the coast of Africa, formed part of Walker’s band of filibusters, made a pilgrimage to the Nile and Palestine, revelled in the luxuries of India, witnessed Sepoys blown away from British guns, wintered in Petersburg, en— gaged in buffalo hunts on the great prairies of North America, seen Napoleon I., been old friends of Napoleon III., or educated at the same school with the Princess of Wales. The immigrant accustomed to the distinctions of class obtaining in settled populations of the old world, will be struck to observe how completely the social pyramid is inverted in the colonies. Many persons of birth and oxEORD MEN ROUGHING IT. 413 education, but of reduced means, are compelled, for a time after their arrival, to struggle with hardship, while the vulgar, who have but recently acquired wealth, are arrayed in soft clothing and fare sumptuously. Sons of admirals and daughters of clergymen are sometimes found in abject circumstances, while men only versed in the art of wielding the butcher’s knife, the drayman’s whip, and the blacksmith’s hammer, or women of low degree, have made fortunes. The most ludicrous example of these social transpositions with which I am acquainted, relates to a gentleman and his man-servant, who came out to- gether in the same ship. The hireling having quarrelled with his master, resigned his situation, applied for em- ployment in the police—force, and was accepted. The first subject on whom he found an opportunity of practising officially after he was appointed, happened to be his former master. That unfortunate gentleman laid himself open to the suspicion of being ‘ drunk and disorderly,’ and was immediately taken in charge by the individual who had been wont to serve him. Oxford and Cambridge men, arriving with light pockets and inflated expectations, I have seen brought to the ne- cessity of working on the roads. One respectable ex-mis— sionary to China I heard of, who earned his bread, for a few months after landing, as cook in a third-rate eating-house; and a ‘valued correspondent ’ of ‘ Household Words,’ I remember to have filled a similar oflice. One clergyman of the Church of England visited me for the purpose of obtaining work in a copper-mine, to the directors of which he desired that I should recommend him; and another, also from England, went to the gold-mines of British Columbia, to supplement the scanty savings he had been enabled to lay by from the income of the curacy he had left. Probably these guondam priests now rejoice in‘ 41,4 socIETY IN THE INTERIoR. incognitos considerably less euphonious than their family names. If any delicacy is shown by men at the diggings in regard to disclosing their real names, no impudent questions are asked on the subject; but a name is extemporised by the miners, arising out of some eccentri- city of person or character, some notable expression at any time uttered by the individual, or event that may have occurred in his experience. If a man seems educated, the company in which he may be working or travelling, in ignorance of his true appellation, will usually designate him by the laconic title /of ‘ doc,’ for doctor, or ‘ cap,’ for captain. If tall, his accociates, should his family-name be not forthcoming, may dub him ‘ Big Bill.’ Should he have a weakness for fre- quently referring to some town, creek, or country from which he has come, he may expect to have the name of the place united with his own, such as ‘Rattlesnake Jack,’ ‘ Oregon Bob,’ &c. A gentleman who was fond of dis- playing an array of initials before and titles after his name was significantly called Alphabet 1WD Druggists inform me that the demand for hair-dye by immigrants is so large as to be quite noticeable. The cause of this expedient, in such a country, may be readily conjectured. Society in the interior is very depraved. In Yale, Douglas, Lytton, Lilloet, Forks of Quesnelle, and the mining towns, little trace of Sunday is at present visible, except in the resort of miners on that day to market for provisions, washing of dirty clothes, repairing machinery, gambling, and dissipation. Out of the 5,000 souls in Vic- toria, a few may be found who respect the ordinances of religion. But at the mines, adherents of religious bodies have hitherto been numbered by scores and units?‘ * Of course, more general and punctual observance of religious duties must follow the annual increase and settlement of the mining population. SLANG IN VOGUE. 415 Up to the present there have been but two places of wor- ship in Cariboo—one connected with the Church of Eng- land, and the other with the Wesleyan Methodists. Till the fall of 1863, when these were built, the services of public worship were conducted in a bar-room and billiard-saloon. At one end of the apartment was the clergyman, with his' small congregation, and at the other were desperadoes, collected unblushingly around the fare or poleah table, staking the earnings of the preceding week. Profane language is almost universal, and is employed with diabolical ingenuity. The names of ‘ Jesus Christ’ and the ‘Almighty ’ are introduced in most blasphemous connections. Going to church is known among many as ‘ the religious dodge,’ which is said to be ‘ played out,’ or, in other words, a superstition which has ceased to have any interest for enlightened members of society. A saloon-keeper, in one of .the up-country towns, find- ing that business had been dull in his establishment during the previous week, and hearing the sound of the church- going bell one Sunday evening, was seized with an erratic wish to attend Divine service, under the impression that, possibly, the policy he had resolved upon might have the effect of improving his liquor traffic. Anxious for sympathy in the good work, he thus addressed a number of miners that were lounging on the premises: ‘ Come, boys; business has been flat this last week; we must try the religious dodge to-night; every man that’s willing to go to church, come up to the bar and take a drink.’ This novel and tempting premium had the result desired. The slang in vogue in the mining regions is imported mainly from California, and is often as expressive as it is original. ‘ Guessing ’ and ‘ calculating ’ are exercises of perpetual occurrence. If one have the best of a bargain, he is said to have got ‘the dead wood’ on the other party 416 KINDHEARTEDNESS or MINERs. in the transaction. A mean and greedy man is ‘ on the make; ’ and where a ‘ claim’ is to be disposed of, the pro- prietor is ‘ on the sell.’ A conceited man thinks himself ‘ some pumpkins ; ’ and when any statement is made, the exact truth of which is doubted, it is said to be ‘rayther a tall story.’ When a claim disappoints the hopes of those interested in it, it has ‘fizzled out.’ Cr‘edit is ‘ jaw-bone;’ and in one store on the road to Cariboo, the full-sized jaw-bone of a horse is polished, and suspended on the wall, with the words written under: ‘ None of this allowed here.’ The ground of the allusion is evident, the product resulting from the motion of the jaw being the only security a needy purchaser has to offer. Another expression for wanting credit is ‘ shooting ofl the face.’ Deceit in business is ‘ shananigan.’ A good road, steam- boat, plough, dinner, or anything else you please, is ‘ elegant.’ When one has .run ofl to avoid paying his debts, he has ‘ skedaddled,’ or ‘ vamoosed the ranch ;" or if hard-up, he wants to ‘ make a raise.’ Owing to the remoteness of British Columbia from other centres of British population, it is called the ‘ jumping-off place ’—- another phrase for the end of the world. Any issue likely to arise from a given chain of events, is seen ‘stick— ing out.’ When two parties are playing into each other’s hands, with a sinister object in view, it is a case of ‘ log- rolling.’ When the conduct of any one renders him liable to a whipping or something worse, he is ‘ spotted.’ Among the roughest of professional miners, exhibi- tions of kindness occur fitted to shame many of more moral pretensions. As a class, they are not avaricious. It is not so much the possessing of money, as the excitement attending the acquisition of it, that affords them satisfac- tion. It were more conducive to their welfare could they be induced to cultivate more thrifty habits. If the sTATE OF RELIGION. 417 patronage they recklessly bestow upon public-houses were withdrawn, and the vast sums thus squandered diverted into productive channels, the spirit of legitimate enter— prise would be fostered, and the resources of the country be more rapidly developed. The sentiment of ‘ pure and undefiled religion ’ does not flourish at present in the colonies. In the Protestant world on the Pacific coast, the religious sect to which a man is attached may commonly be determined by the extent of his business. Small retailers and mechanics swarm among the Methodists; obbers, who break packages, and the larger class of store-keepers, frequent the Presbyte- rian and Congregational chapels; and the bankers, lawyers, and wholesale dealers prefer the Church of England. Just as with their augmented resources they erect comfortable houses, so they seek to provide themselves with a church suited to their advanced social position. The utilitarian. tendencies of the people are such, that eloquent or spiri- tual preaching by itself will not attract worshippers. Their comfort must be consulted, as it respects the place of worship erected, and their emotions must be appealed to through the medium of an organ and an efficient choir. Religious scepticism prevails to a remarkable extent, as it does in all new countries. I have known cases in which Christian pastors have been turned away from the bedside of the dying colonist, and forbidden by him either to offer prayer to Almighty God for his restoration to health, or administer the consolations of the Gospel. But I trust such cases of extreme obduracy are not common. Some of the objections I have encountered against Christianity are as absurd as they are profane. An old English boor, when conversing with me on the Christian faith, remarked, ‘ Jesus Christ was a very good fellow, but he was an Indian I ’ On inquiring what proof he had E E 418 . MINERs’ TEN coMMANDMENTs. for so extraordinary a statement, he deliberately took down an atlas from the shelf, to show that, as the Saviour was born within so many degrees of the line, He must belong to the coloured race! Another settler more intel- ligent than the former, when expressing regret to me on account of moral infirmities, gravely laid the blame of these on the unfortunate shape of his head. In a country where so many are governed by impulse, and rendered desperate by losses sustained in speculation, it is not surprising that instances of highway robbery and murder should occasionally happen. The commission of these crimes, however, as in California and Australia, has been hitherto confined to solitary intervals, between the towns of British Columbia, on the way to the mines. The proportion of crime, at present, is decidedly small, con- sidering the character and number of the population. A comprehensive view of the virtues and the vices of mining life may be had from the following composition. The advice imparted is wholesome, and conveyed in technical phraseology, which every miner can understand, though the form in which the ‘ commandments’ are thrown is made to resemble the decalogue with unnecessary and profane exactness. A man spake these words, and said: I am a miner, who wandered from ‘away down east,’ and came to sojourn in a strange land, and ‘ see the elephant.’ And behold I saw him, and bear witness, that from the key of his trunk to the end of his tail, his whole body has passed before me; and I followed him until his huge feet stood still before a clapboard shanty; then with his trunk extended, he pointed to a candle-card tacked upon a shingle, as though he would say ‘read,’ and I read the Miners’ Ten Commandments. I. Thou shalt have no other claim than one. II. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any false claim, or any MINERs’ TEN coMMANnMENrs. 4.19 likeness to a mean man, by jumping one; whatever thou findest on the top above, or on the rock beneath, or in a crevice under- neath the rock ;——or I will visit the miners around to invite them on my side; and when they decide against thee, thou shalt take thy pick and thy pan, thy shovel and thy blankets, with all that thou hast, and ‘ go prospecting’ to seek good diggings; but thou shalt find none. Then, when thou hast returned, in sorrow shalt thou find that thine old claim is worked out, and yet no pile made thee to hide in the ground, or in an old boot be- neath thy bunk, or in buckskin or bottle underneath thy cabin ; but hast paid all that was in thy purse away, worn out thy boots and thy garments, so that there is nothing good about them but the pockets, and thy patience is likened unto thy garments; and at last thou shalt hire thy body out to make thy board and save thy bacon. III. Thou shalt not go prospecting before thy claim gives out. Neither shalt thou take thy money, nor thy gold-dust, nor thy good name, to the gaming table in vain; for monte, twenty-one, roulette, faro, lansquenet and poker, will prove to thee that the more thou puttest down the less thou shalt take up; and when thou thinkest of thy wife and children, thou shalt not hold thy- self guiltless—but insane. IV. Thou shalt not remember what thy friends do at home on the Sabbath day, lest the remembrance may not compare favour- ably with what thou doest here—Six days thou mayest dig or pick all that thy body can stand under; but- the other day is Sunday; yet thou washest all thy dirty shirts, darnest all thy stockings,tap- pest thy boots, mendest thy clothing, choppest thy whole week’s firewood, makest- up and bakest thy bread, and boilest thy pork and beans, that thou wait not when thou returnest from thy long-tom weary. For in six days’ labour only thou canst not work enough to wear out thy body in two years; but if thou workest hard on Sunday also, thou canst do it in six months; and thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy male friend and thy female friend, thy morals and thy conscience, be none the better for it, but reproach thee shouldst thou ever return with thy worn-out body to thy mother’s fireside ; and thou shalt not strive EEQ 420 MINERs’ TEN coMMANnMENTs. to justify thyself, because the trader and the blacksmith, the carpenter and the merchant, the tailors, Jews and buccaneers, defy God and civilization, by keeping not the Sabbath day, nor wish for a day of rest, such as memory, youth, and home made hallowed. V. Thou shalt not think more of all thy gold, and how thou canst make it fastest, than how thou wilt enjoy it, after thou hast ridden rough-shod over thy good old parents’ precepts and examples, that thou mayest have nothing to reproach and sting thee, when thou art left ALONE in the land where thy father’s blessing and thy mother’s love hath sent thee. VI. Thou shalt not kill thy body by working in the rain, even though thou shalt make enough to buy physio and attendance with. Neither shalt thou kill thy neighbour’s body in a duel; for by ‘keeping cool,’ thou canst save his life and thy consci- ence. Neither shalt thou destroy thyself by getting ‘tight,’ nor ‘ slewed,’ nor ‘ high,’ nor ‘ corned,’ nor ‘ half-seas over,’ nor ‘three sheets in the wind,’ by drinking smoothly down— ‘brandy slings,’ ‘ gin cocktails,’ ‘whisky punches,’ ‘rum tod- dies,’ nor ‘ egg nogs.’ Neither shalt thou suck ‘mint juleps,’ nor ‘ sherry cobblers,’ through a straw; nor gurgle from a bottle the ‘raw material,’ nor ‘take it neat ’ from a decanter; for while thou art swallowing down thy purse, and thy coat from off’ thy back, thou art burning the coat from off thy stomach; and, if thou couldst see the houses and lands, and gold-dust, and home comforts already lying there—‘ a huge pile ’-—thou shouldst feel a choking in thy throat; and when to that thou addest thy crooked walkings and hiccuping talkings, of lodgings in the gut- ter, of broilings in the sun, of prospect-holes half full of water, and of shafts and ditches, from which thou hast emerged like a drowned rat, thou wilt feel disgusted with thyself and enquire, ‘ Is thy servant a dog that he doeth these things?’ verily I will say, farewell, old bottle, I will kiss thy gurgling lips no more. And thou, slings, cocktails, punches, smashes, cobblers, nogs, tod- dies, sangarees, and uleps, for ever farewell ; thy remembrance shames me; henceforth ‘ I cut thy acquaintance,’ and headaches, t-remblings, heart-burnings, blue devils, and all the unholy cata- logue of evils that follow in thy train. My wife’s smiles and MINERs’ TEN COMMANDMENTS. 421 my children’s merry-hearted laugh shall charm and reward me for having the manly firmness and courage to say No. I wish thee an eternal farewell. VII. Thou shalt not grow discouraged, nor think of going home before thou hast made thy ‘pile,’ because thou hast not ‘ struck a lead,’ nor found a ‘rich crevice,’ nor sunk a hole upon a ‘ pocket,’ lest in going home thou shalt leave four dol- lars a day, and go to work, ashamed, at fifty cents, and serve thee right ; for thou knowest by staying here, thou mightest strike a lead and fifty dollars a day, and keep thy manly self—respect, and then go home with enough to make thyself and others happy. VIII. Thou shalt not steal a pick, or a shovel, or a pan from thy fellow-miner; nor take away his tools without his leave, nor borrow those he cannot spare, nor return them broken, nor trouble him to fetch them back again, nor talk with him while his water-rent is running on, nor remove his stake to enlarge thy claim, or undermine his bank in following a lead, nor pan out gold from his ‘riffle box,’ nor wash the ‘tailings’ from his sluice’s mouth. Neither shalt thou pick out specimens from the company’s pan to put them in thy mouth, or in thy purse; nor cheat thy partner of his share; nor steal from thy cabin-mate his gold-dust, to add to thine; for he will be sure to discover what thou hast done, and will straightway call his fellow-miners together, and if ‘the law hinder them not, they will hang thee, or give thee fifty lashes, or shave thy head and brand thee like a horse-thief, with ‘ R’ upon thy cheek, to be known and read of all men, Californians in particular. IX. Thou shalt» not tell any false tales about ‘ good diggings in the mountains ’ to thy neighbour, that thou mayest benefit a friend who hath mules, and provisions, and tools, and blankets, he cannot sell,—lest in deceiving thy neighbour, when he return- eth through the snow with nought save his rifle, he present thee with the contents thereof, and, like a dog, thou shalt fall down and die. X. Thou shalt not commit unsuitable matrimony, nor covet ‘single blessednessg’ nor forget absent maidens; nor neglect thy ‘ first love ;’ but thou shalt consider how faithfully and pa— tiently she awaiteth thy return; yea, and covereth each epistle 422 MINERs’ TEN coMMANDMENTs. that thou sendest with kisses of kindly welcome—until she hath thyself. Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor trifle with the affections of his daughter; yet, if thy heart be free, and thou dost love and covet each other, thou shalt ‘pop the question ’ like a man, lest another, more manly than thou art, should step in before thee, and thou love her in vain, and, in the anguish of thy heart’s disappointment, thou shalt quote the lan- guage of the great, and say, ‘ Sich is life ;’ and thy future lot be that of a poor, lonely, despised, and comfortless bachelor. A new commandment I give unto thee—-If thou hast a wife and little ones, that thou lovest dearer than thy life, ——that thou keep them continually before thee, to cheer and urge thee on- ward, until thou canst say, ‘ I have enough—- God bless them I— I will return.’ Then, as thou journeyest towards thy much-loved home, with open arms shall they come forth to welcome thee, and, falling upon thy neck, weep tears of unutterable joy that thou art come; then in the fulness of thy heart’s gratitude, thou shalt kneel together before thy Heavenly Father, to thank Him for thy safe return. AMEN—So mote it be. 423 CHAPTER XVI. TlIE INDIANS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. Theories as to their Origin -— Their probable Migration from Asia— Names and Occupations of Tribes—Their Ideas of Rank—The ‘ Potlatch ’—Feasts -—Dramatic Exhibitions—lllysteries of ‘ Kluqolla ’—Election of a ‘ Medi- cine Man’ — Cannibals—Converse with the Man in the Moon —— Doctors and the Healing Art — Incantation -— Witchcraft — Ideas of Beauty - Treating for Peace—An Indian V illage—Gambling—Heraldry—Credulity —- Courtship and Marriage -— Sepulture - Burning the Dead — Catching Grasshoppers—Rain-making—Tradition of the Creation—The Yale and his Doings —— The Flood—The Sim-moquis — Theory of Thunder and Lightning—Religious Beliefs of the Fishing Tribes— Treachery and Bloodthirstiness of the Indians—Massacres of Whites—Exciting Encounter of Sir J. Douglas —— Catholic Missions to the Natives — The Sign of the Cross—Awkward Predicament of Bishop Hills—Papal ‘ Self-interpreting Bible ’- Protestant Mission to the Tchimseans —- Good Work of Mr. Duncan—The Opposition of Medicine Parties—Establishment of Met-la- kat-lah—Treatment of Unreformed ‘ Tillicums ’—Government and Pro- sperity of the Native Settlement—Ingenuity of the Tribes—Civilisation and Evangelisation should go hand in hand -- Rapid Diminution and threatened Extinction of Primitive Tribes—Races not likely to disappear have the first Claim upon Missionaries —- Chances of a barbarous People surviving. THE origin of the aborigines of America is enveloped in impenetrable mystery. Learned and ingenious conjec- tures innumerable have been advanced on the subject. But, as in other speculative enquiries where correct data are unattainable, ethnologists and antiquaries have arrived at conflicting deductions, and only rendered more obvious the perplexing and uncertain nature of their investigations. Writers of a theological bias have maintained the theory that the Indians are of Jewish origin,-——supposing them 424 THEORIES As To THE to be descendants of that portion of the Hebrews known as the lost tribes. Deriving assistance from this opinion, Joseph Smith succeeded in fabricating the Mormon im- posture; and duped his credulous followers by the alle- gation that the Latter-day Saint Bible was a transcript of certain buried documents, which he had discovered, con- taining authentic records of the Divine will. These, he asserted, had been transmitted to the primitive inhabit- ants of the Western Continent by their Hebrew ancestors, and brought to the country when the former emigrated from the East. In the ‘ Letters ’ of Catlin, and especially in the refer- ence of that writer to the Indians west of the Mississippi, this view of the origin of the red man is advocated. In support of it, resemblances between some North American tribes and the ancient Jews in modes of worship, feasts, sacrifices, fasts, traditions, language, and other ceremonies of separation and purification, are particularly pointed to. But the comparative tables of the philologist will enable any one who is ambitious of framing hypotheses on such a question to find as many analogies as he may desire, and to unite in a common origin races now the most divergent from one another. Arguments, consequently, which prove too much, are irrelevant. The Greeks, as depicted by Homer, present correspondences, in manners and customs, with the Jews of Scripture History far more remarkable than those which the defenders of this view of Indian origin have adduced as existing between the two last- mentioned races. There is no more reason for identify- ing the Indians with the Hebrews than with the Egyptians or the Celts. Similarity in general characteristics may be distinguished between the primitive inhabitants of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, but on these we simply ORIGIN OF THE RED MAN. 425' ground the probable unity of mankind as proceeding from a single pair. The notion has been propounded by others that the Phccnz'cz'ans or Carthagenz'ans crossed the Atlantic and founded colonies in America. As this View, however, is sustained by no considerations pretending to Weight, it may be dismissed without further mention. Some have attempted to solve this difficult problem by conceiving the probability of the Eastern and Western Continents being once undivided by the ocean. It is alleged that before the great severance by the depression of the land or the eruption of the sea occurred, the Indian race emigrated from the one section of the globe to the other. But this view seems beset by greater difiiculties than those it undertakes to remove. An opinion obtains among a certain class of savans which assigns to animal races indigenous to the various latitudes of the globe a plurality of origins, as plants are believed to have. It is argued that while all varieties in the vegetable kingdom follow a general fiXed type in being composed of stem and branches, yet each zone of the earth contains a species originally peculiar to itself,— thus precluding the possibility of so many diversities of vegetable form and colour proceeding from one common primeval seed. It is affirmed that no good scientific reason exists for departing from this theory in regard to the distribution of animals, not excepting man, whose origin is said to be necessarily included in the issues of the analogy. The lion and tiger of equatorial Africa, we are told, differ in colour and other respects from the creatures known by the same names in the northern parts of India. N o clue can be found to their descent from original pairs of their respective kinds, nor are there any signs of 426 ARGUMENT FROM the different species having migrated from a common centre. The inference, therefore, is supposed to be in- evitable, that animals naturally peculiar to a certain lati- tude have spontaneously arisen like the plants indigenous to the same region. It is admitted that beyond this general principle of creation, science can reveal nothing on the subject, and that the rationale of certain forms of life being uniformly evolved from specific germs is wrapt in a cloud of impenetrable mystery. The bearing of this speculation upon the origin of the different races of man- kind will be obvious. Like diverse species of plants and of other animals, men, it is maintained, while one over all the world in the essential characteristics that go to dis- tinguish them as one genus, owe their origin, as specific races, to the action of heat and moisture upon primal ova mysteriously deposited by the Almighty in the earth. But, apart altogether from any religious tradition of the origin of man from a single pair, the hypothesis that has just been stated will be found quite inadequate to account for all the facts connected with human development. The traditions of the Indians themselves emphatically contra- dict this ingenious history of their primary occupation of the Western Continent. The opinion which seems most in harmony with linguistic analogies and Indian traditions prevailing on the North American shores of the Pacific is, that the abori- gines are of Asiatic origin, and migrated from the Eastern Continent across Behring’s Straits, the Aleutian and Kodiac Islands. The Indians of the interior represent their ancestors as having been formerly resident in N orth- Western America, and many of the present natives of Vancouver Island state that their progenitors in remote ages first landed at Sooke,-a district situated in the southern part of the colony. LINGUISTIC ANALOGIES. 427 There is as much reason to believe that America was peopled from Asia as that the primitive races of Europe and Africa should derive their origin from an eastern source. A gentleman who has lived among the Indians on the Pacific coast for nearly twenty years, and is fami_ liar with several of their dialects, gives it as his convic- tion, based on extensive observation, that the languages of the aborigines of British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Russian America, and the Kodiac Islands, gradually merge into one another, and that a similar tendency to the gradually blending of Indians and Mongolians in facial characteristics is perceptible in the same direction. I have had no opportunity of verifying this statement,— but could it be substantiated by systematic investigation, the settlement of the question of Indian origin would be greatly accelerated. N 0 object more interesting could be proposed to modern scientific research, and should the undertaking be attended with the success anticipated, an important accession to the accumulating evidence in favour of the common origin of mankind would thus be supplied. Mr. Max Muller has clearly demonstrated the centralization of the languages of the Eastern Continent in the Aryan original; and Sir Charles Lyell—notwith- standing his manifest sympathies with the views of such comparative anatomists as Darwin and Huxley, who seem disposed to doubt the commonly-received doctrine of descent from a single human pair—frankly admits that that theory of the origin of our race is at least as satis- factory as any other that has been advanced. But let the aboriginal languages of the Western Continent be shown to converge towards the Aryan centre, and there is no more essential proof of the unity of the human family left to be desired. Philological and ethnological explorations in Africa and Polynesia might then be prosecuted at TERRITORIAL LIMITS OF THE-TRIBES. leisure. The results of these would unquestionably be valuable; but the main question having thus been pre- viously set at rest, they might be viewed only as con- firmatory of conclusions already established. Without minutely classifying the primitive races of these colonies according to their different ‘ nations,’ it may be mentioned generally that the tribes which occupy Vancouver Island are called N ootka Columbians. This designation includes all the tribes on the coast of the mainland as far as the Columbia River. The fishing tribes, who inhabit the coast —-as is found to be the case with races residing on the seaboard of Africa, China, and India—are marked by a physique inferior to that pos- sessed by the hunting tribes of the interior. The former are stunted and move with a lazy waddling gait; and this peculiarity is acquired by the sitting posture to which they are habituated in their canoes, while the active life culti- vated by the latter in the chase imparts to them an erect bearing. Scarcely two authorities are agreed respecting the pre- cise territorial limits of tribes‘ dwelling in British Columbia. Some writers have regarded the entire number of natives occupying this colony as consisting of two great nations ; the Takali or Carriers in the north, and the Atnahs or Shuswaps further south. Some have divided them into Chilicoatens, Kuzlakes, N askoatens, Talkoatens, and At- nahs or Chin Indians. Others have designated them by still different names, or assigned them boundaries widely diverse. Indeed, the Indian notions on the subject are quite as crude and indefinite as those of the whites. Nor is it at all a matter of practical moment, since in addressing these races it will be found a sufficient lingual attain- ment to have mastered the terms ‘ Siwash ’ and ‘ Clootch- man,’ these being well understood by all, and as likely TESTS OF BANK. 429 to insure attention as words expressive of individual or national identity. The natives on the east side of Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Island, and British Columbia are estimated at 30,000; the ratio of their natural increase, however, being on the decline. This process of diminution is especially remarkable in lodges contiguous to white settlements. Each village or tribe is governed by a ‘ Tyhee ’ or chief, whose authority, though somewhat arbitrary, does not seem to be very extensive or well defined, being as much dependent on personal prowess and wealth as on any fixed rules or hereditary rights. The amount of property possessed by these Sagalnores, such as canoes, horses, blankets, guns, wives, slaves, &c., mostly deter- mines the extent of their influence and consequent autho— rity, not only with their own people, but also with their neighbours. By the same rule is measured the degree of honour to be awarded them after death. Besides these leading men, there are Sit/cam T yhees, or half chiefs, who as vassals aid the principals in the discharge of their duties, or act for them in their absence. The natives judge of rank by two tests in particular—— the number of scalps and slaves taken in battle, and the amount of property accumulated. The latter symbol of power is eagerly coveted by them; and as blankets have come generally to be the chief representation of wealth, these are accumulated against the recurrence of the feasts of the tribe, when an opportunity is afforded of dis- playing the extent of individual resources. The princi- pal motive to the acquisition of property by the Indian is not, as among whites, that the owner may become surrounded with conveniences and luxuries, or that he may obtain credit among his neighbours for possessing so much during life, and bequeath his means to heirs at his 430 THE POTLATCI-I. decease, but that he may enjoy the satisfaction of lavish- ing presents upon the members of friendly tribes on the occasions just mentioned, and of being admired by the recipients. Festive ceremonies are held for the purpose of celebrat- ing some auspicious event that may have happened to a chief; giving vent to their joy at the commencement of the salmon season, or of the new year. The Songhish tribe, resident near Victoria, hold a general merry-making annually in the month of October, when singular customs are practised, of which the indiscriminate distribution of property is not the least prominent. For days beforehand invited guests come in their canoes, sometimes hundreds of miles, to be present. The sound of revelry is unceas- ing in the encampment. Rum, rice, molasses, and the Indian delicacies of the season, such as venison, fish, ber- ries, and grease, circulate in profusion among the congre— gated multitude at the expense of the chief and T enass T yhees of the neighbourhood. The potlatch (or ceremony of bestowing gifts) usually occupies a couple of days, and is conducted in a similarly uproarious manner. It is worthy to be remarked, that Indians of the same denomination or crest are not in the habit of sharing in the interchange of gifts. I use the latter expression advisedly, for in making a present an Indian expects a reciprocation of the favour to an equal value at the next feast, and, failing - the realisation of his wishes, he does not hesitate to demand his gift back again. The business of the first day consists in listening to speeches of the feast from those who have extensive pro- perty to give away. These are ostentatious relations of the costliness of the articles to be disposed of, and of the senti- ments of regard for the guests which is professedly enter- tained. Previous to the potlatch, the gifts to be presented are OTHER FEASTS. 431 publicly exhibited, to impress the multitude with a due sense of the opulence and munificence of the donor. Cotton cloths by hundreds of yards, blankets to the value of hundreds of pounds, and the rarest furs, are spread out for inspection, and then given away in succession. In some instances, blankets are torn up in narrow strips, and the pieces scrambled for by the spectators. I remember a female slave to have changed hands in this compliment- ary way at the Songhish feast held in ’6 3. N 0 example of the chartist principles of ‘ equality and fraternity ’ could be more interesting and complete. Once every year the individuals of the tribe start, even, in point of substance ; but it is unfortunate for the practical exempli- fication of the revolutionary theory referred to--as far as the Indians are concerned—that those who are rich and poor respectively at one feast are almost invariably found in the same category at the next. In a commercial as- pect, too, this system of potlatching is highly objectionable, for the goods thus transferred from year to year are not appropriated for the most part to useful purposes ; neither is there any stimulus given to the development of pro- fitable trade in the transaction. Feasts are often given by individual chiefs (male and female) on a less magnificent scale. Sometimes a female chief will entertain a large number of men, and on other occasions a male chief will invite a party of female guests to share his hospitality. To enumerate the grotesque antics prevalent on these gala occasions would be a tax on the patience of the reader. The use of pigments and masks representing the faces of various animals; head- dresses composed of fur, feathers, ribbons, and mother-of- pearl in every imaginable arrangement; robes adorned with beads and buttons: these are among the articles of festal attire. 432 DRAMATIC ExIIIRITIoNs. Dramatic exhibitions form part of their amusements, the comic as well as the tragic muse being invoked by them. But the acting, as far as I have been able to ascertain, is generally of the solo character. Heroic deeds of ancestral chiefs are recounted, and words of the departed are repeated with considerable gesticulation, the assembly interposing some kind of chanted chorus, handed down from sire to sire for ages. In passing the Indian quarters one winter evening at an advanced hour, my attention was called to a large apartment from which the sound of singing proceeded. The door was kept by some native lads, who at once recognised my profession by the colour of my necktie. ‘ Le Pretrel le Pretre l’ was whispered by one to another, and they made way for me to enter. The building I found to be quadrangular, and measuring about 35 feet. The majority of those present included men, but the draniatis persona; were taken by women. The central space was free, and the audience accommodated at the sides. A large fire served the twofold object of supplying light and heat. Planks were extended round the building in front of the spectators, who were nearly all provided with short sticks, with which they beat time upon the boards before them to the choral snatches that were occasionally inter- posed in course of the entertainment. A female actor was on the floor when I entered. Her movements were tragic; her hair was dishevelled; and her pathetic tones and stately march from one direction to another gradually changed into song and dance, when the accompaniment of beating and chorus was struck up by the people. Soon another actor followed in a similar manner. Since the arrival of the whites, the professions, trades, and social habits of the latter afl’ord scope for the comic powers of the Indians to travestic. Even the sacred func— ‘KLUQUOLLA.’ v1.1.33 tions of the clergy are not exempt from burlesque in these dramatic representations. Among the most notable of Indian customs is the initia— tion of a candidate into the mysteries of ‘ Kluquolla.’ It is from those who succeed in undergoing the infliction connected with admission to the advantages peculiar to this rite that ‘ medicine-men ’ are selected. The aspirant to this privilege and honour (writes an eye- witness of this ceremony) has to submit to a very severe prepa- ratory ordeal. He is removed from his own dwelling by a party of those who are already kluquollas, and led to a hut set apart for his special use. The first ceremony consists in cutting the arteries under the tongue, and allowing the blood to flow over his body, the face being, meanwhile, covered with a mask. After this an opiate is administered, which induces a state of unconsciousness, in which he is allowed to remain two days. At the end of this time he is plunged, or rather thrown, headlong into the water to arouse him. As soon as he is fully awake, he rushes on shore, and, as a rule, seizes the first dog he perceives with his teeth, tears, lacerates, and even devours a portion of it --at least, so I have been credibly informed. I can only speak from personal observation as to some portions of the singular ceremonies in practice on these occasions, as the Indians are very jealous of any interference on the part of a white man. He also bites any of his fellows whom he may meet wit-h. It is said that they who are already kluquollas esteem it rather an honour to be thus bitten. He is now seized, bound with ropes, and led like a captive, by the party in charge of him, three times a day round the village during a period of seven days, a rattle producing a dreadful noise being constantly agitated before him. At this time he bites and stabs indiscriminately every one he comes across; and as he certainly would not spare a white man if he happened to meet him in the camp, I took good care to keep both my own person and that of a favourite little dog out of his reach?‘ * Captain Barrett Lennard’s Yacht Voyage, p. 52. F F 434 MEDIcINE-MEN This account I understand to refer to the rite as prac- tised on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. It being deemed by the Indians the most important of their cere- monies, the reader will not object to the perusal of the following passage on the subject from the correspondence of a gentleman whose long residence among the northern tribes entitles him to be heard. An old chief, in cold blood, ordered a slave to be dragged to the beach, murdered, and thrown into the water. His orders were quickly obeyed. The victim was a poor woman. ' Two or three reasons are assigned for this foul act; one is, that it is to take away the disgrace attached to his daughter, who has been suffering some time from a ball wound in the arm. Another report is, that he does not expect his daughter to recover, so he has killed his slave in order that she may prepare for the coming of his daughter into the unseen world. ' I did not see the murder, but immediately after I saw crowds of people running out of those houses near to where the corpse was thrown, and forming themselves into groups at a good dis- tance away. This I learnt was from fear of what was to follow. Presently two bands of furious wretches appeared, each headed by a man in a state of nudity. They gave vent to the most unearthly sounds, and the two naked men made themselves look as unearthly as possible, proceeding in a creeping kind of stoop, and stepping like two proud horses, at the same time shooting forward each arm alternately, which they held out at full length for a little time in the most defiant manner. Besides this, the continual jerking their heads back, causing their long black hair to twist about, added much to their savage appearance. For some time they pretended to be seeking the body, and the instant they came where it lay they commenced screaming, and rushing round it like so many angry wolves. Finally they seized it, dragged it out of the water, and laid it on the beach, where I was told the naked men would commence tearing it to pieces with their teeth. The two bands of men immediately surrounded them, and so hid their horrid work. In a few minutes ‘the crowd broke again into two, when each of the naked AND THEIR ATROCITIES. 435 cannibals appeared with half of the body in his hands. Sepa— rating a few yards, they commenced, amid horrid yells, their still more horrid feast. The sight was too terrible to behold. I left the gallery with a depressed heart. I may mention that the two bands of savages just alluded to belong to that class which the whites term ‘ medicine-men.’ The superstitions con- nected with this fearful system are deeply rooted here; and it is the admitting and initiating of fresh pupils into these arts that employ numbers, and excite and interest all, during the winter months. This year I think there must have been eight or ten parties of them; but each party has seldom more than one pupil at once. In relating their proceedings, I can give but a faint conception of the system as a whole; but still a little will serve to show the dense darkness that rests on this place. I may mention that each party has some characteristics peculiar to itself; but, in a more general sense, their divisions are but three, viz., those who eat human bodies, the dog— eaters, and those who have no custom of the kind. Early in the morning the pupils would be out on the beach, or on the rocks, in a state of nudity. Each had a place in front of his own tribe: nor did intense cold interfere’ in the slightest degree. After the poor creature had crept about, jerking his head and screaming for some time, a party of men would rush out, and, after surrounding him, would commence singing. The dog-eating part-y occasionally carried a dead dog to their pupil, who forthwith commenced to tear it in the most doglike manner. The party of attendants kept up a low growling noise, or a Whoop, which was seconded by a screeching noise made from an instrument which they believe to be the abode of a spirit. In a little time the naked youth would start up again, and proceed a few more yards in a crouching posture, with his arms pushed out behind him, and tossing his flowing black hair. All the while he is earnestly watched by the group around him, and when he pleases to sit down they again surround him and commence singing. This kind of thing goes on, with several little additions, for some time. Before the prodigy finally retires, he takes a run into every house belonging to his tribe, and is followed by his train. Fr2 436 CANNIBALS. When this is done, in some cases he has a ramble on the tops of the same houses, during which he is anxiously watched by his attendants, as if they expected his flight. By-and-by he eondescends to come down, and they then follow him to his den, which is signified by a rope made of red bark being hung over the doorway, so as to prevent any person from ignorant] y vio- lating its precincts. None are allowed to enter that house but those connected with the art: all I know, therefore, of their further proceedings is, that they keep up a furious hammering, singing, and screeching for hours during the day. Of all these parties, none are so much dreaded as the cannibals. One morning I was called to witness a stir in the camp which had been caused by this set. When I reached the gallery I saw hundreds of Tchimseans sitting in their canoes, which they had just pushed away from the beach. I was told that the cannibal party were in search of a body to devour, and if they failed to find a dead one, it was probable they would seize the first living one that came in their way; so that all the people living near to the cannibal’s house had taken to their canoes to escape being torn to pieces. It is the custom among those Indians to burn their dead; but I suppose for these occa- sions they take care to deposit a corpse somewhere, in order to satisfy these inhuman wretches. These, then, are some of the things and scenes which occur in the day during the winter months, while the nights are taken up with amusements—singing and dancing. Occasionally the medicine parties invite people to their several houses, and ex- hibit tricks before them of various kinds. Some of the actors appear as bears, while others wear masks, the parts of which are moved by strings. The great feature in their proceedings is to pretend to murder, and then to restore to life, and so forth. The cannibal, on such occasions, is generally supplied with two, three, or four human bodies, which he tears to pieces before his audience. Several persons, either from bravado or as a charm, present their arms for him to bite. I have seen several whom he has thus bitten, and I hear two have died from the effects. ‘ One very dark night I was told there was a moon to see on EDUCATION OF THE ALLIED. 437 the beach. On going to see, there was an illuminated disc, with the figure of a man upon it. The water was then very low, and one of the conjuring parties had lit up this disc at the water’s edge. They had made it of wax, with great exactness, and pre- sently it was at the full. It was an imposing sight. Nothing could be seen around it; but the Indians suppose that the medicine party are then holding converse with the man in the moon. Indeed, there is no wonder in the poor creatures being deluded, for the peculiar noises that were made, while all around was perfectly still, and the good imitation of the moon while all around was enveloped in darkness, seemed just cal-A culated to create Wild and superstitious notions. After a short time the moon waned away, and the conjuring party returned, whooping, to their house. Before any young persons can join these medicine parties they are supposed to go into the bush for some days, and be there alone, whence they receive their supernatural gifts. But I am inclined to believe that this is not strictly carried out, for it is also supposed they are not visible when they come back: it therefore becomes an easy matter to conceal them in their houses for a short time, and then publish a lie. The end of all these proceedings is the giving away property; so the chiefs reap the benefit. No person need think of becoming ‘allied’ until he or his friends have amassed considerable property, and are disposed to beggar themselves. One Sunday I was startled by a peculiar noise proceeding from the camp, and, on going to see what was the cause, I observed a man, who, it seems, had finished his education as an ‘ allied,’ and was now going to give away his goods. He was proceeding to a distant part of thecarnp, and stepping all the way like a proud, unmanageable horse. Behind him were about fifteen or twenty men, all holding on to a kind of rope which went round his waist. They were pretending to keep him back or hold him from taking his flight. Presently this party was joined by other two upon a similar errand, and they now seemed to try which could make the greatest noise or look the most unearthly. The three hands, after a good deal of manoeuvring, proceeded, I think, to the same chief ’s house. 438 MEDIcAL PREscRIPTIoNs. While the class that have been described are called ‘ medicine-men,’ it is not to be supposed that their occu— pation consists in curing disease, nor are they to be confounded with ‘ doctors ’ who are devoted to the exercise of that art. ‘ Medicine-men ’ are believed to be endowed with supernatural ability to prognosticate, and are armed with power to execute justice upon offenders. The super- stitions of the people invest the ‘ medicine-men ’ with a degree of importance superior in many respects to that of the chief. The former being supposed to be in com- , munication with the invisible world, his movements are anxiously watched, and his predictions revered. The medical profession embraces qualifications and duties of a distinct character. Practitioners of the healing art are usually chosen from among persons who have themselves suffered under some grievous malady and been restored to health, or, having been exposed to some peril in war or chase, have escaped uninjured. The greater the risk that has been run, the more competent is the individual accounted in dealing with diseases. Physical ailments and dangers are ascribed to malevolent spirits, and the recovery of the sufferer is viewed as the result of virtue imparted from above, by which he is enabled to triumph over the invisible enemy. The prescriptions in use among certain tribes will serve to show how innocent are native doctors of medical science. The récipé for pains in the stomach is the application of a bag of hot ashes, after a piece of damp cloth has been placed on the skin. Headache is cured by striking the patient on the part affected with small branches of the spruce-tree. In case of bad wounds they employ a salve ; but the method of treating simple cuts is to touch the lips INcANTATIoN. 439 of the wound with gum. For most internal complaints some herbal decoction is taken. When tempted to smile at the credulity of these poor creatures, our ridicule may well be tempered with pity when it is remembered that, at no very remote period, superstition, equally striking, prevailed in our own country as to medical treatment. In the time of Roger Bacon, the leaves of an alder, on which the sun had never shone, were prescribed for erysipelas, and a cross made of alder and willow for epilepsy. To cure consumption, the inhabitants of some districts in Scotland tied a rag to the finger and toe nails of the sick person, and then, having waved it thrice round his head, buried it privately. ‘ Ricketty children were drawn through a split tree, which was afterwards bound up so that the severed parts might grow together, and the recovery of the diseased child was believed to correspond to the restoration of the tree. A cure for hooping-cough was found in mounting the patient on a black ass, led nine times round an oak tree, or sometimes in givingthe hair of the child, rolled up in butter, to a dog.’ * When other remedies prove ineffectual, incantation is resorted to by’ the Indians. The instrument used for this purpose is sometimes made of three or four dozen bills of the horned puflin strung together. A noise is produced by small stones put within this rattle, which is kept in a whirling. motion round the patient while a song is sung. During the operation, the ear or mouth of the doctor is occasionally applied to the seat of the disorder. It is usual at this stage to cauterise the part with ignited tinder made of dried flax, or make an incision. If relief follows, the doctor announces the diseased element to have been extractcd—that having been inserted in the * Remarkable Delusions, p. 47. 440 BELIEF IN wITcIIcRAET. invalid’s system, as'it is believed, by some evil agent. On this intelligence being published to the friends of the patient, it is customary for them, in expression of their gratitude, to reward the disciple of Esculapius with what- ever property they may possess. Should a relapse ensue, however, and the patient die, the doctor is obliged to return all he has received. _ When intensely excited in the performance of his pro- fessional duties, he pretends that he is cognisant of the shape and position of the patient’s spirit. To facilitate this elairooyanee, the doctor closes his eyes for some time, and afterwards pronounces his opinion. Either he per- ceives the soul to be in its natural place, which is a hopeful symptom, or longing to depart, which renders the prospect of recovery doubtful ; or he finds that it has taken its flight, which places the condition of the patient beyond hope. Some of these bold deceivers have not hesitated to declare the result of this supernatural inspec- tion of the spirit to be that it resembled a fly in appear- ance, having a long curved proboscis! Belief in witchcraft is prevalent among these people, though in this respect they are not more superstitious than were our ancestors in the reign of James I., when a storm, which threatened the lives of that monarch and his bride on their voyage from Denmark, was gravely ascribed to the instrumentality of a person in the south of Scotland, suspected of being in collusion with infernal spirits. The Tchimseans and other Indian tribes charge the cause of all physical ailments, and frequently of death, upon the secret agency of malevolence. Should the victim of some supposed machination be a man of distinction in his clan, and die—especially in a sudden manner—the friend of the deceased arbitrarily pitch upon some slave, stranger just arrived in the camp, or other individual with whom IDEAS OF PERSONAL BEAUTY. 441 the departed may have been recently at variance, as accessory to the deed; and nothing short of the life of the imagined culprit will satisfy the demands of the bereaved. It is believed that the sorcerer eflnects his purpose either by magic, or the stealthy introduction of poison into the system of the sick man. The result of these notions is that mutual distrust is perpetually liable to be produced among the members of the several tribes; and I have been informed that the death of certain employés of the Hudson’s Bay Company was occasioned by some kindred superstition, at a fort on the mainland, many years ago. When two natives quarrel, the most successful mode of giving effect to anger is for the one to predict the death of the other in the phrase, ‘By-and-by, you will clic;’ and it often happens that the terror this announcement awakens secures its own fulfilment. When this occurs, the malicious prophet has usually to expiate his indiscre— tion with his life. Their ideas of personal beauty receive an odd illustra- tion in the flattening of the head—a practice which prevails on the north-west coast, from latitude 53° 30’ to latitude 46°. This process of compression is simple. The child, as soon as born, is placed in a cradle scooped out of a log of timber. This rude ark is flat at the bottom, and raised at the point where the neck of the child rests. A flat stone is fastened to the head of the infant in this posture by thin strips of twisted bark. In the situation indicated the child is kept till able to walk, and its fore- head has been moulded into the desired shape. Indian women are sometimes to be met with in the Quatsino district with sculls of a tapering or conical form, produced by artificial means, similarly disgusting with those already mentioned. It is to the families of chiefs and Tcnass 442 FACE oRNAMENTs. Tyhees (gentlemen commoners!) that this privilege is alone permitted. The male sex are averse to cultivating hirsute develop- ments on the face in any fashion, and generally pluck out by the roots hairs that, if left to grow, would assume the form of whiskers, beard, or moustache. Females are passionately fond of facial ornaments, which are often hideous in proportion to their rank. A piece of mother-o’-pearl, suspended from a puncture in i the cartilage of the nose, is occasionally worn, and the same kind of appendage is used for earrings. Even the chin sometimes appears repulsive from native decoration. Some wear a small piece of bone or a silver tube projected half way through a slit prepared to receive it. Others— of higher station, I presume—have the under lip dis- tended in an offensive manner, by a piece of bone of considerable thickness placed between the lower jaw and the upper part of the chin inside. Through the space created in the month by this distension, I have heard old Indian hags amuse themselves by whistling, the sound thus produced being of an unearthly character. Bracelets and anklets of brass are profusely displayed 'by the native women. The hair of an Indian is never cut short, as short hair is deemed by them a badge of slavery. Tattooing exists among some of the northern tribes. Pigments are in universal demand, many of the females painting their faces on all occasions, but the men only at set periods. Vermilion is used in great quantities on their red-letter days, and is readily disposed of to natives by the whites as an article of barter. Their war-paint is black, and is manufactured by themselves. This colour, while invariably employed in battle, is also worn as a badge of mourning. AN INDIAN VILLAGE. 443 Tomahawks, guns, pistols, bows and arrows—the latter headed with iron or flint—are their principal weapons. When contending tribes wish for peace, they despatch an embassy bearing to the enemy a pipe formed of wood or stone adorned with paint and white corals as an emblem of truce, and so unfeigned is the respect with which the bearer of this signal is treated, that any insult done him is visited with death. The solemnisation of a treaty of peace is often celebrated by the smoking of a pipe on the part of the belligerent chiefs. Since the advent of civilisation in their neighbourhood, the rude and indecently slender covering of native manu- facture, which formerly protected their persons, has been exchanged for shirts and blankets. Their ordinary food, in addition to fish and wild animals, includes potatoes, ground-nuts, acorns, lily-roots, &c. An Indian village consists of an assemblage of huts arranged in a line, varying from 100 to 300 feet in length, and from 50 to 100 feet in breadth. The framework is composed of posts and beams often of immense propor- tions. The heavy logs and thick plank boarding they use are readily obtained from surrounding forests. A common roof covers the structure, of suflicient pitch to allow the rain to drop from it. One such establishment contains 20 or 30 families, each of these being accom- modated with a separate compartment. The chief resides at the upper end, the proximity of his relatives to him being according to their degree of kindred. A village of this description, however, is only a temporary encamp- ment. Every tribe has several such habitations, their locality being determined by the facilities afforded for the pursuit of fishing and hunting avocations by the adjacent region at particular seasons of the year. When an Indian family shifts their quarters their Lares and Penates travel 444 eAMELINe—HERALnRY. with them, and only the skeleton of their dwelling is left behind. When passing the bights on the coast margin between Victoria and Salt Spring, during the salmon period, I have seen families encamped in such places with no more shelter than their canoes could supply, and felt interested in hearing from these secluded nooks the crow- ing of cocks, that formed part of their portable chattels. One of their favourite sources of amusement is gam- bling. An Indian is so susceptible of excitement from this vice as often to stake every article in his possession to the very shirt on his back. Though having several times had an opportunity of observing the game, I could never ascertain distinctly how it was conducted. A group forming a circle is seated on the ground, and a number of small pieces of polished stick, resembling short pencils, are used by them. These are dealt out to the players, and amidst a monotonous hum and constant mo- tion of the hands kept up to this barbarous sound, these sticks are thrown from one hand to another till some one guesses who happens to be the holder of the trump stick. A system of heraldry obtains among them, which, as distinguished from those purely ornamental props of family pride called escutcheons prevailing in civilised communities, fulfils useful designs. Some Indian families adopt Yale (the crow), others Segetee (the beaver), others Ronge (the wolf), &c. The object of their agreeing upon these devices respectively is twofold: to erect barriers against marriage being contracted between persons related to each other by the ties of consanguinity, and to secure provision for the needy whose kindred relationship may give them claims upon that portion of the tribe having the same crest. ‘ The relationship,’ says Commander Mayne, ‘ between persons of the same crest is considered to be nearer than USE or cREsTs. 445 that of the same tribe; members of the same tribe may and do marry, but those of the same crest are not, I believe, under any circumstances allowed to do so. A whale, therefore, may not marry a whale ; nor a frog, a frog. The child again always takes the crest of the mother. So that if the mother be a wolf all her chil- dren will be wolves. As a rule also, descent is traced from the mother—not from the father. ‘ At their feasts they never invite any of the same crest as themselves; feasts are given generally for the cement— ing of friendship or the allaying of strife, and it is supposed that people of the same crest cannot quarrel. But I fear this supposition is not always supported by fact.’ With such reverence does an Indian treat an animal adopted as his family crest, that he would esteem it sacrilege to kill it. Should another who sustains no such relation to that emblematic animal shoot it in his presence, he will ceremoniously hide his face, and demand repara- tion for the affront. The offence of killing the animal does not consist in that act, but in its being done be are one to whose family arms it belongs. There is another capricious usage in connection with these crests. WVhen an Indian wishes at any time to ex- hibit his family insignia, all natives before whom he appears are bound by certain recognised laws of honour to show respect to it by casting property before it in quantities commensurate with the rank and means of the giver. Should an Indian, prompted by motives of need, mischief, or cupidity, bearing his crest painted upon his forehead or the paddles of his canoe, or worked with but- tons on his blanket, desire to profit by this social custom, the unsuspecting victim‘ he meets has no alternative but to present the costly offering which superstition demands. 446 FORTUNE-TELLING. Shrewd and unscrupulous individuals are not wanting who take advantage of this practice to impose on their neighbours. At the beginning of the fish or berry season the same class will spread a report that revelations have been made to them, by dream, of particular localities where these productions exist in abundance. A present is, of course, the condition on which they can be induced to disclose the secret. To render their supernatural pretensions more plausible with those they attempt to dupe, they walk about at night in lonely places, as if influencing their divinities, to ‘ work on the hearts of the fish,’ that the latter may be plentiful during the ensuing season. So readily are the assumptions of these impostors credited by their deluded brethren that they can always succeed in obtaining large rewards for their fortune-telling services. The en chanter is crafty enough to direct enquirers to spots where their hopes are not likely to be disappointed; but as with the ancient pythoness, should his prediction turn out fal- lacious, he is prepared to transfer the cause of failure from‘ himself by insisting that they must have done something to incur the displeasure of the gods. The responsible task of foretelling births, deaths, mar- riages, and other events of domestic interest, devolves, as in the least enlightened parts of Scotland at the present day, upon old women who have reputation for pos- sessing the faculty of second sight. These venerable prophetesses are able, while relating ominous dreams, to engage the rapt attention of their friends, who listen with gaping mouths and awe-struck gaze to their silly tales. In negotiating marriages, articles often to the value of from 20l. to 40l. sterling are given by the suitor to her parents for the purchase of his intended bride, years before MARRIAGE AND SEPULTURE. 447 she arrives at marriageable age. A young Siwash of a northern tribe, falling in love, employs the intercession of a friend, who visits the house of the bride’s father for the pur- pose of obtaining his consent and her own to the proposed match. So many blankets are bargained for as the price of the favour solicited. The candidate for matrimony is accustomed to sit outside the door of the house—be the condition of the weather what it may—till the business delegated to his agent is concluded. Should success attend the efforts of that friend, he, with another, performs the ceremony of raising the bridegroom from the squatting posture in which he had awaited the issue of his suit. After this he is conducted into the house, and refreshments are set before him, expressive of his acceptance by the parents as a husband for their daughter. The brother of the bride -—if she have one—places his sister under the roof of the bridegroom, which act formally introduces the young couple to matrimonial felicity. In regard to modes of sepulture, it may be stated that some of the natives residing near Victoria now bury their dead in imitation of the whites. But with Indians removed from contact with civilisation this is not the usual practice. Some tribes, as a rule, burn their dead and preserve the ashes. In the native burying-grounds I have seen, remains were generally interred in wooden boxes, the top of which is simply covered with matting, there being occasionally large stones over this. These riide coffins are laid on the ground, suspended in branches of trees, or placed upon blocks of wood. Flags, emblazoned with the family emblem of the deceased, frequently mark the Indian graves in the interior of British Columbia; and armorial bearings, carved in wood on a large scale, are often found erected against native tombs in Vancouver Island. For about thirty days after funereal rites are performed, 448 BURNING THE DEAD. at sunrise and sunset dirges are chanted, in token of mourning for the departed. In strange contrast with the nature of the occasion, and the violent wailing of’ the mourners, it is customary, at the burial of a chief, for his wealth to be exhibited at his grave. It was formerly deemed essential to the dignity of a chief’s interment that some of his slaves should be slaugh- tered to attend his spirit into the invisible world. This atrocity has, I believe, entirely ceased. The custom of burning the dead has not yet altogether disappeared among the Indians of California. It is prac- tised by them on religious grounds. They believe in the existence of a vast and beautiful camping field, situated in some undefined region lying westward, where Indians live together in perpetual ease and plenty. This shadowy kingdom is presided over by a great spirit of unspeakable goodness. It is also part of their creed that there is an evil spirit who watches every opportimity to injure them, and whom, having the power to keep them out of heaven, it is their duty to thwart by conciliation or stratagem. They regard the heart to be immortal, and imagine that, while the body is burning, the heart leaps out, and that if by noise or gesticulation they can divert the attention of the evil spirit, the heart escapes to the place of eternal safety; but if the body is buried, the evil one keeps constant guard over the 'grave, and when the heart would emerge, it is captured, and employed to annoy surviving relatives. - When a ‘ Digger Indian ’ is about to expire, his head is gently placed in the lap of some relative and his eyes closed, while those who are standing near recite in low and monotonous tones the virtues of the dying. The moment his heart has ceased to beat, the intelligence of BURNING THE DEAD. 449 what has occurred is conveyed to his relatives, and the chanting of the praises of the deceased is changed into loud wailing. Beating upon their breasts, and their eyes streaming with tears, all surrounding friends join in apo- strophising the spirit of the departed. The corpse is now prepared for burning; the knees are pressed toward the chin upon the breast, and the limbs and body bound firmly together in the smallest possible compass. It is then wrapt in a blanket and placed on its back upon the ground, with the face exposed. Every sound is hushed, and both men and women sit in silent knots around the corpse for about twenty minutes, when all rise at once— the women to renew their lamentation, and the men to build the funereal pyre. When this is about two feet in height, every sound again ceases, and, amid a death-like stillness, the men lift the corpse upon the pyre, after which ; it is completely covered with additional firewood. The oldest and dearest relative then advances with a torch and fires the pile. When the first curl of smoke is visible, the discordant howlings of the women become almost appalling. The men stand in sullen and unbroken silence, while the nearest relatives, having poles in their hands, commence a frantic .danee round the burning body, occasionally turning it over that it may consume more speedily, and give the heart a better chance to escape. With the waving of cloths and hideous noises they attempt to throw the evil one off his guard. Contrary to the habit of the N ootka Columbia Indians, the Digger tribes commit all the personal property of the deceased to the flames, his relatives frequently sacrificing at the same time their own itkas, even to the articles of clothing on their persons, so that the dead may have what is requisite to his comfort on the great camping-ground of the spirit-world. When the whole is consumed, the ashes are scraped together, and c e 450 CA'I‘CHING GRASSI-IOPPERS. a rude Wreath of flowers, woods, and brush placed around them. A portion of the ashes, mixed With pitch, is spread on the faces of the relatives as a badge of mourning, Which is allowed to remain till it Wears off ; and after more than six months the cheeks of the mourners exhibit traces of this disfigurement. ' _ Without stopping to describe, in detail, the peculiarities of Indian social life, it may be mentioned that, While resembling the coast tribes in respect to several kinds of food and dress, the attire of natives in the interior is more (3.\ TCHING GRASSHOPPERS. elaborately ornamented. Wild roots, grass, clover, seeds of Wild flowers, acorns, and grasshoppers, form the main supplies of the Digger Indians. Their mode of procuring the last article in this list is not a little ingenious. A hole is first dug deep enough to prevent these insects jumping out. A circle is then formed of Indians, old and young, RAIN-MAKING. 45 l. armed with bushes. These they apply in beating the grasshoppers toward their place 'of slaughter. Having fallen into the hole, they are taken prisoners. Sometimes the grass and weeds around are set on fire, so they are disabled and afterwards picked up. The aborigines of the interior generally spend a great part of their time in the saddle, and extensive practice in riding makes them superior horsemen. They prefer the Spanish style of saddle, which is manufactured by them with much skill. Their bridle, often made of the hair of the wild sheep plaited, is simply a cord passed through the horse’s mouth and hitched round his lower jaw, the ends brought up 011 either side of his head. Like our forefathers, who believed in the efficacy of bay-leaf as preventive of thunder, they carry about their persons bags made of the skins of various animals as charms. Among the mummeries of the medicine-men in the interior of the country, the principal consists of rain- making. A skilful rain-maker is always a popular medi— cine-man. After a lengthened period of drought, these tricksters, trusting to the uniformity of the laws of nature, apply themselves to the performance of their incantations in the confidence that moisture will eventually condense and fall upon the parched fields. Should the clouds be slow in gathering, they strive to quicken in their benighted clients an appreciation of their mystical services by de- claring that the longed-for shower is retarded by some offence committed against the Deity. ,When they know the rain to be at hand, they work upon the superstitions of spectators by invoking the Great Spirit with redoubled vehemence; and when the cloud is on the point of dis- charging its contents, they artfully send an arrow from the bow, under pretence of piercing it. G62 452 TRADITION on THE cREATIoN. Indian Traditions. The ‘ Clingats,’ which name is applied to all the northern tribes, relate the following tradition of the creation of their portion of the world. In the country, which was originally sunless and chaotic, the (Yale) crow was the only living thing. He hovered over the liquid and solitary waste, till, impatient of this roving condition, he resolved to find rest for the sole of his foot. To accomplish this end, and render the land habitable, he bade the waters recede, and the only visible remains of them were confined to lakes, rivers, and the ocean. The sun was summoned from his hiding-place, the contact of his rays with the moist earth produced a mist which spread over the country. Out of this material the Yale created salmon, and put them in the lakes and rivers. Deer, wolves, and all varieties of the feathery tribe, were also located in a habitat suited to their nature. The Yale having finished the general work of creation, found that all the animals were satisfied with the arrange— ment of the world except the racoon. This creature being of slothful propensities, and supplied with provi— sions sufficient for a long winter, expressed a wish that that season should include five months. The Yale refused to comply with the desire of the racoon, out of consideration for the deer ‘and mountain sheep, and determined that the snow season should not exceed four months. Seizing one of the racoon’s claws he twisted it ofl“, and said, ‘ the four that remain will be a sign to you for ever, that from the period when the sun leaves a certain point in the heavens till he returns, there shall be four months of snow, four of rain, and four of summer weather.’ When the cold season arrived the crow was without shelter, and accommodation for storing the salmon he had OD TIIE caow’s MARRIAGES. 45 dried for winter use. To meet this emergency he formed two men out of a shower of rain, and instructed them how to build a house, make rope out of the bark of trees, and dry salmon. There was still one element wanting to complete the crow’s happiness. He resolved to get married, and made choice of a female salmon for his spouse, with whom he suc- ceeded in living agreeably for a time. But, on a certain occasion, the crow fell to gambling with the stump of a tree. The result was, as is often the casein such an occupa- tion, that he became displeased with his partner in the game and beat it severely. With temper ruffled he went home, laid hold of his wife by the gills, and belaboured her so unmercifully that she immediately took her depar- ture into the river, whence she never returned. All the dried salmon leaped from the larder and followed her— leaving his cupboard entirely empty. Soon recovering from the loss sustained by him, he contracted an alliance with a daughter of the sun. The offspring of this union was a male child, who strikingly resembles the Phaeton of Grecian Mythology. This youth undertook to guide the chariot of his grandsire. When the sun approached the meridian, the aspiring young gentleman became fearful in consequence of the giddy height to which he had attained, and misdirecting the course of that luminary, he accidentally grazed the earth and set fire to some of the mountains, one of which is sup- posed to be Mount Baker. This is a neighbouring volcano, which is still observed occasionally in a state of eruption. The crew chastised the folly of his son, and once more restored the world to order. The crow and his illustrious wife are believed to have been the progenitors of the human family. In the exercise of his kind providence over dependent creatures, he sup- plied the rivers with fish and peopled the air with fowls. 454 CAN—NOOK AND THE CROW. When on a tour of inspection in his dominions, he one evening reached the house of a chief called Can-nook. Overcome with fatigue and thirst, he begged lodging for the night and a drink of water. Can—nook gave his con- sent to the crow becoming his guest, but on account of a prevailing scarcity of water at the time, he declined to let him have anything to drink. After the household had gone to rest, the crow got up to search for the water-butt; but the wakeful spouse of Can-nook, hearing the crow astir, roused her husband. He no sooner suspected the design of the crow to escape than he piled logs of green- wood on the fire. The crow made desperate attempts to fly through the hole in the ,roof by which the smoke escaped. The impious old boor, not satisfied with denying to the Divine bird a necessary element of hospitality, seemed determined to keep him prisoner. Can-nook exerted himself vigorously to augment the volume of smoke as the crow fled. Previous to that occurrence we are assured by the Indians that the crow was white, and that since then the species has ever been black. Can-nook I understand to represent the evil spirit. In course of time the growing depravity of the natives became intolerable to the patience of the creative bird. His own life was threatened by them. To punish their crimes he overspread the heavens with clouds, and caused torrents of rain to descend. He made fissures in the earth, from which immense jets of water spouted forth, flooding the country. The people gathered their stores of provisions together and took to their canoes. As the waters rose the soil became so soft that trees were loosened from their roots, and floated to the surface, upsetting most of the canoes. Multitudes consequently perished. At length, with the exception of three high mountains, in the Songhie, Stickeen, and Sitka countries respectively, the entire region was submerged. THE SIM-MOQL'I. 4.55 A few succeeded in reaching the summits of these mountains, and from this saved remnant the present northern Indians believe themselves to have sprung. To hasten the work of populating the land, thus desolated by the flood, the crow desired the survivors to throw stones behind their backs (a la Deucalion and Pyrrha), which were converted into men, women, and fur—bearing animals. Modifications of this tradition are to be met with among various tribes of British Columbia. The crow gives his name to several rivers in the language of the natives—for example, Yale heen Klane (the crow’s big water), &c. A remarkable correspondence exists between the Scripture account of ‘ the Fall of Man’ and that con- tained in traditions of the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. The chief difference consists in berries being substituted by these red men for the tree-fruit of the Garden of Eden. Mr. James Deans, of Victoria—who has been an intelligent observer of Indian life in the country for twelve years, 'and to whose kindness I am indebted for much information respecting them—told me that the following tradition was related to him by a native. An unearthly race called Sim-mogais, resembling the hob-goblins and brownies of British superstition, inhabit the margin of a lake in the interior. They are about seven feet high, and are without joints in their knees or elbows. The difliculty of locomotion to which this natural deficiency subjects them is partially met by long poles, with the assistance of which they slide down when they change a standing for a _ recumbent posture. Their hair is long, unkempt, and dirty. The Indians are supposed to have sustained in for- mer times great annoyance from the abstraction of their women by these hideous creatures. Some ‘ clootchmen ’ * engaged once in gathering berries in the woods were belated. When night came on they descried a distant “" Synonym for squares‘ or Indian women. 456 cAUsE OF THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. light, and on approaching found that it proceeded from a Sim-mogui encampment. They were soon made prisoners by these monsters. After being missed for some days from their own home, these Wanderers were sought by their friends, who were, like themselves, attracted by light at a distance. The avengers of the wronged squaws advanced to the abode of the Sim-moguis, and finding the women in their embrace dispatched the captors. The origin of fire is attributed by the - Songhie tribe to the following circumstance, which certainly does not evince the possession of a very sublime imagination by the natives. Formerly the Indians were accustomed to eat fish uncooked as the Esquimaux now do. One day, a bird alighted among a party of them while at a meal, and com- miserated their cheerless condition, destitute ‘of that cooking essential. They were told by the beneficent feathery visitor that the boon they so much required was upon its head, and should be granted to the good people of the tribe; but as the advantage to be conferred was so precious, it could not be obtained without special effort being put forth to catch the bird. Off it flew, and all the tribe pursued it over hill, river, and plain. It arrived ere long at the dwelling of an old woman, who solicited it to tarry, and promised to treat it kindly. The bird deigned to approve her as the medium of bestowing its favours. It complied with her wishes: she applied a piece of light wood to its head which was soon ignited, and it afterwards took flight to return no more. ' The phenomena of thunder and lightning are ascribed by most of the Indians on the British North American coast of the Pacific to a singular cause. A Brobdignag— gian bird, called Soochu'ass, whose nest is upon a certain lofty mountain—the situation of which no one professes to know—occasionally appeases the cravings of appetite by pouncing upon a whale of tempting size, as the fish makes IDEAS or A FUTURE STATE. 457 its appearance on the surface of the ocean. Thunder is pro- duced by the flapping of the bird’s wings, while lightning is represented as caused by the flash of its enormous eye. The religious beliefs of the fishing tribes can be but indistinctly deciphered, owing to the state of moral and intellectual degradation to which they are reduced. N o temples or forms of worship exist among them to mark exalted reverence for a Supreme Being. Yet the ‘ Great Spirit ’ is sometimes alluded to by them. As to their ideas of a future state, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls is held by the Songhie tribe. They do not seem to associate any moral disposition ex- hibited in this world with the perpetuation of that quality in another life, as its natural reward or penalty. But a great hunter is degraded into the form of the deer which he before hunted, and the fisherman into the fish it was his occupation to catch. So with other tastes and pur- suits in relation to the inferior animals. The Indians of parts farther north believe in a place of happiness, which they say is lceewnclc (or above). The spirits of the brave killed in battle go to lceewaclJ-lcow (life above). To die from natural causes is accounted a sign of cowardice to be ashamed of. Those who expire in this manner are supposed to be unfit for participating in the felicities of heaven, and have to become refined by purgatorial discipline among the trees of the forests. This intermediate state is designated seewuclc-lcow (life in purgatory). The distinguishing peculiarity of keewucle- [cow is, that perennial youth reigns there without inter- ruption or decay. As in all Pagan nations, their conceptions of the Great Spirit exhibit Him almost exclusively in a penal atti- tude. In Stickeen River, which displays the grandest of all the ineffably wild scenery of British Columbia, there are two large granite pillars and several small ones. 458 T‘HEFTS BY THE HYDAHS. These stand in the middle of the stream, and a tradition in connection with them is, that they form the remains of a great chief with his family, who was notorious in general crime, especially in stealing the berries stored by the local tribes. He, with wife and children, was visited with the anger of the Great Spirit by being _ transformed into these blocks of stone, as a permanent memorial to all succeeding generations of the danger of disobeying. the Deity. Numerous instances have occurred, during my residence in the colony, of the treacherous, dishonest, and blood- thirsty disposition of the aborigines. Inconvenience has been experienced by the settlers chiefly from the northern tribes. The Hydahs, who belong to Queen Charlotte Island, have long been in the habit of visiting Victoria in great force, during spring, for the purpose of exchanging their rude products for articles of civilised manufacture. A few years ago the citizens of Victoria were greatly troubled by the presence of these unscrupulous rogues during their so- journ in our neighbourhood. Petty larcenies were skilfully committed by them during the day, and burglaries at night. For a time their nimbleness eluded the vigilance of the police and the settlers. The doors and windows of nearly every house in town were tried, and often with success. On a certain night my slumbers were broken by the dis- charge of a pistol in a house a few yards from where I slept. Next day I was informed by the person who fired that he had been awaked by a slight noise; on looking up he saw, by moonlight, the figure of a man entering his apartment by a window opposite his bed, which was on the ground floor. He satisfied himself that the intruder was an Indian. His loaded revolver being suspended above his pillow, he raised his hand gently to seize it, endeavouring at the same time not to rouse the suspicions ENGAGEMENT AT CAPE MUDGE. _ 459 of the savage burglar as to his object. But no sooner had he taken aim, than the wily visitor decamped, fortunately with sufficient agility to escape the contents of the weapon. Another householder, whose nocturnal repose was simi- larly disturbed at dawn of day, caught sight of the red- skinned offender. Resolved not to be balked of his prey, he rushed in hot pursuit, his night-gown being his sole protection from the morning chill. After a long chase, the indignant avenger of the sacrilege committed upon his household gods succeeded in clutching, from behind, the blanket in which the Indian was enveloped, when the latter relaxed his hold of this primitive garment, and at a quickened pace fled from the grasp of his pursuer in a condition of stark nudity. Other depredations of a still more irritating character were perpetrated by these northern hordes on their way home ; so that it was thought expedient by the authorities to teach them a salutary lesson as to the distinction between meam and taam. A gunboat was accordingly despatched to demand restitution. On the arrival of the war vessel at Cape Mudge, the obnoxious natives were found to have ensconced themselves in a stockaded log village. When the errand of the gunboat was ascertained, they defied her, and opened a brisk fire of musketry, from the fatal effects of which only the rifle plates of the steamer could shield the crew. A shell was fired over the heads of the enemy to bring them to surrender; but this mild intimation of the wishes of the man-of-war was unavailing. A few more discharges of shot and shell soon followed, smashing their canoes and scattering dismay throughout their camp. Only by these severe measures could the stolen goods be recovered. A schooner was some time afterwards maliciously fired 460 CAPTAIN JOHN AND HIS BROTHER. into, on sailing out of Victoria harbour, by an Indian of the Songhie tribe, whose quarters are directly opposite the town, on the beach. To strike terror into the native mind, inquisition was made for the transgressor with great’ ceremony. Governor Douglas, whose abilities shone in quieting an Indian mélée, ordered a gunboat to be stationed before the Indian camp, and in person directed a body of marines to defile on the landside. In that pompous style he was accustomed to assume, the Governor sent for the chief of the tribe, and announced that if the guilty person were not produced in a given number of minutes their houses would be bombarded. Vividly do I remember the suspense of the spectators as the brief time allowed the Indians for decision was about to expire. There is no doubt that his Excellency would have fulfilled his threats, regardless of consequences. But at the last moment the culprit was delivered up to be flogged in presence of his tillz'cums (friends)——a form of punishment the most humili- ating that can be inflicted upon these savages. Another exciting afi'ray happened, which .had a fatal termination. Captain John and his brother, two cruel monsters, who were accused of shedding innocent blood without measure, in the tribe of which they were T yhees, were arrested by the authorities. The police who con- veyed them to prison omitted to take from their persons the bowie-knives they had been in the habit of carrying. The prisoners walked in an orderly enough manner to the gaol, but when about to be placed in their cells, they turned upon the gaoler with these deadly weapons. The scufie -—-in which he was badly wounded, and but for timely help rendered must inevitably have been killed—attracted the notice of another officer, who approached, armed with a brace of revolvers, and finding that the alternative lay between putting an end to these fiends incarnate, and AN INDIAN HUNG. 461 suffering his brother-policeman to perish at their hands, he chose the former course, and immediately shot each of the chiefs through the heart. Being within a few yards of the scene at the time it occurred, I hastened to learn what the pistol reports meant, when the lifeless bodies of Captain John and his brother, who a few seconds before had been in health and vigour, lay prostrate before me. The only occasions on which the extreme penalty of the law has been put in force since the advent of the whites in Vancouver Island have been in connection with Indian atrocities?‘ In one case, a Songhish native was executed for the murder of a sailor belonging to one of Her Majesty’s ships. This man, on his way from Victoria to Esquimalt, in a state of inebriation, one evening entered the dwelling of his destroyer, and attempted to take liber— ties with the squaw of the Siwash. The latter, stung by the insult, stabbed the sailor. Doubtless the verdict of the jury and the sentence of the Court were according to the evidence, but the provocation ought to have been accepted as in some degree palliative of the bloody deed. It is questionable whether, had the crime been committed by one white man against another under like circum- stances, the claims of justice would have been exacted with so much rigour. Nine-tenths of the outrages per- petrated by natives upon the superior race, and supposed to be the result of insensate cruelty, can be traced to some wanton violation of the personal or domestic rights of the Indians on the part of the whites. This assertion receives melancholy verification on the other side of the American boundary, where inhuman ‘rowdies’ are known to esteem the life of a native as of no more consequence than that of a dog, and sometimes to shoot him down for' the *' The same cannot be affirmed of British Columbia, where several White men have already been executed for murder. 462 BENTINCK ARM AND depraved gratification, as it has been expressed, of ‘ seeing him jump.’ But even on British territory the principal and immediate effect of contact between the representa- _ tives of civilisation and the aborigines has been that ‘ fire-water,’ debauchery, syphilitic disease, and augmented mortality have been introduced. Appalling as the ano- maly may appear, it is nevertheless uniform that the nation which professes to bring into a virgin colony the blessings of the gospel in one hand, carries a moral Pandora box in the other; accomplishing the physical and moral ruin of the primitive inhabitants, whose interests, gratitude and respect should prompt it jealously to guard. Still, it must be acknowledged that several times within the past seven years Indians have been instrumental in the massacre of white men without any known provocation, except that perhaps some of the tribes have held the pre- sence of our race to be practically an invasion. A gentleman well known to me, who is himself my authority for the statement, was on his way with a com- panion to the mines from Bentinck Arm. When they were sleeping in the bush together, it happened that my friend was startled before sunrise one morning by the report of a gun evidently fired close by. This was instantly followed by a groan from the young man by his side, who rolled over, and died without uttering a single word. My friend, in doubt as to whatit was best for him to do under the circumstances, especially as he did not know but that there might be a strong attacking party near, concluded to lie quiet and motionless. Scarcely had he time to recover from his amazement before another shot came and shattered his ankle. He now resolved to _ defend himself at all hazards ; but unhappily his percus- sion-caps were damp. The rustling of my friend among BUTE INLET MASSACRES. 463 the underwood, however, had the effect of scaring’off the Indian, who probably suspected that he might be suddenly pursued by both the white men. My friend became so feeble from loss of blood that he could not rise; and in that wild and lonely path, rarely tracked by whites at that season of the year, he was doomed to remain, watch- ing by the dead body of his companion for an entire fortnight, kept alive during this period by only a few small biscuits and a little sugar which chanced to be in his pocket. At length a good Samaritan passed by, and saw him safely housed. Not long after the murderer was identified, and captured by the chief of a tribe in the vicinity, who was not without some sense of justice in the matter. The cowardly wretch met with his merited end in a peculiar manner. The chief having satisfied himself of the guilt of the individual, ordered him to go to the verge of a lake adjoining the camp and fetch a bucket of water. When the fellow’s back was turned, and without his receiving any announcement of what was about to befall him, he was fired upon by several members of the tribe by direction of the chief, who, in that case, never per- formed a more righteous act as judicial disposer of life in his tribe. But the most brutal and terrible massacre that has. ever been known in the annals of Indian outrage in British North America, took place in the month of May 1864 on the coast of British Columbia. A party of men, engaged under Mr. Waddington in making a road from the head of Bute Inlet to Alexandria, were surprised at midnight by a large number of natives belonging to a neighbouring lodge, who, till then, appeared to mani- fest friendly feeling. The tents of the white men were stealthily entered, and it was evidently the intention of the savages to butcher the former so expeditiously and ‘effec— 464 - BENTINCK ARM AND tually that not one should escape to tell the tale. In this, however, they were not quite successful, though many of the unfortunate roadmakers were barbarously slaughtered. The few who were enabled to save their lives—some of whom had been severely wounded-suffered extreme hardship and privation before getting clear off from the scene of danger. Encouraged by the manner in which this treacherous plot had been executed, these bloodthirsty wretches conceived the idea of murdering every white man they could find on the trail leading from Bentinck Arm to Fraser River. They proceeded to the junction of the Inlet and Arm trails in expectation of meeting a party with pack animals on the latter route. Nor were their hopes disappointed. In this company, about eight in number, there was a squaw, the concubine of one of the packers. In passing an Indian encampment on the way, she learned from the tribe the sad fate of the men at Bute Inlet, and from devotion to her white paramour she earnestly implored him and his companions to return, assuring them that if they advanced they must all be murdered. They made light of her entreaties at first, but soon concluded that it was prudent to take her advice. When distant about 120 miles from the Arm, the Indians, 50 or 60 strong, surrounded them, and fired from behind the pine-trees. The first of the party to fall was an esteemed young friend of mine, to whose excellent parents, resident in England, I had to perform the melancholy duty of announcing their son’s death. Another of these men, an intrepid and generous Scotchman, killed several of the enemy, taking aim at them under shelter of a tree. Having exhausted his stock of ammunition, he continued to defend himself with what weapons he could command, and fought on like a true Highlander after his legs had BUTE INLET MASSACRES. 465 been shot off. It is estimated that between fourteen and ‘seventeen whites perished in these Indian atrocities. A volunteer force was sent in search of the criminals by the energetic Governor of British Columbia, who accompa- nied it a good part of the way in person. Some of these infatuated natives have been captured, tried, and exe- cuted, and pursuit of the others is to be resumed this year. Already the efforts of the Government to. bring the dan— gerous Indians to justice, has involved an expenditure of not less than 20,000l. Many conjectures have been offered as to the cause of these barbarities, but no satis- factory conclusion has yet been arrived at on the subject. As these incidents of Indian adventure do not pretend to special chronological order, I may be permitted to advert to an exciting passage in the experience of Sir James Douglas, which relates, however, to a period when he served in the capacity of chief trader of the Hudson’s Bay Company at one of their posts near Stuart’s Lake. The cir- cumstance was told me by a retired officer of the company, who lived nine years in the country now known as British Columbia, and before it became a colony. It should be premised that the officers of the company located west of the Rocky Mountains, where there was no Crown tri- bunal for the trial of criminals, received peremptory instructions from their superiors in London to be as unsparing in the punishment of native transgressors as they were bound to be faithful in fulfilling promises of reward to good Indians. On this principle it was expected that in case of a white man’s life being taken by a redskin, they should keep up the search for the murderer, even should it occupy twenty years. Two employés of the company had been wantonly killed at a fort, two Indians having been concerned in the deed. One of the perpe~ trators was caught and shot soon after the crime had been H H 466 EXCITING ADVENTURE committed. The other escaped detection for six years. There was an Indian encampment in the neighbourhood of the fort, commanded by Mr. Douglas, whence came a native one day, and assured him that the criminal who had been so long at large was secreted in the native lodge. Mr. Douglas with his men armed themselves and hastened to the spot. It may be noticed, in passing, that wherever there is any supposed advantage to be gained these unhappy people are just as readily tempted to betray each other as they are to deceive the colonists. All the apart- ments of the lodge were found vacated, with one excep- tion. The chief of the tribe was giving a potlatch (feast) to friendly tribes who had come from a distance, and the inhabitants of the village had followed him to the place—- some way off—where the festivities were being conducted. The only person Mr. Douglas found at home was a woman with a child in arms, her back leaning apparently against the wall. After having examined the other divisions of the ‘ lodge, their suspicions prompted them to look once more in that room where the squaw was, and they found her still in the same posture. They ventured this time to pull her from the place where she stood. WVhether the guilty person had been apprised of the intentions of the men at the fort or not, I did not learn. But directly the woman was moved, down fell a bundle of clothes and mats, and out rushed the murderer; the Hudson’s Bay Company’s employés blazed at him, but with the nimbleness of an eel he zig-zagged his way out of the house; their shots missed him, and he was about to escape when one of Mr. Douglas’s men levelled the butt end of his gun at him and felled him to the ground. But the affair did not end here. In the course of the day the chief and his retainers returned to the camp, and in consternation beheld the dead body of the man stretched on the threshold. The on MR. DoUGLAs. ' 467 squaw informed her tillicams of what had occurred. They instantly covered their faces with black paint, ex- pressive of their belligerent intentions. The war-whoop was raised, and all the male inmates of the lodge, armed to the teeth, ran helter-skelter to the fort. The gates were open as usual. Mr. Douglas, reposing in the security afforded by the consciousness of having done his duty, had made no extraordinary preparation for repelling hos- tilities. The insensate mob, amidst threatening yells, forced their way into the apartment where the chief trader was, and, without allowing him time for parley, invested his commanding and portly person, threw him on his back, fastened his hands and feet, and bore him in a struggling condition to the mess-room of the fort, laying him on a long table, where, I suppose, he expected to be put to death, with torture exquisite and protracted. Other servants were bound after the same fashion, but a few took refuge in the bastion, which they declared to the Indians was stored with powder. They also swore that if the Siwashes should venture to follow them, they would blow up the powder magazine about their cars. This menace had its desired effect. The old chief guarded Mr. Douglas. The former insisted on knowing the meaning of the strange and deadly assault that had been committed upon one of his guests. The dignified chief trader affected to treat the enquiry with scorn, and while rolling about on the table attempting to burst his bonds, threatened the venerable T yhee with the most withering pains and penalties of the company. But the old savage, knowing that he had Mr. Douglas in his power, coolly replied that he was in no hurry, and would wait patiently till the chief trader should reason with him. When Mr. Douglas consented to listen to his statement, he sagely re- marked: ‘ I didn’t know that any murderer had smuggled HH2 468 FIRMNESS or THE LocAL GOVERNMENT. himself under my roof with the tribes who came to the potlatch. If I had known that any such person was there, of course I should have refused him shelter—I believe he ought to die. - But you know that by the laws of hos- pitality existing among us Indians, any one who intrusts himself to our protection is sacred while under it, who- ever he may be, and that we regard it a desecration to touch him while he is our guest.’ Mr. Douglas proposed to atone for his proceeding by a present of blankets; and the word of a Hudson’s Bay Company’s servant with the Indians being ‘ as good as his bond,’ directly the pro- mise was given the chief trader was set at liberty and an end put to pending troubles. It has been stated that thievish as well as treacherous propensities are the rule among the aborigines. Nor is this surprising when the mutual suspicions which tribes have been trained to indulge toward one another, and the unmitigated’ degradation in which they have lived for countless ages, are considered. If they imagine they can take advantage in a bargain with impunity, they will do so, and, but for the firmness of the local Government and the presence of ships of war, the peace of the settlers would have been more frequently disturbed by them. The bravado, however, which they formerly used, with the view of alarming the ‘ King George-men,’ as they deno- minate the whites, is now seldom heard—at least in the island, for they are thoroughly convinced of their im- potence in our hands.at * The following is an address (translated), delivered by the N anaimo Indians to the present Governor :— You, OUR GREAT CHIEF,- VVe, the N anaimo Indians, have long wanted to see you and. speak our hearts to you; and we want Mr. Crosby to translate our words. This day our hearts are made very glad because we see you. You, Mr. Kennedy, have come from our great Queen, and we hope you have some good words THE LAMALCHAS. 469 In ’63 a small tribe called the Lamalchas, now almost extinct, caused anxiety to colonists in the smaller islands in the gulf by robberies. This fierce and predatory band, trifling though its numbers were, was a source of con- tinual strife and bloodshed to neighbouring tribes. It was headed by a notorious robber chief—the terror of his enemies, called Acheewun. Bavages occasioned by this dreaded villain and his retainers became so common that the police and ultimately the gunboats were obliged to interfere. One engagement was fought in which the houses of the tribe were assailed by one of Her Majesty’s vessels. No inmates being visible, the steamer backed toward the beach, when suddenly fire was opened by the Indians from the forest, resulting in the death of one seaman and the wounding of others. A short time afterwards, a corps of loyal Indian braves was equipped, v to speak to us from her. We are poor dark Indians. You white people know more than we do. If all white people who come here were good, it would be better for us; but many teach our people to swear and get drunk. WVe hope you, our Governor, will speak strong words to them. Our hearts are very glad that good white people have sent ministers of the Gospel to us, who tell us good things about God, and teach our children to read. We want them to know more than we do. We want to keep our land here and up the river. Some white men tell us we shall soon have to remove again; but we don’t want to lose these reserves. All our other land is gone, and we have been paid very little for it. God gave it to us a long time ago, and now we are very poor, and do not know where our homes will be if we leave this. We want our land up the river to plant for food. Mr. Douglas said it should be ours, and our children’s after we are gone. We hope you, our new chief, will say the same. We have over 300 people in our tribe, though a number are away fishing now. Many are old and not able to work, and some of our children, who have neither father nor mother, have no clothes. We hope you will be kind to them. Our hearts are good to all white people, and to you, our great white chief. 'We hope you will send our words to the great Queen. We pray that the Great Spirit may bless her and you. This is all our hearts to-day. N.B.—The foregoing is a faithful translation of the addresses of the chiefs as delivered to me in council. (Signed) T. CROSBY, Indian Teacher. Indian Village, Nanaimo, Nov. 15, 1864. 470 PROCESS or SCALPING. and, under the direction of the superintendent of police, sent into the forest to fight the Lamalchas. They were enabled to break up the force of Acheewun, and capture the chief himself. How they succeeded in surrounding the enemy in the thick brush without sustaining loss of life, I never learned, but no adventure is more perilous than to skirmish when Indian sharpshooters have to be met lying in ambush. The chief fell into the hands of his pursuers, and was consigned to the gallows after a fair trial, with untold enormities upon his head. Internecine wars are perpetual among the tribes. There are always some old-standing differences between them which are liable, on the slightest occasion, to be revived. Grudges are handed down from father to son for generations, and friendly relations are never free from the risk of being interrupted. Lives taken in one tribe can only be compensated by the same number being massacred in another, and without regard to the guilt of the individuals sacrificed. It is difficult to perceive how, upon such a principle, the extermination of the conflicting parties, eventually, can be avoided. It is their custom to scalp every one they kill—the integument of the skull of an enemy slain in war being viewed by them as a trophy. So that he who can boast the greatest number of scalps is honoured by his tribe as the bravest man. This disgusting operation is performed by making a circular cut from the lower part of the fore— head immediately above the ears. Their teeth are then applied to separate the scalp. Women captured in battle are reduced to slavery, and doomed, often under fear of the lash and abusive treatment from the Indian family claiming them, to severe labour. In the vicinity of white settlements, these female slaves are sent out, as black slave girls have sometimes been in cities of the Southern States DIssIPATED wIIITEs AND INDIANs. 471 to earn their living by prostitution. Subsequently to the tide of immigration in’58,and until the removal of a bridge that formerly connected Victoria with the Indian encamp- ment on the opposite side of the harbour, I have witnessed scenes after sunset calculated to shock even the bluntest sensibilities. The fires of Indian tents pitched upon the beach casting a lurid glare upon the water ; the loud and discordant whoopings of the natives, several of whom were usually infuriated with bad liquor ; the crowds of the more debased miners strewed in vicious concert with squaws on the public highway, presented a spectacle diabolical in the extreme. Even now one cannot walk from the ferry up the Esquimalt road by day or by night without encountering the sight of these Indian slaves squatting in considerable numbers in the bush, for what purpose it is not diflicult to imagine, and the extent to which the nefarious practices referred to are encouraged by the crews of Her Majesty’s ships is a disgrace to the service they represent, and a scandal to the country. Hundreds of dissipated white men, moreover, live in open concubinage with these wretched creatures. So unblush— ingly is this trafiic carried on, that I have seen the hus- band and wife of a native family canvassing from one miner’s shanty to another, with the view of making as- signations for the clootchmen (squaws) in their possession. On one occasion I saw an Indian woman offering to dis— pose of her own child—the offspring of a guilty alliance with a white man—for 3L, at the door of a respectable white dwelling. So hopeless does the moral and religious improvement of the aborigines in the environs of Victoria appear to the Catholic missionaries, that the good bishop of that faith in Vancouver Island assured me he felt compelled to give them up to their reprobate courses. These self~denying 472 ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. men have toiled longer and more assiduously than the agents of any other creed for the amelioration of their con— dition, and are reluctant to abandon any field of mission- ary operations while the least prospect of success remains. The bishop of the English Church, some years ago, erected a school to instruct, reclaim, and elevate them; an able and zealous clergyman was appointed as super- intendent of the mission. But, as might be expected, the return for these well-intentioned ‘appliances has been so grievously disproportionate as to be quite inappreciable. It should be mentioned, however, that in districts as yet comparatively uncontaminated by the evil example of pioneer whites, and favoured with the blessings of moral and religious instruction, gratifying results are visible, especially among the younger portion of the tribes. In South Saanich, a locality with which I am acquainted, where a Roman Catholic priest is stationed, the morals of the natives have hitherto been in a tolerably satisfactory condition. But as that district is now becoming popu- lated with whites, it were too much to hope that the Indians there should form, permanently, an exception to other native villages trenched upon by civilisation. A farmer in that neighbourhood, in expressing to me his confidence in their honesty, remarked that ‘ one couldn’t pay them to steal.’ When near the village, one day, I met some of the people, and by the assistance of what limited stock of Chinoo/r* I could command, endeavoured to ascertain whether they had any distinct idea of moral obligation. I began by saying : Nilca pretre p6 wawa copa King George men Soclcally Zzyhee. Milc-a Kumtux olcoolc? I am a minister, and teach white men about God; do you understand this?’ A woman who was present, thinking I * The jargon which forms the chief medium of intercourse between th colonists and the natives. ' THEIR INELUENcE oN THE NATIONS. 473 was a priest, at once made the sign of the cross on her breast, and replied Nowitka : Soc/tally T yhee Sig/a : point- ing above with her hand. La pretre ya'wa nilca wawa Klosh. ‘ Yes, God is in Heaven. The priest tells me what is good.’ An old man volunteered the remark, Kids/t tmn tum nilea. Wake Klosh Kapswalla—walceKlosh Illamaluslt —walce Klosh Pire Chuck. ‘ I have a good heart. It is wrong to steal, or fight, or drink whisky.’ Arriving at Cowitchin one summer evening, about eight o’clock, in a canoe, after a long day’s paddling, I heard the sound of chanting proceeding from the native church, which was erected and supplied with altar fm~niture chiefly, if not entirely, at the expense of the Indians. It was a log structure, about 50 feet by 20, and on a high situation. At some distance from it, in front, a huge wooden Latin cross stood in the ground, that sacred emblem being usually found in connection with Catholic mission stations. On entering the church I observed a frere engaged in teaching some Indian lads hymns used in devotional exercises, which they sang with taste and vigour. On retiring they were careful to sign themselves with the cross. Ivisited the priest, who lived in a humble shanty adjoining the church, and I could not fail to be struck at the exemplary self- forgetfulness he manifested in his arduous work. He had lived there for some years before white men settled in the locality; and notwithstanding the utter absence of com- forts, and even scantiness of necessaries that marked his lot, he seemed cheerful and contented. There was no disposition shown by him to put a brighter face on the results of his efforts than facts would justify. Indeed, for whatever favourable report I received, I was indebted to disinterested witnesses of his labours. I learned that on Sundays hundreds of natives attended religious service; that monogamy was generally enforced by him with success; 474 ‘ 'rnr. SIGN on THE cnoss. and that in many other respects the morals of the people were correct. One case was told me of illicit whisky-dealers, who, attempting to land alcohol from their sloops, were driven off and their casks rolled into the sea. I fear we should look in vain for a display of similar zeal for the cause of morality and temperance in a white community of the same extent. - In regard to the sign of the cross, to which so much importance is attached in the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church, the bishop of that faith in the diocese of Vancouver Island related to me a touching incident. When that right reverend father first administered Chris- tian ordinances to the Indians at the mouth of the Fraser, they were at variance with the N anaimo tribe. ‘ The man of prayer,’ as they termed the bishop, had occasion, about - the time referred to, to visit the latter place in his episcopal tour after leaving the Fraser. Those from whom he had recently parted felt so edified by his counsels that they de- termined, at all hazards, to attempt following him. From some cause, however, they missed him ; and as their canoes approached N anaimo, to their dismay they beheld their foes ranged on the beach, prepared to fire upon them. For some time they kept at a safe distance, and held a council among themselves. The conclusion arrived at by them was as interesting as it was pacific. They argued that if the enemy were faithful to the instructions of ‘ the man of prayer ’ they would understand the sign of the cross, return it, and allow them to land in peace. They accord- ingly stood up and crossed themselves, at which signal the muskets of the N anaimo men were laid aside, and a cordial welcome extended by them to their Christian brethren. It was stated to me, on trustworthy authority, that in consequence of Bishop Hills, of the English Church, when travelling in British Columbia, forbidding the Indians ‘ sELF-INTERPRETING BIBLE.’ 47 5 this mode of salutation, he was subjected to some disap- pointment and mortification. During one of his visits to that colony they mistook him for a Roman Catholic priest ——the only description of missionary they had known up to. that period—and adopted the sign of Christian free- masonry which has been alluded to. Mothers brought their infants to be baptised by him. But on discovering the Protestant bishop’s opposition to their accustomed reli-. gious forms, they declined to receive the virtue of his episcopal manipulations, and withdrew from him as a dangerous heretic! I was much interested in being shown by Bishop De Mers a rude symbolic Bible, devised by himself for the' use of the Indian disciples of the Roman Catholic order. It consists of a long slip of paper, on which the principal events narrated in Scripture, from the creation of the world to the founding of the Christian Church, are illus- trated. The progressive development of the Church of Rome from that time up to the present is also portrayed. The advantage of the arrangement is, that a large amount of general religious information is contained in remarkably small compass. The Hebrew version reads from right to left, but this ‘ Self-interpreting Bible’ reads from the bottom upwards. At the foot of the page the globe appears emerging out of chaos, and immediately above stand a male and female figure with a tree between them, representing our first parents partaking of the forbidden fruit. The other details of this invention may be readily guessed at, till we reach the Protestant Reformation, up to which point the line of instruction is intelligible and straight. Thence another line diverges at right angles from the main one, leading off the page into the abyss. This is marked chemiri ole Protestantisme. Then the straight path of the Church continues to Pio Nono, and 4.7 6 SELFISH MoTIvEs IN RELIGION. onwards still to heaven. Captain Mayne states that when at Kamloops, in British Columbia, the chief of the Shuswap tribe, pointing to such a print as I have described, hanging on the wall, and putting his finger upon the unhappy figm~es tumblinginto the pit, laughingly said, ‘ There are you and your people,’ showing the amount of credence that sceptical Siwash attached to it. Itimay be mentioned, in illustration of the selfish propensities of the Indians, even in connection with religious observances, that when certain members of the Songhish tribe were called before the Roman Catholic bishop for confirmation, after having been duly baptised, they stipulated for a larger present of blankets to be made to them than had been given at their baptism as a condition of complying with Dr. De Mers’ invitation. To rebuke the impurity of their motives in reference to a rite so sacred, it is reported that the bishop adopted the expedient of making a hole in a large heart which he had painted upon canvas, and draw- ing a blanket through it. A missionary of another sect was once trying to prevail upon an Indian to join his denominational school for natives, when, viewing the solicitation of the missionary as a matter of business, he responded in the same spirit, Nowz'tlca, iconsic/c mz'ica potlatch. ‘ Yes, I’ll go; but how much will you give me?’ In 1857 the first Protestant mission was established among the native tribes, and the progress of it embraces so many interesting facts as to be entitled to some notice here. The Church Missionary Society having had their attention called to the condition of the aborigines on the North American coast of the Pacific, determined on sending out a lay agent to commence operations, and selected Mr. Duncan, who was trained at Highbury Col- lege, London, for that purpose. After careful delibera- tion as to the most eligible district in which to exercise MR. DUNcAN’s LABOURS. 477 his functions as a Christian teacher, he proceeded to Fort Simpson, a fur-trading depot belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and situated about a thousand miles north of Victoria. This region, containing a large Indian popu- lation, afforded him special facilities for prosecuting mis- sionary enterprise. The first obstacle of moment he encountered was that selfishness deeply rooted in the savage breast to which reference has just been made. In a passage from his diary on the subject, Mr. Duncan writes :- To—day a chief called, whose principal anxiety was to ascertain whether I intended giving dollars to the Indians to get them to send their children to school. I think I shamed him a little—at least, I tried to do so—for entertaining such a selfish notion. I have a good many visitors, and all seem desirous of Ingra- tiating themselves . . When they beg, which is generally the case, I mostly satisfy and always lessen their expectations by saying that I have not come to trade. This opens a way to telling them what I have come to do for them; and in every case, as soon as my object is realised, I hear the oft-repeated ‘ ahm, ahm ’ (good, good), and their faces exhibit every expression of joy of which they are susceptible. . . . It is a pity we cannot put their sincerity to the test at once, but I feel that it would not be prudent to do so. Another difficulty mentioned by this worthy labourer, ‘ as threatening to interfere with the consummation of his wishes, is ‘their jealousies and feuds.’ It was not long before his patient and conciliatory manner won their con- fidence, so that they applied to him for advice in sickness and trouble. He was soon received in their houses with every mark of respect. They often assigned him the chief place near the fire, where they always placed a mat upon a box for him to sit upon. 478 HINDRANCES TO MISSIONARY WORK. In the erection of a new school-house, they supplied planks for flooring, and bark for the roof; the liberality of some even impelling them to take boards off their own roofs and the pieces that formed part of their beds. In a few months the school numbered 100 children and 50 adults. Four tribes resolved to abandon the abominable practices connected with the celebration of ‘ medicine feasts.’ Still, these orgies of heathenism being so closely associated with the traditions of the natives, could hardly be expected to be renounced all at once. But to be instrumental in shaking so remarkably the attachment of these people to their ancient follies, indicated ‘the presence of an influence which only the principles of Christianity could exert. I am thankful (writes Mr. Duncan) that I am able to say there is amongst the Indians a great stir of opinion against their heathenish winter-customs, and four of the tribes out of nine. have indeed cut them off. Those tribes which still adhere to them are carrying them on exceedingly feehly, so much so that I am assured by all whom I speak to about the matter, that what I now see is really nothing compared with what the system is when properly carried out. They tell me they were afraid to cast the custom away all in one year, but would rather that part- of it should go this year, and the remainder next; ‘so, according to this, I sincerely hope that this is the last winter any of these savage practices will be seen. Afterwards the following paragraph occurs in his journal :——- Every day shows me more and more what a dense mass of ignorance I have come in contact wit-h. I have also now to meet all the evil reports continually emanating from very evil and superstitious persons. Some are watching I believe for a calamity to arise and explode the work. Others are in suspense, hoping we shall succeed, but feel afraid we cannot. Some keep a scrutinising eye over all our movements, and when they feel OPPOSITION or A ‘ MEDICINE PARTY.’ 479 satisfied we have no tricks to injure them, I suppose they will countenance us. But we go on, and I am glad to hear every day, in contrast with the incessant and horrid drumming of the medicine-men, the sweet sound of our steel calling numbers to hear and learn the way of life. On leaving the school this morning, I spoke to a man who is of considerable power and influence in the camp, as to why he did not send his children to school, and come himself. He replied that he was waiting till the Indians had done with their foolishness and dancing, which time was not far distant; then he would come. He bot-h wanted himself and his children to learn, but would not come yet, as it is not good, he said, to mix his ways and mine together. He intended soon to give up his, and then he would come to school. This afternoon he just dropped into school simply as a gazer ; he would join in nothing. Again he writes :— I inspect them [his pupils] daily. Some few have ventured to come with their faces painted, but we have less of it daily. A good many too have cast away their noseerings, yet some come who have very large ones in use still. After school-teaching was over this morning, a chief remained behind—he had a serious difficulty. His people, who had before decided to give up their medicine working, were beginning to repent of their decision. According to the chief’s statement, they professed themselves unable to leave off what had been such a strong and universal custom among them for ages. I was told . . . that the head chief of the Indians is going to ask me to give up my school for about a month, his complaint being that the children running past his house and from school tended to unsettle him and his party from working their mys- teries. . . . I see now that, although I have been as careful as pos- sible not to give unnecessary offence, yet a storm is in the horizon. As I went through part of the camp on my way to the school this morning, I met a strong medicine-party full in the face . . Their naked prodigy was carrying a dead dog, which he occa- sionally laid down and feasted upon. While a little boy was 480 soENE AT THE MISSION SCHOOL. striking the steel for me at school, some of the party made their‘ appearance near the school, I imagine, for all at once the boy begun to be irregular and feeble in his stroke, and when I looked up at him, I saw he was looking very much afraid. On enquiring the cause, he told me the medicine folks were near; I told him to strike away, and I stood at the door of the school. Some few stragglers of the medicine party were hovering about, but they did not- dare to interfere with us. When all were assembled, and the striking ceased, my adult pupils commenced a great talk . . . After a little time the chief came, and told me the Indians were talking bad outside, by which I under- stood that the medicine folks had been using more threats to stop us. . . . On nearing the Fort, I met one of the most important men in the medicine business—a chief, and father to one of the I little boys that are being initiated . . . He told me that if they did not make their medicine-men as they had always been used to do, then there would be none to frustrate the designs of these bad men who made people sick, and therefore deaths would be more numerous from the effects of the evil workings of such bad men. This morning the medicine party, who are carrying on their work near to the school, broke out with renewed fury, because, as they assert, the child of the head chief had just returned from above. The little boy that lights my fire came in great excitement to tell me that the head chief was not willing for me to have school to-day, and was anxious to know if I intended going. He seemed greatly amazed at my answer. On going to school I observed a crowd of these wretched men in a house that I was approaching. When they turned to come out, they saw me coming, and immediately drew back till I had passed. This afternoon a boy ran to strike the steel, and not many seconds elapsed before I saw the head chief approaching, and a whole gang of medicine-men after him, dressed up in their usual charms. The chief looked very angry, and bade the boy cease. I waited at the door until he came up. His first effort was to rid the school of the few pupils that had just come in. He shouted at the top of his voice and bade them be off. I imme- THE ANGRY cIIIEE; 481 diately accosted him, and demanded to know what he intended or expected to do. His gang stood about the door, and I think seven came in. I saw their point; it was to intimidate me by their strength and frightful appearance, and I perceived the chief, too, was somewhat under the influence of rum. But the Lord enabled me to stand calm and without the slightest fear. to address them with far more fluency in their tongue than I could have imagined possible. . . . -I told them that God was my master, and that I .must obey Him rather than them. . . . I saw a great many people at a distance, looking anxiously at our proceedings. Nearly all my pupils had fled in fear. The chief expressed himself very passionately; now and then breaking out into furious language, and showing off his savage nature by his gestures. Sometimes I pacified him by what I said for a little time, but he soon broke out again wit-h more violence. Towards the close of the scene, two of his con- federates—vile-looking fellows——went and whispered something to him; upon which he got up from a seat he had just sat down upon, stamped his feet on the floor, raised his voice as high as he could, and exhibited all the rage and defiance and boldness that he could. . . . , We had not gone on long before the chief returned to school. He gave a long knock on the door with a stick. I went to ' open it, and my pupils began to squat about for shelter. When he came in, I sawhe was .in rather a different mood; and he began to say that he was not a bad man to the white people, but that he had always borne a good character with them. . . . The leading topics of the chief’s. angry clamour I may class as follows:—-He requested four days’ suspension of the school. He promised that if I complied, he and his people would then come to school; but threatened, if my pupils continued to come on the following days, he would shoot at them. Lastly, he pleaded that if the school went on during the time he specified, then some medicine-men, whom he expected on a visit shortly from a distant tribe, would shame and perhaps kill him. Some of his sayings during his fits of rage were that he under- stood how to kill people, occasionally drawing his ‘hand across his throat‘to show me what hev meant; that whenhe died, he I I 482 TEMPTATIDNS TO convnnrs. should go down; he could not ‘change; he could‘ not be good ';' or if I made him good, why then he supposed he should go to a different place from his forefathers; this he did not desire to do. On one occasion, while he was talking, he looked at two men-— one of them a regular pupil of mine, and the other a medicine- man—and said, ‘ I am a murderer, and so are you, and you (pointing to each of these-men); and what good is it for us to come to school?’ . . . . While in school there was a frightful outburst of the medi- cine parties, setting the ‘whole of the camp round about in a kind of terror. A party were with their naked prodigy on the beach when I went out of the school. From these extracts some idea may be formed of the vexations borne by Mr. Duncan at the beginning of his career. But a noble ambition to elevate the social and religious condition of the Indian lightened the burden of his toils. Such an enterprise was sufficiently onerous tov one cheered by the presence of Christian sympathy ; but his isolated situation, struggling without a pious comp-.- panion of either sex to share his anxieties and labours, was fitted to deepen the interest felt by the religious public at home in his behalf. At length a clergyman and his wife were sent to his assistance; but after a short residence were obliged to return to England from ill health. Again he was left - alone; and although his physical strength was impaired- by the pressure of his duties, his zeal was not relaxed. Finding, however, that the proximity of the company’s fort to the native settlement offered temptations to his con- verts, and exposed them to the demoralising visits of illicit rum-traders, he resolved to move to a safe distance from the snares attending the liquor traffic. He accordingly chose a suitable neighbourhood for the new sphere of his operations, about twenty miles up the Simpson River, NEW CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT. 483 Metlakatlah; and during the past four years a work has been accomplished there whose success has rarely if ever been equalled in the history of missions to the heathen. Only those natives who agreed to give up idolatrous and immoral practices, and strictly conform to the regula- tions under which the new Christian settlement was formed, were permitted to enjoy its advantages. A severe probationary course was imposed, and many in attesting their sincerity submitted to it patiently, and are now exemplary in the performance of their moral and religious duties. It was made a condition of citizenship that each house should be built, no longer resembling the Indian lodges, but according to a civilised plan. For this pur- pose prepared timber is imported, and shingles for roofing are manufactured by the natives. Habits of cleanliness and modes of dress like those prevailing among white men are enforced. Besides large mission premises, a public market and court-house have been erected, and separate apartments are provided for the accommodation of Indian tribes who come to trade, that the filth and effluvia attaching to the persons of these strangers may not be allowed to pollute the dwellings or the society of the fixed inhabitants. After unreformed tillicums have taken their departure, the building occupied by them during "their stay is cleaned and fumigated by the resi- dents, according to a definite sanitary arrangement. A school for instruction in the rudiments of an English education is established, roads are in process of forma- tion, and an eflicient body of native police is organised, the force being equipped in a semi-military uniform that compares favourably with what is worn by the constabu- lary in Victoria. A prison also exists, and magisterial , jurisdiction is intrusted to Mr. Duncan, who was invested by Governor Douglas with a commission of the peace. 1 I I 2 484"“ i ' INGENUITY or THE NATIvEs'; To sustain the public administration of the native colony a tax is levied, payable in money, blankets, or produce. As the commerce, agriculture, and manufactures of the settlement are developed, Mr. Duncan contemplates en- couraging the general circulation of United States currency instead of barter as the medium of business negotiations. Adult statute-labour is also required in making roads. To enable the people to meet personal and Governmental claims, they are trained to various branches of industry, such as cultivating the soil, extracting oil, hunting furs, gathering berries. Skilled occupations are also gradually being introduced among them. A schooner has recently been purchased for conveying native commodities to Vic- toria, and bringing back supplies. When the colleague of Mr. Duncan came to Victoria in charge of freight some time since, he assured me that it met with a ready sale, and in that one trip he realised in behalf of the native exporters several hundred pounds. If that interesting settlement can be so far civilised before the vices of the whites approach it (which they are certain to do eventually in the progress of adventure and British colonisation), as to be rendered proof against immoral contagion, who can tell to what extensive proportions the present nursling may grow? The tribes are by no means destitute of ingenuity. Their canoes, which are made by hollowing out the trunks of trees, are finished with taste and skill, and are believed to supply the pattern after which clipper ships are built. Their carvings in slate and chasing in metals are usually neat, and some of the Songhies manufacture elegant rings and bracelets out of gold and silver. In a short time, and for a small consideration, they will beat out a sovereign to its utmost tenuity, fold up the extended . gold, and return it to the owner in the form of a finger-ring. INDUSTRIAL ARTs AND MISSIONS. 485 The matting and ornamented slippers they prepare are well known. Let this faculty for contrivance but be diverted into channels of more economic value, and an important step has been taken towards the civilisation of these aborigines. It is to the achievement of this object that the exertions of Mr. Duncan are directed in conj unc- tion with the inculcation of Christian teaching; and the statements of that gentleman, to which I have had an opportunity of listening from his own lips, aresuch as to impress the most incredulous with the conviction that the undertaking is practicable. On suggesting to him, the desirableness of his translating excerpts from the Scriptures into their language, he replied that it would be his endeavour to make English so general among the people as the medium of speaking and writing, that such labour would be rendered superfluous. I have heard read, by Mr. Duncan, letters written in English by young men under his care-some of them love letters—and I have no hesitation in saying that they would do no dis- credit to farm—labourers of the same age in England. I am not personally familiar with the working of British missions in Polynesia ; but from interviews I have had with eminent missionaries who have spent many years among the native islanders of the South Seas, I infer that secular knowledge and the industrial arts of civilised life had not at first so special a place assigned them in the missionary programme as they now have. These indispensable auxiliaries of civilisation did not, I know, formerly receive from American missionaries in the Sandwich Islands the attention they merited, and, conse- quently, the results of their zealous and sincere exertions were, in most instances, sadly out of proportion to the time, strength, and money expended in connection with their work. I trust I do not detract from the dignity of 486 ' RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION. the missionary calling or from the power of the Christian religion in suggesting that the arts and institutions of civilised life ought to be fostered side by side with the communication of religious instruction. These arts and institutions create new and elevating social relations, and open up the most worthy spheres to be found in this world for the exercise of Christian virtues, the strengthen- . '- ing of heavenly principles, and the development of the Divine life. The Protestant doctrine of ‘ justification by faith alone,’ when accepted in a suitable manner, it is admitted, sup— plies to frail humanity the grand motive-power for a new life. But that the Gospel may not degenerate, as it too often does, into sentimentalism or fanaticism, the duties of the regenerate state must be systematically and con- tinuously placed before the convert for the enlightenment of his conscience, the control of his feelings, and the guidance of his purposes. At the beginning of a Christian career there is experienced an earnest desire to evince gratitude to our heavenly Father for the discovery that has been made of high and comforting truth. But for the spiritual force inherent in that sentiment to be pro- perly utilised, the various relations of the man to the affairs of this life and the next should be explained, and the particular duties belonging to these relations clearly enunciated. For safe and speedy travelling by locomotive, rails must be laid as well as steam ‘generated, and without attention to the cultivation, in detail, of those moral habits, industrial enterprises, and refined accom- plishments that go, collectively, to make up what we de- signate civilisation, we shall look in vain for the fall realisation of that multiform blessing. This is true even in regard to Christendom ; how much more so, therefore, to the abodes of Paganism I THREATENED EXTINCTION OF’ NATIVES. To those missionaries, therefore, who have been adopt- ing the exclusively religious plan of action, I commend the enlightened example of Mr. Duncan. The rapid diminution and threatened extinction of the primitive inhabitants of the American continent and the islands of the Pacific, is a fact of melancholy interest to the Christian philanthropist and the man of science; and the enquiry naturally arises whether the exclusively Evan- gelistic method generally adopted by missionaries is the most effectual that could be devised to avert this doom. The Indian population of North America three centu- ries ago was estimated at 20,000,000. N ow it does not reach 2,000,000. Progress toward decay has been almost equally remarkable among the aborigines of South America. In 1776, when Captain Cook visited Tahiti, the native population of that island numbered 200,000; and by a census taken twelve years ago, it was shown to be reduced to 8,000 or 9,000. The Sandwich Islanders, who about the same period numbered 400,000, in November 1849, only reached 80,641, with an excess of deaths over births of 6,465 annually. In an official report of the condition of the aborigines of Australia, published a few years ago, their case was thus described : ‘ The uni- form result of all enquiry on the subject of the numbers of the Australian aborigines exhibits a decrease in the population of those districts which have been overspread by colonial enterprise.’ An Adelaide newspaper, pub- lished subsequently, contained the following statement :-- ‘ The steady disappearance of the natives is what every report upon their condition most uniformly points to, al- though everything is done that could promise to alleviate the discomforts of their condition.’ The native Tasmanians, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of benevolence and religion to save them, it is understood, have all without 488 _ FATE OF INDIAN RAcEs. exception perished' In 1830 the number of the Maories, with whom the colonial authorities of New Zealand have of late been unhappily brought in collision, was estimated at 180,000. Two years 'ago that superior aboriginal population was found reduced to 55,275. The present war will, doubtless, immensely augment the rate of diminution. It has been calculated that at the end of 100 years ‘hence their extinction will be complete. An able writer, ‘ On a Point too much lost Sight of on Missions,’ in discussing this topic, aptly remarks : ‘ Macaulay’s oft- quoted saying about the possibility of a future New Zea- lander yet surveying the ruins of London Bridge and the great metropolis around, is often applied by the unthink- ing to some civilised descendant of the present Maori race. But the historian was far too well read to commit himself to so wild an imagination—-it must have been some one sprung from the white colonists he had mentally before him when he wrote.’ The Indians of the Delaware, memorable as having been favoured with the self-sacri- ficing labours of David Brainerd, are reported to be now wholly extinct; and. the Bible which that indefatigable missionary, at so much pains translated into the native tongue, is now consequently a dead letter to every Indian living in the New World. Humboldt, when visiting South America in 1806, was shown a parrot which chat— tered in a language that no one could understand, and the reason was discovered to be that every vestige of the tribe accustomed to use that particular form of speech had been efi’aced from the globe. The fate of the native churches of Greenland and Labrador, associated with the eminent devotion of the Moravian pioneers, points in the same gloomy direction. Already the enquiry has been suggested in view of primitive races so rapidly disappear- ing, whether instruction in the useful arts and training. in modes of civilised language, customs, and government WHAT or AFRICANS, HINDOOS AND cHINEsE? 489 should not invariably be allied with the inculcation of Christian doctrine, and employed as auxiliaries in arresting .the progress of decay, and raising them in the scale of humanity. The author, from whom I have just quoted, touches on a question of equally vital moment, which .ought to be seriously pondered by the directors of mis- sionary societies in Europe and America, who expend such vast sums of money annually in attempting to convert the heathen. ‘ We strongly hold,’ says he, ‘that missions to tribes about to depart, leaving behind them so few traces that they ever existed, are much less important than those to nations destined to increase in number and in influence for centuries yet to come." There is, unquestionably, great force' in the remark ascribed to the late Duke of Wellington, and addressed .to a clergyman who was sceptical as to the propriety of so much enthusiasm being displayed by Christians at home in the conversion of Pagans, while so much ignorance, vice, crime, profanity, and squalor invited the efforts of devout philanthropy in civilised communities of the old world and our colonies. The ‘marching-orders ’ of the .Divine Commander-in-chief must be implicitly obeyed. But no one who has happened to possess opportunities of personally inspecting the results of certain ‘ foreign ’ mis- sionary operations can withstand the temptation to consider the subject from a human point of view, and in the light of absolute fact. We are painfully familiar with the sweeping annihilation of the aborigines that has followed contact between them and the white races in the Caribean Sea and many parts of the American continent. Preceding statistics would seem to excite apprehensions of the almost certain extinction, eventually, of the natives in Polynesia. We naturally cling to the hope that Africa, India, China, and Japan will, in the permeation of these countries with ' the concomitants of civilisation, form a splendid exception ‘490 CHANCES or BARBAROUS RACES SURVIVING. ' 'to the ravages introduced by the superior races, under which so many millions of aborigines have elsewhere been efl’aced. The future development of our political, social, and commercial relations with these countries may be attended with modifying circumstances that will secure the realisation of our humane desires and Christian hopes, and render civilised intercourse with them more of an unmingled blessing than it has proved in the case of the decaying tribes to which reference has been made. So limited is the extent, however, to which these seats of barbarism have been occupied by the whites that‘ we are unable as yet to determine whether extensive contact between them and the original inhabitants will be suc- ceeded by tribal dissolution, as in the instances previously cited. If our opinions be influenced by the analogy of history—as they cannot fail in some measure to be--we must acknowledge that there is some occasion for fear. Past events bearing on this topic incline me to the impression that the chances of a barbarous people surviving the fatal consequences of their country being largely popu- lated by the white race are simply in proportion as the degree of intellectual and moral vitality possessed by the na- tives may be adequate to resist the virus of demoralisation by which they are inevitably impregnated on first being brought in contact with white society. The races that are pal- pably falling to decay were predisposed, perhaps by ages of growing degeneracy, to absorb the moral poison with which they have been inoculated by’the whites.* Shall the barbarous tribes with whom we are, as yet, but partially in communication, be prepared to stand the momentous "‘ Let it not be supposed that the excesses of civilisation are the sole cause of savage tribes melting away. I have been informed by those who were stationed at forts of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the wilds of the interior, where the strictest abstemiousness was practised, that the natives in their neighbourhood died off. The plainest diet used by the white man, if adopted by red skins, is of itself suflicient to occasion depopulation among them. FEAR AND HOPE. ‘ 491 test when, in future generations, it comes to be severely applied? Shall they have the stamina requisite to bear the shock inflicted by our vices, and to conserve the power requisite to assimilate the good we have to impart? The empire of the Incas, the subjects of Monte Zuma, and the fellow-countrymen of Pochahantas, exhibited intellectual and moral qualities compared with which those of the most favourable African types are not worthy to be mentioned. Nevertheless, at the appearance of the adventurous explorers who arrived from the shores of Europe, by whom their countries were severally invaded, they vanished like a dream. Is the fear, then, utterly groundless that under similar conditions, in future ages, a corresponding fate may overtake the Negro race? For the Chinese, Hindoos, and Japanese, I anticipate, as has already been stated, a more promising destiny. Defective as are their respective systems of morality and religion in compari- son with Christianity, Brahminism and Buddhism both con- tain moral precepts, and set before their votaries patterns of virtue calculated to enkindle pure and exalted aspira- tions. The existence of castein India precludes the free circu- lation of ennobling principles among the great body of the natives. Not so, however, in China, Where, notwithstanding the professed absolutism of the Emperor, a healthful spirit of democracy prevails in political, social, and religious life, and receives discipline and guidance in no trifling degree from a national system of education adapted to brace the faculties alike of rich and poor, who enter the lists as competitors for literary honours. The same remarks are substantially applicable to the Japanese. Still, the nearest approach we can make to a solution of the problem affecting the full contact of these varieties of the Mongo- lian type with certain portions of the Caucasian race is, at best, only conjecture. The observation of some in barbarous countries has 492 HOW Is A NATION cIvILIsED? prompted the question, how far the distinctive peculiarities of the Christian religion are entitled to credit as an agency in civilisation? It has been asserted that a nation is civilised merely to that degree in which it comprehends and obeys the laws, ascertained by experience, which govern physical and moral life, and that a barbarous nation, at all susceptible of being elevated permanently in enterprise, principle, and conduct, ascends to the level of the superior people, by finding out, in the first instance, in what respects it can profit commercially by friendly understanding with them, and then, by spontaneously conforming to the spirit, customs, and ultimately laws of those with whom it thus becomes profitably associated. It is maintained that the primary step towards the social improvement of a hopeful Pagan nation consists in appeal- ing to that strongest susceptibility in our common nature, the principle of self-interest, and that the result will be a desire for increasingly nearer relations, till at length the faith and practice of the more cultivated nation are imi- tated. But upon this point the mind of the reader, like that of the writer, believing in Christianity, is probably made up, thus rendering argument in opposition to such a view unnecessary. At the same time it is to be regretted that there should be so much ground apparently for seep, ticism as to the efficiency of religion in the process of civilisation. How feeble the hold it often takes upon those most conversant with its doctrines, and how com- paratively slight the reformation it sometimes produces among the heathen! It is, indeed, distressing that the enemies of the Christian faith should have so much room for casting at us the reproach that the evil practices of the white man have ever been more potent to ruin the aborigines than his Gospel is to save them. 493 CHAPTER XVII. EMIGRATION. Inducements offered—Classes encouraged to emigrate—Capitalists wanted —Manufactures that might be introduced—Climate inviting to retired Officers and Men of moderate Means—Openings for respectable Females —Dancing round'a Bonnet—Cautions to Emigrants—Rates of Wages— Prices—Routes from England—Hints as to choice of Vessel and Outfit --Hindrances to colonial Progress—Necessity for direct Postal Commu- nication with England—Claims of young Colonies on the Aid of England —Trade for an English Steamer the North Pacific—Contrast between the United States and England in their Care for New Territories—Error of the Government in disposing of Irish Emigration—Emigration the most important Question of the Day. I THE inducements offered by these colonies to persons in‘ the parent country desirous of improving their condition have been already submitted in the delineation of their varied resources and industrial pursuits given in preceding pages. Gold, silver, copper, coal, timber, fisheries, agri- culture, and commerce, compose the main elements of our colonial wealth. But that the country may be enriched by these they must be developed by the expendi- ture of the circulating medium and the application of labour. In enumerating the classes for whose reception these colonies are prepared, I should emphatically assign capitalists the foremost place. It is only the enterprise of individuals and companies possessed of adequate means that can make the country as rapidly prosperous as the invaluable and inexhaustible resources it contains would. 494 EMIGBATION. justify us in expecting it should become. These remarks, however, are not intended to' throw any discouragement in the way of emigrants who can carry nothing with them but skilled labour. The sequel will show that no other British colonies at present yield higher remuneration to the industrious artisan in proportion to the expense of living. But we want capital to open the way for the wider and steadier employment of labour. The success of the few wealthy firms that have entered the field and engaged in large enterprises foreshadows the vast profits waiting to be reaped by those who are prepared, without delay, to follow their example. It is admitted that one or two English companies proposing to take up certain mining schemes have met with reverses. But it is well known that the failure of their plans has arisen mainly from the unsuitable character of agents selected for carrying them out, or from not laying their‘ basis of operations in an economical manner. Throughout England there is a large number of handi- craftsmen, not absolutely in the situation known as ‘ from. hand to mouth,’ who, nevertheless, have great difficulty in, finding standing room or making headway in the com- petitive struggle incident to the crowded businesshigh- ways of the parent country. This is a class that I invite to emigrate to our North Pacific colonies, in the full assurance of their doing well. Lumbermen with money) sufficient to erect their own saw-mills; parties of copper miners who would unite their limited capital and be prepared to work on for a couple of years without seeking extraneous help; salt manufacturers, in a position to ‘dig their wells, and fix their pumps and evaporating pans; millers with means enough to construct and run a pair or two of stones; pitch and resin manufacturers who could _- cLAssEs NoT WANTED. 495 employ hands to extract the crude materials from our-pine forests; fishermen from the British coasts accustomed to sail their own vessels; managers of collieries desirous of starting business on their own account; tile and coarse pottery manufacturers; glass and bottle blowers ; brewers ; graziers, pig-feeders, curers, and packers of pork ; persons in the petroleum oil trade with a good connection in New York; dealers in oil-lamps importing from the same city; importers of American cooking and heating stoves from some place of manufacture in the eastern States; carpenters, cabinet-makers, wheelwrights, engine- drivers, saddlers, blacksmiths, stonemasons, compositors, boiler-makers, brass-founders, tailors, English and Ame— rican boot-importers, and shipbuilders. Skilled labourers and shopmen of these various kinds, if possessed on land-- ing of from 100l. to 500l., and resolved to exercise for a few years a moderate amount of patience, discretion, and application, are certain to succeed. There, doubtless, are many other branches of industry which do not happen to occur to me at the present moment, that, in the hands of small capitalists, would prove as remunerative as any that have been specified. Let it not be supposed, however, that I am urging, at this early period of our colonial existence, the indis- criminate emigration of mere labour. Men of bold heart and strong arms will carve their way anywhere, and what might seem insurmountable difficulties to others, will dis- appear before them. But those destitute of these qualities and of capital besides, are counselled to seek their fortune in some older and more settled community. Clerks, poor gentlemen of education and breeding in quest of Government appointments, governesses, school-4 masters, adventurers without funds and trained to no par- ticular employment—all such classes are cautioned not to 496 ' EMIeRATIoE: ' come. Openings even for them, however, will, in the -' course of events, arise when the development of the country is more advanced. It is unnecessary to repeat what has been already said in the chapter on agriculture respecting the advantages offered to small farmers with large families‘ and to farm labourers. ' Ofiicers retired from service in the army and the navy, and other gentlemen having a few thousand pounds at command, would find Vancouver Island a delightful place- of residence, and have no difficulty in meeting with safe and profitable investments. Their means are at present perhaps put out in property, mortgage, bank shares, foreign- bonds, or the public funds, bringing them in from 4 to 7 per cent. per annum ; while in Vancouver Island from 1%- to 2 per cent. per month may at any time be obtained, and in some parts of British Columbia from 3 to 4 per cent. per month on unquestionable landed security. The climate, especially in the island, would be found peculiarly in-- vigorating to constitutions debilitated in tropical latitudes, and the scenery lovely beyond description. The same amount of capital, if rightly invested, would furnish a larger share of the comforts of life in Vancouver Island than it possibly could in England. Within a few miles of Victoria it is in the power of a gentleman of small fortune‘ to buy an extent of acreage that in the vicinity of an- English town would be valued as a handsome estate. Building his own house, the‘ only expensive item in living Would be servants, which supply of eggs, milk, &c., raised on his farm, would more than counterbalance. ' — Bespectable females, neither afraid nor ashamed to work as domestic servants, are greatly in demand. Strong and active young women, qualified to serve as efficient cooks and housemaids, .would have no difficulty. in obtaining DEMAND FOR FEMALES. 497 from 4l. to 5l. per month and board. So much is the want of this class felt, that if 500 girls of good character and industrious habits could be sent out in detachments ' of fifty in each vessel, and at intervals of a month, they would be absorbed almost immediately on their arrival. But the presence of this sex is as urgently required on social and moral grounds. There are many well-disposed single men prospering in the various trades and professions, who are anxious to adopt the country as their home. But the scope for selecting wives is so limited that they feel compelled to go to California in search of their in- teresting object, and not unfrequently are they tempted to remain on American soil—their industry as producers and expenditure as consumers being lost to the colonies. There is no territory on the globe presenting to unmarried virtuous females such opportunities of entering that state upon which every right-minded woman cannot but look with approval. Through the liberality of Miss Burdett Coutts and others, we were favoured some years ago with two ship- ments of female immigrants, about 120 in all. There was too little care exercised in the selection of them, by those directing the movement, and some, in consequence, turned out badly. But all who conducted themselves properly have had offers of marriage, and most of them have long since become participants of conjugal felicity. An amusing example of the homage paid to women by the mining population was related to me by a friend who pursued that calling for a while in California. He and his companions of the same camp had for a year and a half been toiling where the beams of a woman’s smile did not reach them. The news arrived on one occasion of a ‘lady ’ having come to a place twenty miles from where they were located. They instantly laid aside their picks and shovels, K K 498 EMIGRATION. and agreed upon celebrating the event by enjoying a few days’ holiday. When they came to the longed-for spot, the poor fellows found their bright hopes balked ; no fair form such as their imagination had depicted was visible. But they were fortunate enough to alight on a woman’s bonnet, and soothed their disappointed feelings by forming a ring and dancing round it. Emigrants should guard against the error of supposing that employment is most certain of being secured in large towns. Melbourne, San Francisco, and, more recently, Victoria, Auckland, and Dunedin, furnish proofs of the folly of remaining long in such centres, after a vigorous attempt has been made at settlement. A large and sud- den influx of people into the sea-ports of gold-producing countries is necessarily attended with a temporary glut in the labour market.’ When thousands rushed to Melbourne in 1850 and succeeding years, instances of starvation, dis— ease, and other miseries, were not infrequent. ‘ I have seen,’ writes a resident in that city, ‘ scores of persons sleeping about the wharves, and in iron boilers, packing- cases, or on the bare earth.’ In the city of Victoria, in 1862, it was equally distressing to observe numbers of young men, whose minds were inflamed with romantic ideas of making sudden fortunes,‘ and who had left comfortable homes without having any distinct knowledge of the hard‘ ships to be undergone, in that year, before the mines could be reached, or the gold extracted, driven to the necessity of earning a living by working on the roads. Poor im- migrants, whatever he the sort of business to which they _ have been trained, should, under all circumstances, be de- termined, on their arrival, to accept without murmuring whatever occupation comes first to hand, rather than allow the wolf inside their doors. So far from engaging in hum- ble labour putting any barrier in the path of an immi- RATEs OF WAGEs. 499 grant’s advancement, if he possess qualities to fit him for higher spheres, he will in the end be more respected for the courage and endurance displayed in his state of appa- rent humiliation. I have kiiown a youth begin his career as a colonist by breaking stones for a road contractor. His master, a cultivated man, learning the social position of the lad’s family, and his personal claims to notice, soon had him as a visitor at his house, upon terms of perfect equality with his family. N ow, by dint of energy, that young man has become partner in a respectable establish- ment in the colony. But my advice to new comers gene- rally is, that if they experience dark prospects in the cities on the coast, they should lose no time in looking for some- thing to do in the districts of the interior. Those who have a wish to try mining life, and are unacquainted, practically, with its hazards and privations, should endeavour to consider soberly, beforehand, whether their hopes of success are well founded. Multitudes have prospered in digging for the precious metal beyond their most sanguine expectations; many more,whose knowledge, tact, and perseverance would seem to render them equally deserving of a fortune, have failed. That will continue to be the order of things. Only let the mind of the hardy mining emigrant be made up on this point. The mines are a spe- cies of lottery, and luck more than diligence has often to do with the result of mining operations. Rates of wages can only be specified here generally. In all cases labour commands at least three times the remune- ration it does in England, and often much more than that. Blacksmiths, bricklayers, painters, wheelwrights, &c., re- ceive about 16.9. per day; house carpenters from 12s. 6d. to 168. per day; bakers from 8l. to 12l. per month ; butchers from 12l. to 16l. per month; barbers, when on their own account, usually charge 2s. Id. for haircutting KR? “500 EMIGRATION. and 1.9. for shaving; as assistants they receive from 9l. to 15l. per month, draymen Sl. to 10l. per month, firemen 10l. to 12L per month, gardeners 7l. to 10l. per month, jewellers ll. per day, choppers 8l. per month, harness- makers 88. to 16s. per day, shoemakers 108. (id. to 12s. 6d. per day, tinners 12s. 6d. to 16.9. per day, upholsterers 168. per day, waiters bl. to 10l. per month, lumbermen 10l. per month, laundresses receive 8s. 4d. per doz. for wash- ing and dressing shirts, machinists 168. to ll. per day. These figures give a specimen of the rates of wages cur- _ rent in Vancouver Island. In British Columbia carpenters get 1l. per day in the interior towns, and'12s. (id. ‘in New Westminster. The wages of ordinary labourers vary from 12s. to 168. per day; blacksmiths get from ll. to Zl. per day in the season, but expense of living is proportionately high ; axemen are paid from 10.9. to 16s. per day at Lilloet, and Zl. per day at Cariboo. The demand for labour hitherto in British Co— lumbia has been small, but as the capital is introduced and enterprise set agoing in the numerous departments of industry, situations for men able and willing to work may be had to an unlimited extent. The prices of ordinary articles of food are moderate. Beef sells at 9d. per 1b., mutton at 10d., veal 10d., pork 1003., vegetables 2d., wheat 2d., barley 2d. to 2%01, sugar (crushed) 80L, ham 18., ground coffee 1s. (id. to 2s., tea 28: to 3a, coal-oil 4s. 2d. per gallon, apples 3d. to 4d. per 1b., oranges 4s. 2d. per doz., venison 5d. to 6d. per 1b., ducks (wild) from 2s. to 5.9. per pair. Every kind of fish at an incredibly low figure; Boots and shoes can be had at an advance of from 25 to 35 per cent. upon English prices. _ Crockery fetches high prices. This article, with every- thing connected with bedding, ought to be taken or sent PRIeEs. 501 by the-emigrant round Cape Horn. Furniture, with the exception of carpets, can be had cheaper at San Francisco or Victoria, than it would be worth after freight had been paid upon it brought from England. The price of most descriptions of dry goods may best be estimated, for the most part, by adding 30 per cent. advance upon cost. Clothes made in the colony are’ enor- mously expensive, but’ tailors’ work is usually executed with great neatness. Bricks cost from 37s. to 40s. per 1,000 (made in the colony), lime 9s. per bhl. Rough boards and scantling 31. - per 1,000 feet, shingles ll. per 1,000, flooring (tongue and grooved) 5l. 108. 6d. per 1,000 feet, pickets 3l. per 1,000, laths 16s. per 1,000. Allsop’s bottled ale, per 2 doz. (pts) 10s. 9d. to 13s.; colonial brewed, 1 doz., 9s; Martel’s pale brandy, 15s. per gallon; Old Tom, 16s. per case, or 5s. per gallon; whisky, 16s. per case, or 5s. per gallon; Jamaica rum, (is. to 8s. per gallon; wine (Port), 6s. per gallon ; claret, from 2l. to 10l. per doz. ; sherry, ll. 5s. to St. per doz. House rent is likely to remain high in the colonies. A small wood house, consisting of three rooms and a kitchen, rents from 4l. to 5l. per month. The settler will see the desir.v bleness of buying a lot in the’town or suburbs, and erecting upon it his own dwelling as speedily as possible. The rate of living increases as we ascend the Fraser. Mr. Brown informs us that at present (1863) living costs at New Westminster 38., at Lilloet 4a, in Cariboo 20s. a day; or if one boards at an hotel, at New Westminster 2l. per week, at Lilloet 2l., in Cariboo 6l.; or for single meals at an hotel one pays, at New Westminster 4s, at William’s Lake 6s, at William’s Creek 10s.* In Cariboo . "“ Essay on British Columbia. 502 EMIGRATION. prices are much reduced since this was written. The letter of a correspondent in Richfield, dated August 30, 1864, gives flour at 1s. 7d. per lb., bacon 23s., beef 1s. 8d., sugar 3s, tea 58. to 7s., coffee 4s. to 6s. ‘ Clothing,’says the writer, ‘ can be had here for an advance of 25 to 50 per cent. on Victoria prices, and nearly as low as the same could be had in Victoria two years ago.’ These prices may still seem high, but when compared with what they formerly were, and when it is considered that a distance of 500 miles intervenes between New Westminster and Cariboo, over which provisions have to be packed, the pro- fits realised will be deemed reasonable. When the Bute In- let and Bentinck Arm routes shall have been fully opened, however, a further sweeping reduction will be the result. There are four available routes to these colonies at pre- sent at the option of passengers from England. One I have already indicated in the first Chapter, viz., via St. Thomas, W. I. The fares by it to Victoria are 7 3l. 9s. (and upwards, according to position of cabin) 1st cabin; 53L 15s., 2nd cabin; 39L 158., 8rd cabin. Female ser- vants are charged 45L 5s., and male servants 39L 15s. Children under 12 years of age, half-price; under 6 years, quarter-price; a single child to each family, free. Lug- gage over 50 lbs. weight is charged on the Panama Bail- way, at the rate of 5d. per lb. to each passenger. The time occupied by this route is about 40 days. The dis- tance from Southampton to Aspinwall is 44,500 miles, and from Panama to Victoria is 3,950 miles, making 8,450 miles. The second route is by New York, and thence to Aspin- wall. If the Cunard steamer is taken from Liverpool to New York, the first cabin fare will be 26L, and the second 1'”. The Imnan line is cheaper, and the excellent steam- packets belonging to Malcolmson Brothers, running be- ROUTES To TIIE coLoNIEs. 503 tween London and New York, charge fares still lower. The latter company has accommodation for first, second, and third class passengers. To first-class passengers, not pushed for time, the accommodation in the first cabin of these steamers will be found satisfactory, considering the smallness of the fare. But for perfect arrangement and speed the Cunard steamers carry the palm. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company aimounced, in October 1864, the following rates of passage from New York to San Fran- cisco : Ladies’ saloon, outside, 8 264 (52L 16s.); inside cabin, $238 (47l. 128.); second cabin $184 25c. (36L 16s.); steerage, 8130 50c. (26l. 2s.). From San Francisco a steamer sails for Victoria in a day or two after the arrival of the one from Panama; the charge for passage being $45 (9l.) in’ the cabin, and $20 (4l.) in the steerage. , The opposition line of steamers, owned by Mr. Roberts, of San Francisco, used to run between New York and that ' c'ity once a month, at fares much below those specified above. But as the arrangement of this line is not fixed, I am unable'to do more than suggest to the emigrant the propriety of making enquiry for himself on the subject. The passage from Liverpool via New York to Victoria consumes about 43 days. The third route is overland: by railway from New York to St. Louis (Missouri), and thence by the same mode of conveyance to Atchison. At the latter place a stage-line, running daily, takes passengers across to Placer- ville in California, giving them an opportunity of seeing the notorious Mormon State of Utah. There is a railway from the terminus of the stage in California to Sacramento City, and a steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. For the information of any who may have a penchant for perilous situations, and may not have pre- 504 EMIGRATION. viously enjoyed the felicity of being jolted to death in over- land conveyances, it may be mentioned that the distance travelled by coach on this route is over 2,000 miles; the stopping-places are thirteen miles apart; and meals are furnished at 2s. to 4s. each. The necessaries of life supplied on the road are said to be of an inferior descrip- tion. If you choose summer for the trip, you may lay your account with being roasted ; if winter, of being frozen. Should passengers desire to lie over at any point on the way, they run the risk of being compelled to wait a much longer time than they had anticipated before finding a vacancy in succeeding stages. In the present disquieted condition of the Sioux and Pawnee tribes, whose hunting-ground is traversed by the stage, the better part of valour, I think, consists in avoid— ing the dangers of the track. . The fare from New York to Atchison is $41 (8l. 4s.) ; thence to Placerville, $200 (40L); thence to San Francisco,.$10 (2l.)-—in all, .8251 (50!. 4s.), without cost of meals and extra luggage. The time occupied in the journey, from ocean to ocean, is twenty-four days. The fourth route, and the only one practicable for poor families, till a Waggon-road can be constructed from Red River to British Columbia, across British territory, is that via Cape Horn. _ This involves a voyage of between four and five months—not a much longer period, however, than is spent in going to New Zealand. As there is no room for competition between shipping firms in trade,with these distant and partially-developed colonies, the fare is higher than it would otherwise be. The first cabin is 60l. the intermediate, 40l., and the steerage 30L Children under fourteen are charged halfsprice. The vessels that are acknowledged to combine, in the highest degree, comfort, safety, and expedition are those CHOICE or A VESSEL. 505 belonging to the Hudson’s Bay Company. One sails from London in spring and another in autumn, making the pas- sage in about four months. Messrs. Thompson, Anderson, and Company also de- spatch vessels at intervals. I would urge, upon individuals and families resolved to proceed by the Horn route, the importance of using strict caution and making careful enquiry in selecting a' ship, though her owners should possess high commercial repu- tation, and her qualities be grandly paraded in advertise- ments. If the vessel be old, there is danger; if her state- rooms be dingy, the effect upon the spirits of crew and passengers will be obvious. Let personal inspection be made also of the stores, as far as possible. The cha- racter and bearing of the captain should be well ascer- tained; or a good ship may be rendered utterly intolerable under the direction of a bad commander. The higher attainments required in shipmasters nowa- days tend to elevate their profession, and to attract to it men superior, as a class, to navigators of the departing generation. There are many captains in the mercantile navy of England, whose affability and politeness go far to enliven the monotony of the longest voyage. Some, .however, are still afloat, whose vulgarity and petty tyranny at sea neutralise completely the happiest efl‘ects of fair weather and the best fare. If pains be not taken to have these matters adjusted to your satisfaction before embark- ing, the penalty of neglect may have to be paid in the endurance of protracted misery. A vessel should be chosen that has a height of not less than six or seven feet between decks, and compartments roomy. If the condition of your exchequer necessitates that you should go in the steerage, get near the centre of the 506 EMIG RATION. vessel, where motion is least felt. Procure, if you can, a berth extending lengthwise in the ship, else the inconveni- ence of having your feet raised occasionally higher than your head will have to be sustained. If a wife and family be in the party, it should be seen that not only the berths are suflficiently wide, but that ample space is reserved for keeping private stores, and such other comforts as forethought may deem to be need- ful for the voyage. Steerage passengers, who may arrange with the owners to furnish their own provisions, should be very particular as to where they buy. Instances could be related of heartless imposition practised by dealers in ship’s-stores upon unsuspecting emigrants. The most agreeable and economical method of emigra- ting is for a company, having business, tastes, religious denomination, or some other common tie, to unite in preparation for the voyage, and place themselves under voluntary discipline in relation to each other. Information in regard to suitable outfits for the voyage may be obtained by consulting friends who have gone through the experience of a four or five months’ passage, or from any respectable outfitter in Liverpool or London. The outfit of a miner having come to the country, and- about to proceed to Victoria for the mines of British Columbia or Vancouver Island, usually consists of the following articles :- 2 woollen shirts, 4 pairs of worsted socks, a pair of leather top-boots, a pair of Indian-rubber mining-boots, a strong pair of trousers, an Indian-rubber coat, 2 pairs of blankets, a small tent. N 0 British colonies encounter such gigantic hindrances to progress and settlement as those to which the attention of the reader is directed. They contain every element F POSTAL COMMUNICATION. 007 adapted to contribute to the happiness and wealth of every class of emigrants. But being situated on the extreme western verge of British North America, they are the most remote and inconvenient of approach of all our dependencies. It takes what many an industrious artisan would esteem a fortune to transfer a large family ‘to them from England, by the Panama route. Several months and no inconsiderable amount of money is ex- pended in adopting the cheapest and yet most tedious route, via Cape Horn. So pressing are the internal claims of these colonies, the necessity of making roads, and carrying forward other public improvements, that no share of the local revenue can be spared, at present, for the purpose of granting assisted or free passages to intending settlers. N 0 special organisation exists in Great Britain, as has been established by other colonies in the parent country, for the encou- ragement of emigration to the North Pacific ; and no plans have been laid for taking charge of immigrants on their arrival and until they find a habitation, except that Government agents are appointed in the agriculture dis- tricts to show where unappropriated lands are to be found. The proximity of Oregon and California, as has been pre- viously intimated in this volume, place us under grave dis- advantage, these States being 'agriculturally superior to the colonies, and possessing mineral resources equally rich, but more easy of access and more fully developed. We are even denied that great essential of commercial prosperity as British dependencies—direct postal commu- nication with England. Our letters are conveyed from New York to Aspinwall, and from Panama to Victoria, in foreign bottoms. The result is, that many of our news- papers are lost, and our letter-mails are often detained, 508 - EMIeRATIoN. through the negligence of those whose interest it is not to promote our convenience. Not only are there no other British colonies in the predicament of which we complain, but foreign republics on the south-west coast of America enjoy the privilege of having their mails carried from Europe all the way in British steamers. No colonial possessions ever founded by Great Britain’ promise to be of greater political or commercial value to England than these ; yet, judging by the short-sighted policy which threatens to prevail henceforth in the councils of the nation in regard to the indiscriminate requirement that new colonies, irrespective of every modifying circum- stance, should be self-supporting from the first there are none that have less fostering assistance to hope for from the Imperial Government. The prestige derived by Great Britain from her colonial territory has invested her with an overpowering splendour in the eyes of jealous European neighbours. This has done more to thrill those rival empires with salutary awe and evoke from them respectful behaviour, than her supremacy in commercial or manufacturing industry could have accomplished. It is the possession of her colonies which enables her to give expression to that proud sentiment concerning ‘ the flag upon which the sun never sets.’ Again, statistics, which always secure the consideration of minds too practical to be influenced by sentiments affecting national glory, clearly demonstrate that more than one half the exports from the United Kingdom go to the colonies. The total declared value of English and Irish produce exported to all foreign countries in 1859 was 84,267,533l.* Ditto, ditto, ditto, to all British colonies, 46,143,996l. With what sort of treatment is this greatness reflected, * For details, see Note. POLICY OF THE HOME GOVERNMENT. and profit conferred on the parent country by her depen- dencies, requited? We are told that the colonies are no more now to Great Britain than are foreign countries except nominally, and that goods imported by them from England are taxed as from other parts. But the first part of this statement is contradicted by facts ; and as to the customs duties imposed by most of the colonies, their wisdom in this respect should be commended. From du- ties on imports a revenue can be raised, interfering less, in most instances, with the industrial interests of the country than any other method of taxation would be likely to do. Still, though British wares are taxed, they are imported. It is to be regretted that the Secretary of State for the Colonies, under whose administration the present depen- dencies were founded, in a despatch to the late Governor indorses this ungenerous policy :— The lavish pecuniary expenditure of the mother-country, in founding new colonies, has been generally found to discourage economy . . . to interfere with the healthy action by which a new community provides, step by step, for its own requirements. It is on the character of the inhabit-ants that we must rest our hopes for the land we redeem from the wilderness. No exception can reasonably be taken to the theory submitted in these remarks, provided it be applied with discrimination. Where extravagant habits are induced in young dependencies by unscrupulous reliance being placed upon the aid of England, that abuse of maternal kindness may soon be detected and the remedy applied. But when colonies arise so distant from the Imperial centre, as these are ; when their settlement is retarded for want of facilities of transit from Great Britain; when their resources, which would augment immensely her wealth, are sealed 510 EMIGRATION. also from this cause ; when a route from England through them to her ports in Australia and China could be made that would surpass all existing or possible routes in speed, do not political necessity, mercantile sagacity,‘ and common sense combine to indicate that the Home Government should relent, and modify the application of the rule, in this case, which they have laid down so rigidly? Without much expense, they can at least remove any obstacles which the tenacious monopoly of the Hudson’s Bay Company may interpose to the opening up of an emigrant route from Red River to British Columbia. Those competent to judge are confident that the returns certain to accrue to Canada and the parent country from such an undertaking would soon more than compensate the outlay. But until mails could be despatched overland through British territory, we surely have claims upon the Imperial authorities to aid us in subsidising a British steamer from Panama, connecting with the intercolonial steamer which plies between St. Thomas, W. I., and Aspinwall. Already there is nearly enough trade between different parts of the north-west coast of America and England to make a steamer answer independent of Government subsidy. She could touch at as many ports in Central America and Mexico as might be thought advisable. The navigation laws of the United States would admit of her - discharging and loading at San Francisco. She would secure the chief part of the traffic between that port and Victoria, up and down. At the office of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, in San Francisco, I was informed that nearly 200 tons of freight a month from England to the northern coast of the Pacific arrived by their vessels. If the opposition steamers convey as large an amount, here is an important CONTRAST BETWEEN THE STATES AND ENGLAND. 511 item for an English steamer to look to at the outset. From the table showing the quantity and destination of treasure shipped from San Francisco to all parts in 1863, it appears that out of $46,071,920, the gross sum, 828,467,216 went to England. A share in carrying this specie also might safely be calculated upon. The tonnage arriving in San Francisco from these colonies in 1863 amounted to 46,605 tons, and the amount sent thither from San Francisco in the same year was 78,335 tons. A consider- able portion of this was conveyed per steamer, many of the consigners being English firms. During the same period $2,935,172 in treasure was shipped by banking houses from Victoria to California, nearly all of which went by steamer. The contrast between the United States and England in caring for the growth of new territories is decidedly unfavourable to the latter. England, in defining land to be erected into a colony and passing an Act of Parliament to that effect, leaves to the settlers, however few and impo- tent they may be, the task of establishing leading com- munications, executing surveys, and completing postal arrangements. Ifthe population be unequal to these under— takings, they must be postponed till colonial finances be- come capable of sustaining them. The Federal Govern- ment, on the other hand, assumes the responsibility of giving effect to all works of magnitude necessary to bring an infant settlement to maturity, and indemnifies itself for the outlay incurred, by mortgaging the lands, and the revenues derivable from customs and other territorial sources. In this matter Yankee liberality is only equalled by Yankee shrewdness. It invariably turns out that works urgent and useful, thus undertaken, are speedily made to defray the cost of their construction. The Americans have learned that whatever contributes to augment national 512 EMIGRATION. wealth by developing the resources of new territory is not inconsistent with public economy. Even lunatic asylums and libraries are not forgotten in the early attentions bestowed upon an embryo state by the Federal power. A few years ago the mail service to California, by several routes, was subsidised. The stage plying semi-weekly, during the travelling season, from St. Louis and Memphis via El Paso to San Francisco, received $600,000 per annum. The mail service from San Antonio to San Diego received $200,000 per annum. The stage from Kansas to Stockton vid Santa Fe’, a monthly service, received $80,000. The stage between San Joseph and Placerville via Salt Lake city—at that time running once a week—was subsidised to the extent of $320,000 per annum. Besides these annual sums granted to overland routes, $738,250 was paid annually to contractors for car- rying mails from New York and New Orleans, vid Panama, to San Francisco; $250,000 per annum for mail communica- tion between New Orleans and San Francisco vid Tehuan- tepec; and for local mail service $508,697 per annum. This $550,000 was spent, and a loss of $377,000 incurred, in affording postal facilities to the states on the Pacific, and in promoting the settlement of the country intervening between the Atlantic and the Pacific?‘ Som'e exertion has been made by the British Govern- ment, during the past forty years, in aiding the passage of needy subjects abroad; but it has generally been confined to periods of famine or industrial distress, and as much care has not in all cases been taken, as concern for national advantage should have prompted, to give our colonies the benefit of this tide of emigration. In the year 1847, and subsequently, the bulk of emigrants from Ireland were sent to the United States. It is probable * Pemberton. THE IRIsH IN AMERICA. 513 that those objects of British bounty would be the last to find fault with their destiny in this respect. But did England act wisely for her present interest and ultimate peace in not using more effort to direct the stream of Irish population to British territory? The poverty—stricken multitude, shipped by the liberality of England to a foreign "country, have for the most part risen in the social scale and multiplied ; they continue to send remittances for bringing over poor relations. They naturally ascribe their improved condition to the freer institutions of America, and unite in a howl of execration, waxing louder and more threatening every day, against the parent country, as the author of all the want, wretchedness, and ignorance they have left behind. Now, had we adopted systematic measures to induce the Irish that have gone, to emigrate to our colonies, they would as really have come into the possession of plenty there, and, instead of the curses which they persist in fulminating against us, from the cities and prairies of the great republic, they would have returned us blessing and gratitude as their benefactors, and have regarded their increasing comforts as due to British generosity. But what is the result of our remissness in this matter? Out of 5,1 37,8 37—-the total number of emigrants from this country from 1815 to 1861—only 2,039,867 went to British colonies, while 3,097,970 went to the United States ; and personal observation in America justifies me in asserting that the bulk of those millions who have ceased to be of us are the avowed enemies of Great Britain. ‘ The Fenian Brotherhood,’ an Irish organisation, is said to number already 500,000. Their agents are incessantly agitating in all parts of the United States. Their object is to foment hatred against England, and large sums are contributed by them to be in readiness for the exigencies of war, L L 514 EMIGRATION. whenever the propitious hour arrives for dragging the United States into collision with England. Part of their programme being to take Ireland, is it beyond -the limits of ‘possibility that this hostile race, animated by bitterness proportionate to the closeness of their former relation to us, and so rapidly multiplying on the other side of the Atlantic, may, ere many ‘centuries elapse, descend, like the Goths and Vandals of antiquity, and lay Britain in ruins? * _ The subject of emigration ought to be regarded by the Government and philanthropists as the most important national question that can engage public attention, for there is none more vitally connected with the ameliora- tion of poverty and the reduction of crime. It is the glory of England that so many excellent plans have been devised for relieving the wretched and reclaiming the vicious. Ragged-schools and churches, Dorcas, Bible, tract, and mission societies, private charities, and poor-law unions, are benevolent agencies above all praise. But to render them thoroughly efficient, it does seem that some supplemented arrangement is wanted to separate the classes we seek to benefit from the depressing associations by which they are surrounded, and give them a fresh start in life. The squalor of the back streets and alleys, which many inhabit in London and provincial towns, must exert an enervating influence upon their minds sufficient to frustrate the most powerful appeals of the missionary and the kindest efforts of the charitable. There is nothing in the cheerless dwellings they occupy, or the filthy lanes in which they are crowded together, to excite high aspira- * The above was in print before the sad news of the assassination of President Lincoln reached England. I would fain hope that the hearty and universal sympathy expressed by this country for our neighbours, on the occurrence of that outrage, may tend to smooth down entirely threatened differences. ,1 THE‘ IMPoRTANcE OF THE SUBJECT. 51:) tions or aid them in carrying out the good resolutions to which they may be persuaded. In some instances, children in these neighbourhoods may be found rising above the degraded position in which they were born, and becoming active and respectable members of society. But the great mass go on receiving eleemosynary help and instruction, without ever acquiring sober and industrious habits. When want and care press heavily upon them, what wonder if they should resort to drink as the cheapest and easiest mitigation of their distress? We are told that four-fifths of crime in Great Britain is traceable to drunkenness as its cause. But what is the root of that vice in the poor? Usually, misery of some sort. If so, it is not enough to preach total abstinence to such unfortunate creatures. The bitter can only be effectually expelled by the introduction of the sweet. Im- prove their material condition ; place them in situations where they will not only be saved from the risk of starva- tion, but enabled to supply themselves with home-com- forts by the labour of their hands. Opportunities for doing this are necessarily limited in an old and densely-populated country, where labour of all kinds is a drug. Plainly, then, it is the duty of all who desire the prosperity of their less favoured fellow-subjects to encourage their emigration to parts of the empire affording full remunerative employment for those who are willing to work. Let benevolent persons be content with merely doling out regular assistance to needy families, without every exertion being made to induce them to help themselves, and without their being removed where they can live above dependence upon others, and charity so ad- ministered but tends to perpetuate idleness and poverty. The splendid workhouses erected in Birmingham and other large towns throughout the kingdom may appear to LL2 516 EMIGRATION. indicate a laudable care for the poor. But it is questionable whether, as often conducted, they may not be offering a premium on laziness. Is not the bulk of our criminal population derived from the abodes of poverty and vice? We may inflict the severest penal discipline upon this class, and send the younger portions of it to reformatories. But if, after suffering the appointed term of imprisonment, they are allowed to return to their accustomed haunts and per- nicious companionships, what is there to prevent them from again becoming infected? It were surely more service- able to drain the fountain than to stem the current. Not that I would advocate, in opposition to the approval of colonists, the transportation of criminals to our colonies. Still the experiment might be tried of encouraging goung liberated criminals to emigrate at the public expense, and of providing special employment for them in some of our distant possessions, under the direction of Government agents. Coercion, in this instance, I am aware would be out of the question. But while free passages should be offered to the very poor and the reformed criminal classes with whom these remarks are concerned, emigration lecturers should be provided by the Imperial Government, for the specific purpose of instructing them in the advantages of colonisation. If much of the time and means devoted by the philanthropic to the support of many in indigence and sometimes in sloth were applied in the manner just described, the investment, which in the former case I cannot but designate as misplaced benevo- lence, would in the latter become eminently reproductive, and do more to thin the ranks of pauperism, vice, and crime, than most of the appliances at present in operation put together. In the report of the Emigration Commissioners for EMIGRATION. 517 1863, it is stated that the total number who emigrated in that year was 223,758. 14,000 left England for New Zealand, 17,000 for Canada, 20,000 for Victoria (Australia), and over 10,000 for Queensland. Only 118 are entered for British Columbia. This small figure for a settlement which so much requires population is an irresistible argu- ment for the adoption of active steps to encourage, stimulate, and direct the course of those who may be dis- posed to seek a home in the colonies of the Pacific. This report, which abounds with information respecting other colonies, is astonishingly meagre in reference to these important possessions. The report is dated April 1864, and the latest information it communicates from British Columbia is dated September 1863, and that is of the most trifling character. 812 'SOIJSICLVLS 'IVINO'IOC) Colonial Statistics circulated by the Colonial Emigration Society for the Year 1859. (The latest Colonial Return published.) Im orts E ort lTonna eof Shi in nt 1' 85 lear p xp 8 Tota g pp ge e ed 0 ed Debt Icost to due to mperial - Populas Expen— . Colomes tion Revenue diture From the From To the To other From 8: to‘ From 87. to Belonging to émpefla’l Grgzfin' United other United 0 t . United other United The (3010- We’? 185; ’ Kingdom countries Kingdom Gun mes Kingdom countries Kingdom nies, 820. men I :8 £ £ £ £ .8 Tons Tons Tons 36 Canada . . 1,842,265 1,947,829 2,293,408 3,080,434 3,910,225 1,573,998* 3,151,171 1,028,812 253,421 1,110,193 '3- 236,484 NewBrunswick. 193,800 160,107 153,545 475,137 940,897 717,443 355,979 533,792 949,136 - 260,273 | 576,999 ,g 9,430 Nova Scotia . 277,117 139,788 138,119 515,747 1,104,444 49,873 1,327,953 126,308 1,168,826 1,2 ,710 {g . 154,605 Cape of Good Hope 267,096 650 925 609,325 1,821,401 757,958 1,421,323 600,048 244,809 491,597 492,380 I 60,166 g } 682 015 Natal . . . 160,170 50,905 49,917 132,796 67,121 68,599 41,816 6,622 13,690 19,1.76 Q7 ’ New South Wales 336,572 2,339,491 1,858,167 3,636,505 2,960,548 1 868,092 2,899,957 119.771 630,365 619,358 "1 §65,312I Victoria . . 530,262 3,257,724 2,754,744 9,176,528 6,446,363 10,542,849 3,325,010 308,380 987,269 557,625 1 432,758 g §44,113 South Australia. 117,967 669,683 620,756 841,922 665,573 577,393 1,078,483 36,826 186,815 183,928 4g 9,940 We>tern Australia 14,823 57,943 54,919 88,198 37,117 56,985 36,052 24,377 96,702 88,068 F‘ 94,769 Tasmania . . 86,596 429,425 422,587 670,907 493,000 526,614 667,284 20,386 225,609 37,169 | 203,256 ,2 96,936 N ew Zealand . 73,343 459,649 not stated 842,294 708,736 317,045 234,439 256,972 not stated 112,395 Total declared value of English and Irish Produce exported to all Foreign Countries in 1859, £84,267,533. British Colonies in 1859, £46,143,996. United States, with a population of 30,000,000, imported in 1859, from Great Britain, £24,417,892, or 163. 3d. per head; and for the same year her Exports to Great Britain were £34,294,042. 1' The latest complete account issued. NOTE. Ditto ditto ditto * Exclusive of the value of ships built in Canada and sold in the United Kingdom. '1 Inclusive of £5,666 for North Australia. § Proportions of these are ‘ Repayment Services.’ APPENDIX. THE following extracts from a pamphlet published by Messrs. S. W. Silver & Co. contain valuable practical directions to emigrants: Provisiona—Provieions, more especially as regards the third- class, are issued according to the Government dietary scale. Infants under twelve months go free. Children under twelve years pay half price, and are entitled to half rations only. The following are the rations ordinarily issued in first-class ships; the quantities quoted represent the weekly allowance for each adult :— Articles Second Cabin Intermediate Steerage Preserved meats and soups 2 lb. 1 lb. 1 lb. Beef ' ' v 1i n 1% 72 Pork 1 ,, 1 ,, 1 ,, Bread- 3% n 3212“ n 3:. n Flour 3 ,,~ 3 ,, 2 ,, Oatmeal .. 1 ,, 1 ,, 1 ,, R109 % n 2 77 n Peas - ' - t v “i n 1% n Preserved potatoes . 1 ,, 4,1 ,, g ,, Suet 6 oz. 6 oz. 6 oz. Cheese . . . . . 8 ,, -- -— Butter . . . . . . 12 ,, 6 oz. 4 oz. Tea . . . . . . 2 ,, 2 ,, 2 ,, Coffee 4 ,, 2 ,, - Sugar 1 lb. 1 lb. 1 lb. Loaf sugar . . . . 6 oz. +- — Raisins . . . . . . 5- lb. 1} lb. % lb. Pickles or vinegar . . . . 1 gill 1 gill 1 gill Mustard . . . . . j . 4, oz. 5 oz. 4 oz. Pepper ' ' ' ' ' ' 7i“ n i n Ii‘ 22 Salt . . . . . . 2 ,, 2 ,, 2 ,, Lime juice . . . . . 6 ,, 6 ,, 6 ,, Water . . . . . ' . 21 quarts 21 quarts 21 quarts 520 APPENDIX. In this list no mention is made of first-class passengers, who dine at the captain’s table, where they fare as well, in all good ships at least, as in the best English hotels. Size of Shipsw-Emigration Officers—The size of ships is important on a long voyage. Vessels under 500 tons do not afford sufficient accommodation and safety to emigrants. In ships above 500 tons the size is less material, so that the vessels are good, comfortable, and dieted on a liberal scale. The Government has appointed officers, whose duty it is to look after the interests of emigrants and other passengers on long sea- voyages. They see that emigrant vessels are sufficiently pro- visioned with good and wholesome stores. Vessels about to carry emigrants are detained in harbour until the regulations on this head are complied with. The following is a summary of the minimum scale which must be served out to third-class passengers, stating the weekly rations to be provided for each adult :— Government Rations.—Beef, 20 oz.; pork, 16 oz.; preserved meats, 16 oz. ; suet, 8 oz.; butter, 4 oz.; biscuit, 4 oz.; flour, 56 oz.; oatmeal, 16 oz. ; peas, 3.1? lb. ; rice, 8 oz. ; preserved potatoes, 8 oz.; carrots, onions, or celery, four-fifths of an 02.; cabbage, 1 oz.; raisins, 6 oz.; tea, loz.; roasted coffee, 2oz.; sugar, 12 oz.; bread, 8 oz.; water, 21 quarts; mixed pickles, l gill; mustard, % oz.; lime juice, 6 oz.; salt, 2 oz.; pepper, é- oz. Inspection—Besides ascertaining the quantity and inspecting the quality of victuals, the Government officers have to see that all the other provisions of the ‘ Passengers’ Act ’ are carried out ——viz., that the ship carry the proper crew, steward, cooks, and doctor, and that she be provided with boats in proportion to the number of her passengers. In one word, stringent regula- tions have been made for the comfort and safety of emigrants. Still a great deal depends upon a liberal interpretation of the law on the part of the shipowners. Emigrants should take their passages in ships whose owners have the reputation of doing as they wish to be done by. Insurance—Independent of the Government inspection, the quality and sea-worthiness of a ship is ascertained and attested under the direction of the committee at Lloyd’s, and also by the REQUIREMENTS FOR THE VOYAGE. 521 French Lloyd’s, or Bureau Veritas. The following are the de- scriptions of vessels to select :— First-class ships marked in Lloyd’s list and advertised A 1 ; second-class ships marked 213*. First-class ships marked in the Bureau Veritas, and advertised Veritas, 3/ 3rd. Second—class ships, tolerably good, marked and advertised Veritas, 5 /6th, or 3/4th, or 2/3rds. Liability of Shipownera—The ‘ Passengers’ Act ’ provides that, in the event of a vessel putting back, the owners or char- terers are bound to support the passengers until the ship is ready to receive them. If a ship does not sail to its time, the passengers are entitled to an allowance for expenses. Requirements for the Voyage: Clothing.——Requirements for the voyage, and the first year after landing, should be attended to before starting. Many goods sold in London are also sold in Victoria, &c.; but prices vary according to the supplies sent out from home, while emigrants newly landed have enough on their hands without looking out for cheap markets where to provide the necessaries they require. A frequent change of underelothing is indispensable to health and comfort during a long sea-voyage, and emigrants, previous to sailing, have the best opportunity of making their purchases. For the voyage round Cape Horn, summer clothes are wanted, as well as warm clothing, as the course of the ship lies through hot and cold latitudes. A man should be provided with two warm suits, with a cap to match, a couple of suits of light clothing, with at least a dozen cotton shirts, and three or four flannel shirt-s. A good stock of shirts, socks, and handkerchiefs, when practi- cable, should be laid in, as very little washing can be done during the voyage. The supply of underelothing should be enough for the whole voyage, if need be, without washing. Women should have a warm - shawl and cloak, and two dresses, all good, serviceable, and not showy; they should have an ample supply of chemises and other underelothing. Both men and women should be particular in getting stout, comfortable boots and shoes. Waterproof suits and flannel shirts will be found useful. Bedding and Mess Utensils.—Besides clothing, emigrants should provide for their ‘comfort and cleanliness by taking 522 APPENDIX. with them the following articles :—For each married couple, 1 large bed, 1 pair of blankets, 2 pairs of sheets, 1 large coverlet, 2 large bags, 2 plates, 2 large mugs, 2 knives, forks, and spoons, l hook-pot, 1 water-can, l wash-bowl, 12 towels, 1 tea-pot, l sugar-bowl, 2 cups and saucers, 2 bars of marine soap, 1 comb, and hairbrush, 2 shoebrushes, 2 pots of black-' ing', a cabin utensil, 1 strong chest with lock. For each child should be provided :-——1 plate, 1 small mug, 1 knife, fork, and spoon, with, of course, bedding, &c., in propor- tion to size and number. The cost of an outfit for a single man or woman is about 6l.; for a married couple about 10l. The cost of an outfit for children varies with their size. Gene- rally speaking, three children under seven, or two between that ageand fourteen, may be clothed for about 7l. Baggage directiona—Emigrants should divide their property into two portions: that which is constantly wanted during the voyage, and that which is not always wanted. The last-named portion should be packed in a strong chest, marked with the name and destination of the owner. It will be safely stowed away in the lower part of the ship, and occasionally-—perhaps twice a month—brought up, to give an opportunity of putting in articles or taking them out. What is wanted for daily use should be packed in a box; one capable of holding clothes enough for two weeks’ wear. The size allowed for this box is 2 feet 6 inches long, 1 foot 6 inches broad, and 1 foot 3 inches deep. The owner’s name should be painted on it in large letters. Luggage—The usual allowance of luggage for second and third class passengers is 20 cubic feet, or 4 feet long, 2 feet 6 inches wide, and 2 feet deep for each person. A series of pockets on a piece of canvas, to nail inside a cabin or berth, will be found convenient. Sea-Storea—Sugar, tea, tobacco, and other small luxuries kept in stock on board ship, may be purchased during the voyage. Biscuits, preserves, hams, and in the case of families with children, arrowroot, sago, tapioca, ground rice, and sugar for puddings, will be found most serviceable on the voyage. Books—The compulsory idleness of passengers is perhaps among the greatest hardships of a long sea-voyage. Books are MONEY—INSURANCE—TIME or sAILING. 523 a great resource, and a few really good works should be laid in among other stores. It is scarcely necessary to say that the Bible—the Word of Him who holds the waters in His hand- should be the companion of every emigrant. In all well-regu- lated ships divine service is on Sunday mornings performed by the captain. Certificates.-—Certificates of good conduct are invaluable in the Colonies; the obtaining of them from their employers, or the magistrates and clergymen of their districts, is among the most important of the preparations which ought to be recom- mended to intending emigrants. Money—Emigrants are readily provided with Letters of Credit and Bills payable at Victoria, on application at any of the London Banks. Risks are thus avoided; and the Letter of Credit enables the holder to draw his money or deposit it upon landing, thus immediately afi’ording him the advantages of a banker. Letters of Credit can be obtained with ease. Insurance of Baggage.--The insurance of emigrants’ bag- gage is also a precautionary measure which cannot be too strongly recommended. Such insurances can be effected with little trouble at a small cost. The rates are from ll. 108. to ll. 15s. per 100l. The policies should be deposited with friends in England. Time of Sailing—Emigrants, more especially those who intend either to work or trade in the gold-fields, ought so to time their departure from England as to arrive at the com- mencement, or at least, in the middle of the mining season, which generally lasts from April to November. Those who reach the colony during the winter months, will find travelling difficult, work slack, and, in the interior at least, provisions scarce and high. First-class Passengers.-~First-class cabin, or cuddy passen- gers, in their preparations for a voyage, have to consider the character of the ship in which they take their passage. On the Panama route everything is provided, for the mail steamers are in all respects floating hotels, where the guests find ample pre- parations for their comfort and convenien ce—board and lodging, attendance, furniture, and linen. Sailing-ships provide for their first-class passengers board and attendance, and a cabin, which 524 APPENDlX. each passenger has to furnish for himself. On the whole, the difference in the accommodation is made up by a difference in the rates of passage. Ladies’ Outfits.—For a Lady: A dark silk dress for voyage, muslin, silk, and other dresses; shawls, mantles, straw hat, bonnet with sunshade; veils, blue or brown; dressing gowns; cambric muslin chemises; white and flannel petticoats; silk, cotton, and thread stockings; pocket and neck-handkerchiefs; collars and cuffs ; silk and kid gloves; calico night-dresses and drawers; nightcaps; travelling, work, and dressing-bag; looking-glass; perfumery; boots and shoes; one pair with thick soles for wet deck; towels and travelling rug or wrapper. Cabin Furniture—When passengers have to furnish their cabins, they should also procure : sheets, pillow-cases, blankets, counterpanes; cabin sofa, to swing or stand, or an iron bedstead; horse-hair or flock; one feather pillow; cabin washstand forming table; mahogany or teak chest of drawers; folding looking- glass; cabin lamp; candles; clothes bag; foot-bath and water- can; carpet or oil-cloth for cabin; Windsor and marine soap; curtains for cabin; floating belt, which forms a cushion. Luggage Regulations.-—The luggage should be made up in packages of a convenient size and shape, none exceeding eighty pounds in weight. Trunks three feet long, one foot three inches wide, and one foot two inches deep, are recommended for the purpose. The owner’s name, destination, and number should be legibly painted on the top, sides, and ends of each trunk. The trunk int-ended for cabin use should be specially marked. VICTORIA AND ESQUIMALT HARBOUR DUES ACT, 1860. SCHEDULE A. Fees for Entrance and Clearance of Vessels entering and clear- ing the Ports of Victoria and Esgui'malt. £ 8. d. All vessels under 15 tons () 4 2 ,, between 15 and 30 tons 0 6 3 ,, ,, 30 and 50 ,, O 8 4 vIcToRIA AND ESQUIMALT HARBOUR DUEs AcT. 525 £ s. d. All vessels between 50 and 100 ,, O 12 6 ,, ,, 100 and 200 ,, 0 18 9 ,, ,, 200 and 300 ,, 1 5 O ,, ,, 300 and 400 ,, 1 13 4 ,, ,, 400 and 500 ,, 2 l 8 ,, under 400 tons 1 13 4 ,, between 500 and 600 ,, 2 5 10 ,, ,, 600 and 700 ,, 2 10 O ,, ,, 700 and 800 ,, 2 14 2 ,, ,, 800 and 900 ,, 2 18 1 ,, ,, 900 and1,000 ,, 3 2 6 ,, ,, 1,000 and upwards 3 6 8 All steamers, bona fide carrying mails, to pay half the amount of the above scale of fees, according to their tonnage. SCHEDULE B. Half-yearly License for Coasters. Under 10 tons . Above 10 and under 30 tons 93 3, ,3 9, ), FPCJQNH coco OCCDO SCHEDULE 0. Wherries and skiffs plying for hire, and licensed to carry not exceeding six passengers. Per quarter . l 0 0 Row-boats and yawls plying for hire, and licensed to carry more than six passengers, and under ten tons burthen. Per quarter . . . . 1 10 0 Lighters and scows employed in freighting or dis- charging vessels, or otherwise, for hire, under ten tons burthen. Per quarter 2 O O Lighters and scows exceeding ten tons. Per quarter 2 O 0 And 18. additional for every ton exceeding ten tons, and up to 100 tons burthen. 526 APPENDIX. SCHEDULE D. Landing Permits. For invoices under 100l. in value Above 100l. and under 250l. in value For invoices above 250l. and under 500l. in value For invoices above 500l. and under 1,000l. in value . For invoices above 1,000l. ‘ Harbour Dues levied at New Westminster. For every sailing-ship or vessel above 30 tons register, either entering or leaving the said port, per ton register . . . . . . . . For every steam-vessel either entering or leaving the said port, per ton register . . . . . For every vessel of and under 30 tons, including boats and canoes . . . . Pilotage. For every vessel clearing for, or entering from parts beyond sea, viz. : If less than 6 feet draught of water . . . If more than 6 feet, and less than 7 feet draught of water . . . . . . And for every additional foot of water up to 12 feet . . . . . . And for every additional foot of water above 12 feet . . . . . . . . Inland Navigation. Every steamer trading on the Fraser River, and not trading to any part beyond sea, per ton register per annum OOOCDOUE r—ll—d ottoman?’ 10 10 15 oomtsoowg' Q31 [\‘3 \1 LAND PROCLAMATIONS. VANCOUVER ISLAND. LAND PROCLAMATIONS BY HIs EXCELLENCY JAMES DOUGLAS, 0.13., ETG. rare. I. Whereas I have been empowered by Her Majesty’s Govern- ment to fix the upset price of country land within the colony of Vancouver Island and its dependencies at 4s. 2d. per acre. And whereas I have been authorised as aforesaid to take such steps as may tend to promote the settlement of country land in the said colony. ' And whereas it is expedient to make public the method by which bona fide settlers may acquire the same land. Be it therefore known unto all men : All country land to be sold at 48. 2d. per acre.——That the upset price of all country land in Vancouver Island shall be from henceforth 4s. 2d. per acre. ' British subjects may enter upon and occupy land, not being otherwise reserved, in certain quantities and in certain dis- tricts.—That from and after the date hereof, male British subjects, and aliens who shall take the oath of allegiance before the Chief Justice of Vancouver Island, above the age of eighteen years, may pre-empt unsold Crown lands in the districts of Victoria, Esquimalt, Metchosin, the Highlands, Sooke, North and South Saanich, Salt Spring Island, Sallas Island, and the Chemanis (not being an Indian reserve or settlement), of the area and under the conditions following :— A single man, 150 acres."6 A married man, whose wife is resident in the colony, 200 acres. For each of his children under the age of eighteen years, resident in the said colony, an additional 10 acres.’ Pre-emptor, before recording his claim, to take the oath of * The terms of the most recent Land proclamation for British Columbia is substantially the same as the above, except that the quantity of land allowed a single man by pre-emption is 160 acres. 528 APPENDIX. allegiance if a British subject who has become subject to some other nation—All British subjects, who shall be desirous of pre-empting, and who may, at the time of record, have taken the oath of allegiance to, or become the subject or citizen of any foreign Sovereign, state,.or nation, shall, as a condition pre- cedent to recording their claims, take the oath of allegiance in manner aforesaid. Pre-emptor to record his claim immediately on occupation. Feta—Immediately after occupation, the pre-emptor shall record his claim at the office of the Surveyor-General at Victoria; paying for such record the sum of eight shillings and fourpence. Regulating the form of claims—The land selected, if unsur- veyed, shall be of a rectangular form, and the shortest side of said rectangle shall be two-fifths the length of the longest side; and the boundaries of such land shall also run as nearly as possible by the cardinal points of the compass. Where the land sought to be acquired is unsurveyed, and in whole or part bounded by rocks, mountains, lakes, swamps, the margin of a river, or the sea-coast, or other natural bounda— ries, then such natural boundaries may be adopted as the boun- daries of the land selected. The claimant shall, if the land is unsurveyed, give the best possible description thereof in writing to the Surveyor-General at the time of record, with a map thereof, and shall identify the land, by placing a post at each corner, and by stating in his description any other landmarks which. may be of a noticeable character. Mode of recording claims in surveyed lands.-—If the land, however, be surveyed, the claimant shall give the description aforesaid by identification with the landmarks laid down by the Government Survey. Payment—The claimant shall, if the land be unsurveyed, pay into the Land Office at Victoria the sum of four shillings and twopence per acre for the same as soon as the land is included within the Government Survey; if the land he sur- veyed, he shall pay into the said Land Office the sum of four shillings and twopence per acre by three instalments, viz.: One shilling and one penny per acre within one year from the day of record; one shilling and one penny per acre within two years LAND PRocLAMATIoNs. 529 from the said day of record, and two shillings within three years from the said day; and any default in any of the payments aforesaid shall cause a forfeiture of the pre-emption claim, and of the instalments (if any) paid up. Certificate of improvement to be granted after two years’ occupation and 10s. per acre improvement—When the pre- emptor, his heirs or devisees, shall prove to the Surveyor- General, by the satisfactory evidence of third parties, that he has, or they have, continued in permanent occupation of the claim for two years from the date of record, and has or have made permanent improvements thereon to the value of ten shillings per acre, the said Surveyor-General shall issue to him or them a certificate of improvement, in the form marked A in the schedule hereto. Holder of certificate of improvement may sell, lease, or mortgage—Upon the grant of the certificate of improvement aforesaid, the person to whom the same is issued may, subject to any unpaid instalments, sell, mortgage, or lease the land in respect of which such certificate has been issued ; but until the entirety of the purchase-money of the said land has been paid, no sale, mortgage, or lease of the said land shall be valid unless a certificate of improvement as aforesaid has been issued in respect thereof. Conveyance of surveyed lands—Upon payment of the entirety of the purchase-money, a conveyance of the land shall be executed in favour of the pre-emptor, reserving to the Crown the right to take back so much thereof as may be required for roads or other public purposes, and reserving also the precious minerals, with a right to enter and work the same in favour of the Crown, its assigns and licencees. Conveyance of pre-empted claim in unsurveyed lands.——If the land is not then included in the Government Survey, the conveyance shall, with the reservations aforesaid, be executed as soon as possible after the same is so included; and the pre- emptor shall, upon survey, be entitled to take any quantity of unpre-empted land, at the price of four shillings and twopence per acre, which may be laid off into the sections in which his pre-empted land is situate; or, if unwilling so to do, he shall M M 530 APPENDIX. forfeit so much of the pre-empted land as lies in those sections which he is unwilling to purchase. Priorities—Priority of title shall be obtained by the person who, being in actual occupation, shall first record his claim in manner aforesaid. Forfeiture by cessation of occupation—Whenever any per- son shall cease to occupy land pre-empted as aforesaid for the space of two months, the Surveyor-General may, in a summary way, on being satisfied of such permanent cessation, cancel the claim of the person so ceasing to occupy the same, and record de novo the claim of any other person satisfying the requisitions aforesaid; and in the event of any person feeling aggrieved thereat, his remedy shall be personally against the person so recording. Compensation for waste or injury—In the event of the, Crown, its assigns or licencees, availing itself or themselves of the reservation to enter and work the precious minerals as afore- said, a reasonable compensation for the waste and damage done shall be paid by the person entering and working to the person whose land shall be wasted or damaged as aforesaid; and in case of any dipute, a jury of six men, to be summoned by the Sur- veyor-General, shall settle the same. Nothing in the conditions hereinbefore contained, or in any title to be derived hereunder, shall be construed as giving a right to any claimant to exclude licencees of the Crown from searching for any of the precious minerals in any unenclosed land on the conditions aforesaid. Saving of water privileges for mining purposes—‘Water privileges, and the right of carrying water for mining purposes, may, notwithstanding any claim recorded, certificate of improve- ment, or conveyance aforesaid, be claimed and taken upon, under, or over the land so pre—empted by miners requiring the same, and obtaining a grant or license from the Surveyor- General in that behalf, and paying a compensation for waste or damage to the person whose land may be wasted or damaged by such water privilege or carrying of water, to be ascertained, in case of dispute, by a jury of six men in manner aforesaid. Arbitration.——In case any dispute shall arise between persons with regard to any land acquired as aforesaid, any one of the LAND PRocLAMATIoNs. 531 parties in difference may (before ejectment or action of trespass brought) refer the question in difference to the Surveyor- General, who is hereby authorised to proceed in a summary way to restore the possession of any land in dispute to the person whom he may deem entitled to the same; and to abate all intrusions and award and levy such costs and damages as he may think fit, and for all or any of the purposes aforesaid to call in to his assistance the civil authorities or any process of law. Given under my hand, &c. J AMES DoUGLAs. II. Whereas I have been empowered by Her Majesty’s Govern- ment to take such steps as may tend to promote the settlement of country land in the said colony. And whereas it is expedient to extend the time during which a person may cease to occupy land pre-empted under the provisions of a Proclamation given under my hand and the public seal of this colony, and dated the 19th day of February 1861. Now therefore, be it known unto all men, that any person having pre-empted land under the provisions of the said Pro- clamation may, if he shall have been continuously in occupa- tion of the same for the space of (8) eight calendar months next previously to his leaving, leave the same for any period not exceeding (6) six calendar ‘months, provided that within (21) twenty-one days from the date of his leaving the same he shall fill in a memorandum in the book kept for that purpose in the Land Office at Victoria, with the particulars and in the manner therein contained. Given under my hand and the public seal, &c. JAMES DOUGLAS. MM2 532 APPENDIX. RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE WORKING OF GOLD MINES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. IssUED LN CONFORMITY WITH TPIE eoLD PLELDs’ Aer, 1859. Whereas, it is provided by the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, that the Governor for the time being of British Columbia may, by writing under his hand and the Public Seal of the Colony, make Rules and Regulations, in the nature of By-laws, for all matters relating to Mining. Now therefore, I, JAMES DOUGLAS, Governor, &c., do hereby make the following Rules and Regulations, ac- cordingly :— I. In the construction of the following Rules and Regula- tions, unless there be some contrariety, or repugnancy thereto in the context, the words ‘ Governor,’ ‘ Gold Commissioner,’ ‘ mine,’ ‘ to mine,’ shall have the same meanings as in the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859. The expression ‘Bar diggings’ shall mean every mine over which a river extends when in its most flooded state. ‘ Dry diggings ’ shall mean any mine over which a river never extends. ‘ Ravines ’ shall include water-courses, whether usually containing water or usually dry. ‘ Ditch ’ shall include a flume or race, or other artificial means for conducting water by its own weight into or upon a mine. ‘ Ditch head ’ shall mean the point in a natural water-course or lake, where water is first taken into a ditch. And words in the singular number shall include the plural, and the masculine gender shall include the feminine. II. All claims are to be, as nearly as may be, in rectangular forms, and marked by four pegs at the least, each peg to be four inches square at the least, and one foot above the surface, and firmly fixed in the ground. N o boundary peg shall be con- cealed, or moved, or injured, without the previous permission of the Gold Commissioner. III. The size of a claim, when not otherwise established by a by-law, shall be, for bar diggings, a strip of land twenty-five feet wide at the mark to which the river rises when flooded, and thence extending down into the river indefinitely. For dry diggings, a space twenty-five feet by thirty feet. For ravine RULES FOR WORKING GOLD MINES. diggings, a space of twenty-five feet along the bank of the ravine and extend up to the top of each bank. In quartz claims the size, when not otherwise established by by-law, shall be one hundred feet in length,measured along the vein or seam, with power to the miner to follow the vein or seam, and its spurs, dips and angles, anywhere on or below the surface included between the two extremities of such length of one hundred feet, but not to advance upon or beneath the surface of the earth more than one hundred feet in a lateral direction from the main vein or seam, along which the claim is to be measured. All measurements of area are to be made on the surface of the earth, neglecting inequalities. Every claim is to have a distin— guishing number marked on its boundary pegs. IV. If any free miners, or party of free miners, shall discover a new mine, and such discovery shall be established to the sat-is- faction of the Gold Commissioner, the first discoverer, or party of discoverers, if not more than two in number, shall be entitled to a claim double the established size of claims in the nearest mine of the same description (i.e., dry, bar, or quartz diggings). If such party consist of three men, they shall collectively be entitled to five claims of the established size, on such nearest mine; and if of four or more men, such party shall be entitled to a claim and a half per man. A new stratum of auriferous earth or rock, situate in a locality where the claims are aban- doned, shall for this purpose be deemed a new mine, although the same locality shall previously have been worked at a different level. And dry diggin gs discovered in the neigh- bourhood of bar diggings shall be deemed a new mine, and vice versa. V. The registration of claims shall be in such manner and form as the Gold Commissioner shall in any locality direct, and shall include, besides the matters mentioned in the Gold Fields’ Act of 1859, all such other matters as the Gold Commissioner shall think fit to include. VI. N 0 transfer of any claim, or of any interest therein, shall be enforceable, unless the same, or some memorandum thereof, shall be in writing, signed by the party sought to be charged, or by his lawfully authorized agent, and registered with the Gold Commissioner. 534 APPENDIX. VII. Any person desiring any exclusive ditch or water pri- vilege, shall make application to the Gold Commissioner having jurisdiction for the place where the same shall be situated, stating for the guidance of the Commissioner in estimating the character of the application, the name of every applicant, the proposed ditch head, and quantity of water, the proposed locality of distribution, and if such water shall be for sale, the price at which it is proposed to sell the same, the general nature of the work to be done, and the time within which such work shall be complete; and the Gold Commissioner shall enter a note of all such matters as of record. VIII. Unless otherwise specially arranged, the rent to be paid for any water privilege shall be, in each month, one average day’s receipts from the sale thereof, to be estimated by the Gold Commissioner, with the assistance, if he shall so think fit, of a jury. IX. If any person shall refuse or neglect to take, within the time mentioned in his application, or within such further time (if any) as the Gold Commissioner may, in his discretion, think fit to grant for the completion of the ditch, the whole of the water applied for, he shall, at the end of the time mentioned in his application, be deemed entitled only to the quantity actually taken by him, and the Gold Commissioner shall make such entry in the register as shall be proper to mark such alteration in the quantity, and may grant the surplus to any other person, according to the rules herein laid down for the granting of water privileges. X. Every owner of a ditch or water privilege shall be bound to take all reasonable means for utilizing the water granted to and taken by him. And if any such owner shall wilfully take and waste any unreasonable quantity of water, he shall be charged with the full rent as if he had sold the same at a full price. And it shall be lawful for the Gold Commissioner, if such offence be persisted in, to declare all rights to the water forfeited. XI. It shall be lawful for the owner of any ditch, or water privilege, to sell and distribute the water conveyed by him to such persons, and on such terms as they may deem advisable, within the limits mentioned in their application. Provided RULES FOR WORKING GOLD MINES. 535 always, that the owner of any ditch or water privilege shall be bound to supply water to all applicants, being free miners, in a fair proportion, and shall not demand more from one person than from another, except when the difficulty of supply is enhanced. Provided further, that no person, not being a free miner, shall be entitled to demand to be supplied with water at all. XII. A claim on any mine shall, until otherwise ordered by some valid by-law, be deemed to be abandoned, and open to the occupation of any free miner, when the same shall have remained unworked by some registered holder thereof for the space of seventy-two hours, unless in case of sickness, or unless before the expiry of such seventy-two hours a further extension of time be granted by the Gold Commissioner, who may grant further time for enabling parties to go prospecting, or for such other reasonable cause as he may think proper. Sundays, and such holidays as the Gold Commissioner may think fit to pro- claim, are to be omitted in reckoning the time of non—working. XIII. Whenever it shall be intended, in forming or uphold- ing any ditch, to enter upon or to occupy any part of a registered claim, or to dig or loosen any earth or rock within [4] feet of any ditch not belonging solely to the registered owner of such claim, three days’ notice in writing, of such intent-ion, shall be given, before entering or approaching within 4 feet of such other property. XIV. If the owner of the property about to be so entered upon or approached, shall consider three days’ notice insufficient for taking proper measures of precaution, or if any dispute shall arise between the parties as to the proper precautionary measures to be taken, or in any other respect, the whole matter shall be immediately referred to the Gold Commissioner acting in the district, who shall order such interval of time to be observed before entry, or make such other order as he may deem proper. XV. In quartz claims and reefs each successive claimant shall leave three feet unworked to form a boundary wall between his claim and the last previous claimant, and shall stake off his claim accordingly, not commencing at the boundary peg of the last previous claim, but three feet further on; and if any per— 536 " ' APPENDIX. son shall stake out his claim, disregarding this rule, the Gold Commissioner shall have power to come and remove the first boundary peg of such wrong-doer 3 feet further on, notwith- standing that other claims may then be properly staked out beyond him; so that such wrong-doer shall then have but 97 feet. And if such wrong-doer shall have commenced work immediately at the boundary peg of the last previous claim, the Gold Commissioner may remove his boundary 6 feet further on than the open work of such wrong-doer: and. all such open work, and also the next 3 feet of such space of 6 feet shall belong to and form part of the last previous claim, and the residue of such space of 6 feet shall be left as a boundary wall. XVI. Every such boundary wall shall be deemed the joint property of the owners of the two claims between which it stands, and may not be worked or injured, save by the consent of both such owners. XVII. In staking out plots of land for free miners and traders, for gardening and residential purposes, under the powers of the said Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, contained, the Gold Commissioner is to keep in view the general interests of all the miners in that locality, the general principle being that every‘ garden benefits indirectly the whole locality, and also the earlier application is to be preferred; but where the eligible spots of land are few, or of scanty dimensions, and especially where they are themselves auriferous, it may be injudicious that the whole or the greater part should fall into the hands of one or two persons; and therefore, in such cases, the Gold Commissioner may, in the exercise of his discretion, allot small plots only to each applicant. - - XVIII. Any person desiring to acquire any water privilege shall be bound to respect the rights of parties using the same water, at a point- below the place where the person desiring such new privilege intends to use it. XIX. Any person desiring to bridge across any stream or claim or other place, for any purpose, or to mine under or through any ditch or flume, or to carry water through or over any land already occupied by any other person, may be enabled to do so in proper cases, with the sanction of the Gold’ Com- RuLEs FOR WORKING GOLD MINEs. 537 missioner. In all such cases the right of the party first in possession, whether of the mine or of the water privilege, is to prevail,"so as to entitle him to full compensation and indemnity. But wherever due compensation by indemnity can be given, and is required, the Gold Commissioner may sanction the execution of such new work on such terms as he shall think reasonable. AS TO LEASES IN LARGER PROPORTIONS THAN CLAIMS. XX. Applications for leases are to be sent in triplicate to the Gold Commissioner having jurisdiction for the locality where the land desired to be taken is situated. Every such application shall contain the names and additions of the appli- cant at full length, and the names and addresses of two persons residing in the colony of British Columbia, or Vancouver Island, to whom the applicant is personally known. Also a description accompanied by a map of the land proposed to be taken. , XXI. Leases will not be granted in general for a longer term than ten years, or for a larger space than ten acres of alluvial soil (dry diggings), or half a mile in length of unworked quartz reef, or a mile and a half in length of quartz, that shall have been attempted and abandoned by individual claim workers, with liberty to follow the spurs, dips, and angles, on and within the surface for two hundred feet on each side of the main lead or seam, or, in bar diggings, half a mile in length (if unworked), along the high-water mark, or a mile and a half in length along high-water mark, where the same shall have been attempted and abandoned by individual claim workers. XXII. Leases as above will not in general be granted of any‘land, alluvium or quartz, which shall be considered to be immediately available for being worked by free miners, as holders of individual claims. N or_ will such a lease in any case be granted, where individual free miners are in previous actual occupation of any part of the premises unless by their consent. XXIII. Every such lease shall contain all reasonable provi- sions for securing to the .public rights of way and water, save in so far as shall be necessary for the miner-like working of the premises thereby demised, and also for preventing damage to 538 _ APPENDIX. the persons or property of other parties than the lessee. And the premises thereby demised shall be granted for mining pur- poses only, and it shall not be competent for the lessee to assign or sub-let the same, or any part or parts thereof, without the previous license in writing of the Gold Commissioner. And every such lease shall contain a covenant by the lessee to mine the said premises in a miner-like way, and also, if it shall be thought fit to perform the works therein defined within a time therein limited. And also a clause by virtue whereof the said lease and the demise therein contained may be avoided in case the lessee shall refuse or neglect to observe and perform all or any of the covenants therein contained. XXIV. Every applicant for a lease shall, at the time of sending in his application, mark out the ground comprised in the appli- cation, by square post-s firmly fixed in the boundaries of the land, and four feet above the surface, with a notice thereon that such land has been applied for, stating when and by whom, and shall also fix upon a similar post at each of the nearest places on which miners are at work, a copy of such notice. XXV. Objections to the granting of any such lease shall be made in writing, addressed to His Excellency the Governor, under cover to the Gold Commissioner, who shall forward all such objections, together with his report thereon. XXVI. Every application for a lease shall be accompanied by a deposit of twenty-five pounds sterling, which shall be refunded in case the application shall be refused by the Government; and if the application shall be entertained, then such sum of twenty- five pounds shall be retained for the use of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, whether the application be afterwards aban- doned or not. Issued under the Public Seal of the Colony of British Co- lumbia, at Victoria, Vancouver Island, this seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-nine, and in the Twenty-third year of Her Majesty’s Reign, by me, JAMES DOUGLAS. [1,. 8.] By command of His Excellency, WILLIAM A. G. YOUNG, Act-ing Colonial Secretary. RULEs FOR WORKING GoLD MINES. 539 RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE WORKING OF GOLD MINES. ISSUED IN CONFORMITY WITH: THE GoLD FIELDS’ AcT, 1859. Whereas it is provided by the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, that the Governor for the time being of British Columbia may, by writing under his hand and the Public Seal of the Colony, make Rules and Regulations, in the nature of By-laws, for all matters relating to mining; And whereas, in conformity with the said Act, certain Rules and Regulations have already been issued, bearing date Septem- ber 7, 1859 ; And whereas, since the issuing of such Rules, extensive mines have been discovered on the high level benches, lying on either side of Fraser River, Thompson River, and other rivers, which benches are generally terminated by abrupt and steep descents or cliffs, the general direction of which is parallel with the general direction of the rivers; And whereas, such mines cannot be conveniently worked in small rectangular subdivisions, but the convenient working thereof requires a large size of claim, and may, in some cases, require that each claim should reach from the cliff in front of each bench to the cliff in the rear, or when there is no cliff in the rear, then to the general slope of the mountains in the rear; And whereas, it is also expedient to make further provision with respect to the regulation of claims, and to adopt one general rule for determining the measure of the quantity of water in any ditch or channel ; N ow, therefore, I, JAMEs DoUGLAs, Governor, &c., do hereby make the following Rules and Regulations accordingly: I. The mines in the said level benches shall be known as ‘ bench diggings,’ and shall, for the purpose of ascertaining the size of claims therein, be excepted out of the class of ‘ dry dig- gings,’ as defined in the Rules and Regulations of the 7th of September last. II. The ordinary claims on any bench diggings shall be regis- tered by the Gold Commissioner according to such one of the 540 APPENDIX. two following methods of measurement as he shall deem most advantageous on each mine, viz.: One hundred feet square, or else a strip of land twenty-five feet wide at the edge of the cliff next the river, and bounded by two straight lines, carried as nearly as possible in each case perpendicular to the general direction of such cliff, across the level bench, up to and not beyond the foot of the descent in the rear, and in such last-men- tioned case, the space included between such two boundary-lines when produced over the face of the cliff in front, as far as the foot of such cliff, and no further; and all mines in the space so included shall also form a part of such claim. III. The Gold Commissioner shall have authority, in cases where the benches are narrow, to mark the claims in such manner as he shall think fit, so as to include an adequate claim. And shall also have power to decide on the cliffs which, in his opinion, form the natural boundaries of benches. IV. The Gold Commissioner may, in any mine of any deno- mination where the pay dirt is thin or claims in small demand, or where, from any circumstances, he shall deem it reasonable, allow any free miner to register two claims in his own name, and allow such period as he may think proper for non-working either one of such claims. But no person shall be entitled to hold at one time more than two claims of the legal size. A discoverer’s claim shall for this purpose be reckoned as one ordinary claim. V. All claims shall be subject to the public rights of way and water, in such manner, direction, and extent as the Gold Com- missioner shall from time to time direct. No mine shall be worked within 10 feet of any road, unless by the previous sanc- tion of the Gold Commissioner. VI. In order to ascertain the quantity of water in any ditch or sluice, the following rules shall be observed, viz.: The water taken into a ditch shall be measured at the ditch head. N 0 water shall be taken into a ditch except in a trough, whose top and floor shall be horizontal planes, and sides parallel vertical planes; such trough to be continued for six times its breadth, in a horizontal direction, from the point at which the water enters the trough. The top of the trough to be not more than 7 inches, and the bottom of the trough not more than RULEs EOR WORKING GOLD MINEs. 541 17 inches below the surface of the water in the reservoir, all measurements being taken inside the trough, and in the low water or dry season. The area of a vertical transverse section of the trough shall be considered as the measure of the quantity of water taken by the ditch. The same mode of measurement shall be applied to ascertain the quantity of water running in a trough, or out of any ditch. Issued under the Public Seal of the Colony of British Colum- bia, at Victoria, Vancouver Island, this sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty, and in the Twenty-third year of Her Majesty’s reign, by me, JAMES DOUGLAS. [L. 8.] By His Excellency’s command, WILLIAM A. G. YOUNG. RULES AND REGULATIONS. ISSUED IN CONFORMITY WITH THE GOLD EIELDs’ ACT, 1859. Whereas, under the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, the Governor for the time being of British Columbia is empowered by writing under his hand and the Public Seal of the Colony, to make Rules and Regulations, in the nature of By-laws, for all matters relat- ing to mining; And Whereas, in conformity with that Act, certain Rules and Regulations have been issued, bearing date the 7th Sept. 1859, the 6th Jan. 1860, and the 29th Sept. 1862, respectively; And whereas it is expedient to make further provisions for the working of gold mines; SEC. I.—Repeals Rule 3, of 7 th Sept. 1859.-The Rule N o. 3 of those dated 7 th Sept. 1859, declaring the size of mining claims, is hereby repealed, so far as it is inconsistent herewith. SEC. II.--Size of Claims—Bar Diggings.—From and after the date hereof, the size of a claim shall be, for bar diggings, a, strip of land 100 feet wide at the mark to which the river rises when flooded along such high-water mark, and thence extending down direct to the river, to the lowest water level. Dry Diggings.—For dry diggings, 100 feet square. 542 APPENDIX. General Digginga—For diggings not herein otherwise spe- cially described, 100 feet square. Quartz Olcm'ma—In quartz claims the size shall be 150 feet in length, measured along the lode or vein, with power for the miner to follow the lode or vein and its spurs, dips and angles, anywhere on or below the surface, included between the two extremities of such length of 150 feet, but not to advance upon or beneath the surface or the earth, more than 100 feet in a lateral direction, from the main lode or vein, along which the claim is to be measured. All measurements are to be made on the surface of the earth, neglecting inequalities. Number—Staking—Every claim is to have a distinguishing number marked on its boundary pegs. Every individual claim, whether part of a company claim or not, shall be staked out with 4 corner pegs of at least 4 inches diameter, the same as defined in Rule 2 of the Rules and Regulations of 7th Sept. 1859. Tunnel Claima—In tunnelling or sinking, each miner shall be allowed a frontage of 100 feet, irrespective of depth. The Gold Commissioner shall have the power to regulate what number of the miners, holding such claims, shall be employed prospecting, until gold in paying quantities shall have been discovered, after which the full number of authorized miners must be employed on the claim. The side boundaries of each claim shall be distinctly marked off by 2 parallel lines or rows of pegs, fixed in the ground at intervals of 5 feet or there- abouts; the said boundaries or parallel lines shall be carried in a direction as straight and square as possible to the summit level. No party shall sink or drive ahead between the said parallel lines, saving with the consent of the party first in possession, until gold shall have been found as under mentioned. Extent of Claim.—-The extent of claim to each miner shall be 100 feet square, and he shall be allowed to mark off the claim ahead of the spot, where gold in paying quantities shall have been obtained, beyond the limits of the claim so marked out. Rights of Prospecting—Beyond these limits any other party may prospect by shaft and tunnel from the bottom thereof, and until a lead is struck in paying quantities, shall have the ex- clusive right of prospecting within two such parallel lines as RULEs FOR WORKING GoLD MINEs. 543 aforesaid, and shall then mark out his claim as above men- tioned. Tunnel under Hills—In tunnelling under hills, on the frontage of which angles occur, or which may be of an oblong or elliptical form—no party shall be allowed to tunnel from any of the said angles, nor from either end of such hills, so as to interfere with parties tunnelling from the main frontage of such hills. In case of two or more parties tunnelling from opposite sides of the same hill, and their side boundary lines meet or intersect, or their claims meet, the party that first marks off their claim shall be entitled to priority of claim thereon. In case of tunnelling under hills, or fronts of hills, such as occur at the junction of creeks in which there may be two leads, all parties shall, if required, take their claims on the lead nearest the side of the hill at which their tunnel commences. Forfeiture of Claim involves Tunnel, &c.—The right to the tunnel and the ten feet of ground on either side of it, in addi- tion to the above claim, shall be considered as appurtenant to the claim to which it is annexed, and be abandoned or forfeited by the abandonment or forfeiture of the claim itself to which it appertains. Deposit of Leavinga—The Gold Commissioner may, where deemed desirable, mark out a space in the vicinity for deposit of leavings and (leads from any tunnel. SE0. IIL—Definition of Miners’ Rights in a Claim.— Whereas it is expedient better to define the rights of registered free miners in their claims, it is hereby declared, enacted, and proclaimed—- That Clause 7 of the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859,is hereby repealed. Every free miner shall, save as against Her Majesty,‘ have, during the continuance of his certificate, the exclusive right to take the gold and auriferous soil upon or within the claim for the time being duly held registered and bona fide not colourably worked by him, and the exclusive right of entry on the claim for the purpose of working or carrying away such gold, or auriferous soil, or any part thereof, and also as far as may be necessary for the convenient and miner-like working and security of his flumes and property of ‘ every description, and for a resi- dence-e—but he shall have no spurface rights therein for any other 544 APPENDIX. purpose, save as next hereinafter mentioned, unless specially granted. SEo. IV.~— One Record covers necessary Water and Claim—In addition to the above rights, every registered free miner shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water flowing naturally through or past his claim as shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner be necessary for the due working thereof. SEO. V.—Inclusive Water Privileges; Preliminary Notice.— Where application is intended to be made for the exclusive grant of any surplus water to be taken from any creek or other locality, every such applicant shall, in addition to the existing requirements, affix a written notice of all the particulars of his application upon some conspicuous part of the premises to be affected by the proposed grant, for not less than five days before recording the same. Power to Gold Commissioner to Modify the Grant—The Gold Commissioner, upon protest being entered or for reason- able cause, shall have power to refuse or modify such application or grant, either partially or entirely, as to him shall seem just and reasonable. Saving of future Miners’ Rights to Water.—Every exclusive grant of a ditch or water privilege in occupied or unoccupied creeks shall be subject to the rights of such registered free miners as shall then be working or shall thereafter work in the locality from which it is proposed to take such water. SEO. VL—Cold Penalties recoverable by Distress.—-Whereas it is expedient to confer additional power for enforcing penalties recoverable for infraction of the Gold Laws under section 40 of the Gold Fields’ Act; It is hereby declared, enacted, and proclaimed, that such pe- nalties may, if deemed proper, be ordered to be recovered by sale , and distress, to be levied forthwith or at any convenient interval after conviction and nonpayment within so many hours, or such longer time as shall be allowed by distress and sale of any claim or ditch or any personal property whatsoever of the person on whom such penalty may have been imposed. SEO. VIL—Certijted Copy of any Gold Record to be Evidence. —-Every copy of or extract from any record or register under or by virtue of this Act or the Gold Fields’ Act, 185 9, or any other RULEs FOR WORKING GOLD MINEs. 545 Act which shall be made in relation to gold mines or gold fields, or any of the Rules and Regulations made in pursuance thereof, respectively required to be kept by any Gold Commissioner, and certified to be a true copy or extract under the hand of the Gold Commissioner, or other person entrusted to take and keep such record or register, shall, in the absence of the original register, be receivable in any judicial proceeding as evidence of the matters and things therein appearing. SEC. VIII.-—-Fees on recording Claims.——So much of Section 6 of the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, as imposes a fee of 48. on the regis~ tration or re-registration of claims shall be and is hereby repealed. In lieu thereof it is hereby declared, enacted, and proclaimed there shall be paid to the Gold Commissioner for the use of Her Majesty, her heirs, and successors, the following fees: That is to Say. ' Upon every Registration or Re-registration on . 10s. 3d. record of any claim . . . . } And no person, not being a free miner, shall be entitled to record a claim or any interest therein. Gold Commissioner may enlarge Ditches.——~The Gold Com- missioner shall have power, whenever he may deem it advisable, to order the enlargement or alteration of any ditch Or ditches, and to fix what (if any) compensation shall be paid to the parties to be benefited by such alteration or enlargement. Settlement of Districts—As to Boundaries, eta—In case of dispute as to boundary, or measurements, the Gold Commissioner shall have power to employ a surveyor to fix and mark the same, and cause the reasonable expense thereof to be paid by or between such of the parties interested in the question at issue as he shall deem fair and just. Served under the Public Seal of the said Colony, at Victoria, Vancouver Island, this twenty-fourth day of February, A.D. 1863, and in the Twenty-sixth year of Her Majesty’s reign, by me, ‘ JAMES DOUGLAS. By His Excellency’s command, WILLIAM A. G. YOUNG, Colonial Secretary. NN 546 APPENDIX. BRITISH COLUMBIA. NO. 4. AN ORDINANCE TO EXTEND AND IMPROVE THE LAWS RELATING TO GOLD MINING. [February 26, 1864.] Preamble—‘Whereas, from the increased extent and import- ance of Gold Mining in British Columbia, it is requisite to make further provision as to the holding, sale, transmission, and dis- posal of claims and interests in claims, and to facilitate the creation of partnerships, and also to confer privileges under certain restrictions on free miners associating together for the more economical and systematic drainage of mining ground, and to raise revenue from the duties upon the registration of various mining matters; Be it enacted by the Governor of British Columbia, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows : 1. From and after the passing of this Act, so much of Clause thirty-one (31) of the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, as relates to the times of meeting of the Mining Board, shall be amended to read as follows : Mining Board M eet'zhiga—The Mining Board shall meet at such times as a majority of the said Board shall decide, and one-half of the members of the said Board shall constitute a quorum. Provided, nevertheless, that it shall be lawful for the Gold Commissioner, when and so often as in his opinion occa- sion shall require, to call together such Mining Board. 2. Repeals Section 33 0f the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859.--Section 33 of the said Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, shall be repealed, and the following provisions substituted in lieu thereof: Election of Mining Board—The general election of mem- bers of the Mining Board shall be held on such day in each year, as the Gold Commissioner in each district shall appoint. Vacancies in the Board—And the Gold Commissioner shall fill by appointment all vacancies which may arise in the said Board, and when the same may occur, and such appointees shall hold office until the next general election. RULES FOR WoRxING GoLD MINES. 547 3. Mining Board may act without presence of Gold Commis- sioner.—-Section thirty-five (35) of the said Gold Fields’ Act shall be amended by striking out the words Gold Commissioner in the first line of the said section. 4. Mining Board to manage its internal afiairsa~The words Gold Commissioner shall be and are hereby struck out from Clause thirty-six (36) of the said Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, wherever the same may occur therein, and in lieu thereof the words ‘ majority of the said Mining Board ’ shall be inserted throughout such clause, which shall be read and construed accordingly, reserving, nevertheless, to the Gold Commissioner, the power hereinbefore specified in Clause 1 of this Act. 5. Protection against dangerous works—Upon complaint being made to him, the Gold Commissioner is hereby em- powered to order all mining works to be carried out in such manner as he shall think necessary for the safety of the public, or the protect-ion of their rights, or the interest of the holders of claims adjoining to or affected by any such Works, and to order any abandoned works to be either filled up or sufficiently guarded to his satisfaction, at the cost of the parties who may have constructed the same, or in case such parties shall be ab- sent, then to make such order in the premises as to such Gold Commissioner shall seem expedient. 6. Hill or Tunnel Claims.-—All claims situated on the banks of or fronting on any natural channel, stream, ravine, or water- course, shall have a base line drawn parallel to the channel of the stream on which they may be located, such base line to constitute the frontage of such claims, and to be marked by posts of the legal size placed at intervals of 100 feet. Lines drawn at right angles thereto to constitute the side lines or dividing lines between claims. 7. Gold Commissioner may refuse to record certain Tunnel Claims—Provided also that the Gold Commissioner shall have power to refuse to record any hill or tunnel claim on any creek, which claim or any part thereof shall include or come within 200 feet of any gulch or tributary of such creek. 8. Gold Commissioner may decide all Mining Partnership Disputes—Clause seventeen (17) of the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, is hereby repealed. NN2 548 APPENDIX. 9. Bed-rock Flumes ;/ Power to Gold Commissioner to autho- rize Bed-rock Flumea—It shall be lawful for the Gold Commis- sioner to grant, or agree to grant, rights of entry on 'or under any lands in the colony, for the purpose of constructing, laying, and maintaing bed-rock flumes, for such terms, not exceeding ten years, with, under, and subject to such of the conditions and stipulations hereinafter mentioned with regard to bed-rock flumes, as in the opinion of such Gold Commissioner the in- terests of mining in his district, for the time being, may render advisable. Provided that every such grant or agreement shall contain a proper reservation of the rights of the Crown, and of public rights of way and water, and reservations of land for public or governmental purposes, and (so far as consistent with the obj ects of such grant) a reservation of private rights arising for the time being. 10. Who may be a Bed-rock Flume Company—Three or more free miners may constitute themselves into a Bed-rock Flume Company within the meaning of this Act, and when duly authorized, as lastly hereinbefore mentioned, may enter upon any river, creek, gulch, ravine, or other water-course in the colony, for the purpose of constructing and laying a, bed-rock flume therein, and when not otherwise expressed in such authority as aforesaid, with the rights and privileges, and under the limitations and restrictions hereinafter specified. 11. Privileges of and requirements from Bed-rock Flume Companies.——Any company so authorized as aforesaid, and organized under the provisions of this Act, shall be entitled - to enter upon any new and unworked river, creek, gulch, ravine, or water-course, and locate a strip of ground 100 feet wide and 200 feet long, in the bed of such stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course, to each man of the persons con- stituting such company, and shall have and enjoy the right of way from their upper line to extend the said flume for a further distance of 5 miles up the stream, gulch, ravine, or water- course, in the bed thereof. Provided that such company shall for each of the men constituting the same, construct and lay at least 50 feet of flume during the first year, and 100 feet annu- ally thereafter. 12. Free miners may lay Bed-rock Flumes above Bed-rock RULES FOR WORKING GOLD MINEs. ' 549 Flume Companies’ Claim.—In case any free miner or miners shall enter upon, take up, and legally work any ground above the claim of the said Bed-rock Flume Company, and within the limits of their right of way, after the said company shall have become organized and located according to the provisions of this Act, such company shall be entitled to enter upon such claim or claims for the purpose of cutting a channel to and into the bed-rock if necessary, and of laying their flume through such claim or claims. Provided that such channel shall not be cut wider than ne- cessary for that purpose, and the owner or owners of such claim or claims shall be entitled to all the gold taken out of the cut. 13. Free Miners may use, but not obstruct Bed-rocle Flumes. --Any free miner or miners lawfully holding and working any claims on any gulch, ravine, stream, or water-course, where a bed-rock flume may be constructed under the provisions of this Act, shall be entitled to tail their sluices, hydraulics, and ground sluices into such flume, but so nevertheless as not in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner, by rocks, stones, boul- ders, or otherwise unnecessarily to obstruct the free working of such flume. Provided that such Bed-rock Flume Company shall be en- titled to all the gold deposited in such flume. 14. Bed-rock Flume Companies may enter on ‘ abandoned ground.’—Any company authorized and organized as afore- said, shall be, and are hereby empowered to enter upon any river, creek, gulch, ravine, or other water-course which may have been worked by miners and abandoned, and locate the entire bed of such stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course 100 feet in width, and one-half mile of the length of such stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course, for each one of the free miners constituting such company, and such company shall pos- sess the exclusive right to work the ground so located. ‘ Abandoned ground’ how construed. The term ‘aban- doned ground ’ shall be construed to include all new and un- worked ground outside of claims actually held and worked upon any stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course, which may have been discovered and mined for two years or more. 15. Bed-rock Flume Companies working ‘ abandoned ground’ 550 ' . APPENDIX. to be governed by Clause 12.-—Bed-rock Flume Companies authorized and organized as aforesaid, and locating upon aban- doned streams or ground, shall be governed by Clause 12 of this Act, in all cases where free miners or companies of free miners shall be legally holding and working claims on such stream or ground, prior to and at the time of the location of such Bed-rock Flume Company’s claim, if within the limits thereof. 16. Rivers, Creeks, &a, when not deemed abandoned—Any portion or part of any river, creek, gulch, ravine, or other water- course, having four or more free miners per mile, legally hold-- ing and bona fide not colourably working claims, on such stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course, shall not be deemed ‘ abandoned ’ within the meaning of this Act, but in such case any Bed-rock Flume Company desiring to run a fiume through such portion or part of such stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course, shall be governed by the following clauses of this Act. 17 . Boundaries of Bed-rock Flume Uompany’s claim, how fixed—Any Bed-rock Flume Company, as aforesaid, locating upon any portion of a stream, gulch, ravine, or water-course referred to in Clause 16 hereof, shall have their location care- fully surveyed, and a post with a square top driven securely into the ground, upon the lower line of each such claims, Within such company’s limits, and shall at the time of setting up such posts give notice to each of the holders of such claims, in writing, of the distance in feet and inches at which such company’s fiume will strike any such miner’s claim, or per- pendicularly below the top of such post, and the number of inches grade which such fiume has in each 100 feet. 18. After due notice, Bed-rock Flume Company can lay fiume on any claim.-—At the expiration of one calendar month, or such further time as the Gold Commissioner may allow, after survey and service of notice last aforesaid, it shall be lawful for such Flume Company to enter upon any claim or claims situated within such company’s limits, and open a cut, and lay a bed-rock fiume through such claim or claims, in case the owner or owners thereof shall have failed in the meantime to open their respective claims, and lay bed-rock fiumes therein. Holder of such claim entitled to gold in fiume—Provided RIILEs FOR WORKING GOLD MINEs. 551 that if such Bed-rock Flume Company shall so enter upon and lay the said flume through any claim or claims, as last afore- said, the respective holder Or holders of such claim or claims shall be entitled to all gold taken from the cut and bed-rock, in opening the said out and laying the flume therein. 19. What grades to be maintained by private Claim-holders. ——Private claim-holders putting in bed-rock flumes to connect with bed-rock flumes put in by Bed—rock Flume Companies, shall maintain the like grade, and build their flumes as thoroughly and of as strong materials as are used by Bed-rock Flume Companies. 20. Right of Claim- holders who have borne expense of bed-rock flume to become members of Bed-rock Flume Companies.— Individual or company claim-holders, after the bed-rock flume has been extended through their respective claims at their own expense, shall have right at any time before the abandonment of their claim or claims to become members of the Bed-rock Flume Company, by uniting their claim or claims with the ground of the company, and taking an interest proportionate to the area of the ground which they shall cede to the company, or work their ground on their own account, at their option. 21. Right of Bed-rock Flume Company to Water.—Bed-rock Flume Companies, authorized and organized as aforesaid, shall be entitled to the use and enjoyment of so much of the un- occupied and unappropriated water of the stream or streams on which they may be located, and of other adjacent streams, as may be necessary for the use of their flumes, hydraulic power, and machinery to carry on their mining operations, and shall have the right of way for ditches and flumes, to convey the ne- cessary water to their wOrks, they being liable to other parties for any damage which may arise from running such ditch or flumes through or over their ground. 22. Bed-rock Flumes declared personal property.——Bed-rock flumes, and any interest or interests therein, and all fixtures, are hereby declared to be personal property, and may be sold, mortgaged, transferred, or otherwise dealt with as such. 23. Bed-rock Flume Company how registered, and fees pay- able.——Bed-rock Flume Companies, authorized and organized as aforesaid, shall measure off their ground, set up their stakes, - 552 APPENDIX. post their notices, and register their claims in the same manner as individual free miners are required to do, and shall pay five , pounds sterling per annum, in addition to the registration fee, for each half mile of claim and right of way legally held by such company. 24. Individual Claim-holders flaming, subject to same rules. —- Individual or company claim-holders, building bed-rock flumes through their own ground, to connect similar flumes built by Bed-rock Flume Companies, shall be subject to the same rules and regulations, with regard to cleaning up the flume repairs and other matters, in which both parties are interested, and pertaining to the rights hereby authorized and confirmed, as may be adopted by such Bed-rock Flume Company. 25. Private Company may abandon claims, and appropriate gold in flume—Provided that if any private or company claim-holders shall desire to abandon their respective claims, they may give notice to such Bed-rock Flume Company of such intention, and shall then have the right to proceed at once to clean up their portion of such flume, or wait until such com'-'- pany cleans up, and then take all the gold which may be found in their portion of such flume. Such flume deemed abandoned and to revert to Bed-rock Flume Company—Provided also that when such individual or company claim-holders shall have given the notice aforesaid, and cleaned up their section of the said flume, such claims shall be deemed to be abandoned with the flume therein, and such abandonment shall revert to the benefit of such Bed-rock Flume Company. 26. Bed-rock Flume Notice.-—Any free miners or company of free miners, applying for the privilege of constructing a -bed-' rock flume, shall comply ,with the requirements of Clause twenty-four (24) of the Gold Fields’ Rules and Regulations, issued on the 7th day of September, 1859, and also put up a notice of such application in some conspicuous part of the town place, or at the Court House nearest to the locality applied for, at least five clear days before making such application. 27. Beads and Leavings not to obstruct stream. -—The period at the end of Clause two of the Rules and Regulations issued on the 24th day of February 1863, is hereby struck out, and RULES FOR WORKING GOLD MINES. 553‘ the following words added thereto, to wit: ‘ or shaft, and in no case shall the said deads or leavings, forkings from sluices, waste dirt, large stones or tailings be allowed to accumulate so ' as to obstruct the natural course of the stream.’ 28. Zllinor of sixteen (when partners) to be deemed adult free miners.—-The interest of minors over sixteen years of age shall be subject to the same laws as apply to the interests of adult free miners, and they shall enjoy the same rights thereto as adults, but no person under the age of sixteen years shall be capable of holding any claim or interest therein. 29. .Mining eo-partnerships.—-And whereas it is necessary to provide facilities for the formation of mining co-partnerships, be it enacted—— Minutes of eo-partnership when no deed of partnership exists—That all mining companies shall be governed by the provisions hereof, unless they shall have other and written articles of co-partnership properly signed, attested and recorded. 30. Duration of mining eo-partnership.-—No mining co- partnership shall continue for a longer time than one year, unless otherwise specified in writing by the parties, but such co—partnership may be renewed at the expiration of each year. 31. Confined to mining.—-The business of the co-partners herein referred to shall be mining, and such other matters as pertain solely thereto. _ 32. Powers of a Majority—A majority of the co—partners, or their legally authorized agents, may decide the manner of working the claims of the co-partners, the number of men to be employed, and extent and manner of levying assessments to defray the expense of working the claim or claims of the com- pany, and all other matters pertaining thereto; provided that every such company’s claim shall be represented according to law. Such majority may also choose a foreman or local manager, who shall represent the company, and have power to bind such company by his contracts, and sue and be sued in the name of the company for assessments and otherwise ; and every such partnership must register its partnership or company name with the Gold Commissioner. 33. Assessments, u'hen payable.--All assessments levied 554 APPENDIX. during the time of working shall be payable within ten clear days after each such assessment. 34. Payment of Assessment, in default how enforced—Any party failing or refusing to pay any assessment or assessments, leviable according to the provisions of this Act, after having re- ceived any notice thereof, specifying the amount due during the period the said party may be delinquent, shall be personally liable to his co-partners for the amount of such delinquency, and the amount of such delinquent’s indebtedness having been ascertained by a court of competent jurisdiction, his interest in said company’s claim may be sold for the payment of the amount found due, with interest (if any) and costs as hereafter specified. 35. Notice of Sala—The notice of sale of such delinquent’s interest, or such part thereof as shall suffice to pay the amount of indebtedness, with interest and costs as aforesaid, shall be published by advertisement in some newspaper published in the district, for ten days prior to the day of sale, and if there be no paper published in the district, then notices of such sale shall be posted for the same length of time, in the vicinity of the claim or interest to be sold, and at the Court House nearest thereto. Such sale shall be by public auction to the bidder offering to pay—the amount due for the smallest portion of said claim or interest. The purchaser at such sale, on payment of the purchase-money, shall acquire all the right, title, and interest of the delinquent, in and to the interest sold, and shall be entitled to the immediate possession thereof. 36. No one recognised except a free miner in a claim.-—The following part of Clause seven (7) of the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, shall be deemed to have been never repealed, that is to say,— N 0 person shall be recognised as having any right or interest in or to any claim or ditch, or any of the gold ther'ein, unless he shall be, or in case of disputed ownership, unless he shall have been at the time of the dispute arising, a free miner. 37. Miner’s record covers only unappropriated water.— Clause 3 of the Proclamation of the 25th day of March, 1863, is hereby repealed, and the following provisions are substituted in lieu thereof: In addition to the above rights, every registered free miner RULEs FOR WORKING GOLD MINEs. 555 shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water naturally flowing through or past his claim, and not already lawfully ap- propriated, as shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner be necessary for the due working thereof. 38. Production of free miner’s certificate before record—It shall be lawful for the Gold Commissioner, previous to recording a claim or interest therein or other matter, to demand from the applicant the production of his free miner’s certificate, and upon his refusal or neglect to produce the same, to refuse to record such claim, interest, or other matter. 39. General fee on recording mining matter.—For every record which the Gold Commissioner shall be called upon to make, whether of leave of absence granted or any matter or thing what-ever relating to mining, and for which a special fee shall not have been provided by any law, rate or regulation in that behalf in force for the time being, the Gold Commissioner shall charge a. registration fee of ten shillings and sixpence, but for every search of a record only four shillings and twopence. 40. Distinguishing number of claims abolished—No dis- tinguishing number shall hereafter be required, or be deemed to have been ever required, for or in respect to any claim, any existing law or rule to the contrary notwithstanding. 41. Gold in claim to be ore of gold—All gold found in any gold mine in the colony shall be deemed and taken to be ore of gold, within the meaning of the statute. 42. Claims recorded in the close season when laid oven—No claims located and recorded in any district within fourteen days after the claim therein shall have been laid over by the Gold Commissioner till the ensuing season or other specific date, shall be allowed or deemed to be so laid over, unless so much work shall have been bona fide expended thereon by the holders thereof, as shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner fairly entitle him to have such claim laid over. 43. Three days’ grace for every 10 miles before record.— Every free miner-shall be allowed three days in which to record his claim by pre-emption after the same shall have been located, if such claim shall be within 10 miles of the Gold Commis- sioner’s office; if more than 10 miles from it, then one addi- tional day shall be allowed for every additional 10 miles or fraction of 10 miles, as the case may be. 556 APPENDIX. 44. Limits claims by pre-emption to two claims—Every adult free miner shall be allowed to hold two claims by pre- emption, viz., one quartz claim and one other claim, and no more at the same time, but by purchase may hold any number or amount of claims or interests therein, which have been once duly registered, subject to the laws for the time being regulating the same. And every adult free miner may lawfully sell, mort— gage, transmit, or dispose of any number of claims or interests therein,‘ lawfully held or acquired by him, whether by pre- emption or purchase. ' 45. What is a miner’s interest in a claim—The amount of interest which a free miner has in his claim shall, save as against Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, be deemed and taken to be a chattel interest equivalent to a lease for a year, renew- able at the end of the first and every subsequent year, subject to the conditions as to forfeiture, working, representation, re- gistration, and otherwise, for the time being in force with respect to such claim or interest under any law or rule regulating the same. Forfeiture absolute—Provided that every forfeiture of a claim under any such law or rule shall be absolute, any rule of law or equity to the contrary notwithstanding. 46. Deceased free miner’s claims not forfeitable.——In casev of the death of any free miner, while registered as the holder of any claim or ditch, his claim or interest shall not be open to the occupation of any other person for non-working or non-repre- sentation, either after his decease or during the illness which shall have terminated in his decease. 47. Gold Commissioner may keep afoot or sell deceased miner’s claim.-—And in all cases where the Gold Commissioner shall find that such free miner shall he possessed of a claim or ditch, or interest therein, he may cause the same to be duly repre- sented until sale on such terms as he shall think just, or dis- pense with the same at his option, or may sell such claim, ditch, or interest by auction, after ten days’ public notice thereof, for such price as in his judgment he shall deem just and fair; and for the purpose aforesaid, the Gold Commissioner may employ and pay out- of any assets of the deceased which may come to his bands, such Valuers or persons as may be necessary. 48. Gold Commissioner’s conveyance a good title.-—Every~ RULES FOR WORKING GOLD MINES. 557 assignment of any such interest by the Gold Commissioner shall convey to the assignee all the right and interest of the deceased miner, thereby purported to be conveyed, and shall be subject to the same registration and fees as if such assignment had been made by such miner before his decease. 49. Notice of official administration—The Gold Commis- sioner shall, in all cases of death of every registered free miner, give notice thereof as soon as conveniently may be, and also of any acts and interferences of such Gold Commissioner, to the official administrator, who shall in all cases which may seem fitting, take out probate or letters of administration as the case may require, and collect and get in the estate and effects of the deceased in the usual and proper way ; no such dealing or inter- ference as aforesaid, by the Gold Commissioner, shall make him in any way liable as an executor de son tort, or in any way liable for unintentional losses or in any other responsibility, than to account to the personal representative of the deceased, when duly constituted, for all monies actually received and expended by him in the matter of the estate and effects of the deceased. 50. Allowance to Gold Oornmissioner.-—Every Gold Commis- sioner who shall so act in the collection and custody of the estate and effects as aforesaid, shall be entitled to his own use to an allowance thereout not exceeding in any case 5 per cent. on the whole amount collected. 51. Fees on registration as in Schedule—On the registra- tion of any of the matters, acts, deeds, documents, or things mentioned in the Schedule hereto, there shall be payable in respect thereof by the party seeking such registration, the several duties and sums of money set opposite such matters, acts, deeds, documents, and things respectively in the schedule hereto, such payment-s to be taken by the Gold Commissioner or other ofiicer effecting the registration at the time of each registration, and ' for the use of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors. 52. Every sale, mortgage, alienation, or other disposition of any claim, ditch, or other mining property, or of any interest therein respectively, shall be made by an instrument in writing which shall be registered with the Gold Commissioner, or other ofiicer duly authorised in that behalf in the district in which such property is situated, in separate books to be kept by him 558 - APPENDIX. for the purpose, and every such conveyance, mortgage, or other document shall set forth, truly expressed in words at length, the full bona fide price, consideration, or value that has been or has to be paid directly or indirectly in each transaction, or in default thereof shall be void. 53. In case of any dispute, the title to claims, leases of auri- ferous earth or rock, ditches or water privileges, will be re- cognised according to the priority of registration, subject only to any question which may be raised as to the validity of any particular act of registration. 54. Certified copy of record evidenca—Every copy or extract from any record or register, under or by virtue of this Act, or the Gold Fields’ Act of 1859, the Proclamation of 25th day of March, 1863, or any gold rules and regulations required to be kept by any Gold Commissioner, and certified to be a true copy or extract under the hand of the Gold Commissioner, or other person authorised to take and keep such record or register; shall in the absence of the original register, be receivable in any judical proceedings as evidence of all matters and things therein appearing. - 55. Saving of Crown rights—Nothing herein shall be con- strued to limit, or abridge the prerogative rights of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, in or to the Gold Fields of British Columbia. 56. To be construed as one with the Gold Fields’Act, 1859.— This Act shall be construed as far as possible with the Gold Fields’ Act, 1859, and proclamation of the 25th day of March, 1863, and the Rules and Regulations made in pursuance thereof respectively. " 57. Schedule part of Act—The schedule hereto shall be part of this Act. 58. Short Title—This ordinance may be cited for all pur- poses as the ‘ Gold Fields’ Act, 1864.’ Passed the Legislative Council the 24th February, A.D. 1864. CHARLEs GooD, Clerk. Received my assent this twenty-sixth day of February, A.D. 1864. JAMES DOUGLAS, Governor. INDEX. INDEX. ACA CAPULCO, present condition of, 12 Ac-cla, copper lodes and quartz veins at, 50 Acheewun, the Lamalcha Indian, and I118 robberies, 469 Adam’s River, the valley watered by, 188 Admiralty Island, salt springs on, 169. Farming land at, 186 Agriculture in Vancouver Island, 172. Remunerative character of agricul- tural pursuits in the colony, 173. Climate of the Island, 174. Soils, 182. Agricultural districts, 184. Crown lands, sold, unsold, and pre- empted, 184. Inviting districts for hardy pioneers, 189. Average yield of crops, 193. Stock, 195. Grazing, 196. Prices of produce and stock in Vancouver, 197-199. Amount of agricultural produce introduced into Vancouver Island, 199. Clearing, times of sowing, 850., 201. Princi- pal articles for working and stocking a pre-empted farm, 205. Terms of settlement for land, 205. In British Columbia,280. Climate of the colony, 280. Soils,284. Agricultural districts, 285. Yield and prices of crops, 290. Dr. Taylor’s statement of farming on the Upper Fraser River, 291. Stock raising, 291. Fruits, 293. Terms on which land may be acquired in British Columbia, 295. Land pro- clamations of Sir James Douglas, 528 Alberni canal, the, 51 Albion, New, Drake’s discovery of‘, 54 Aleutian Islands, walrus fishing grounds near the, 169. Facilities at, for catching and curing fish, 169 BAR Alexandria, farming land at, 287. Alexandria, in Egypt, foundation of, 336 America, immediate cause of the dis- covery of, 339. American society, first experience of, 11. Ladies, 397 Anderson 80 Co., their export trade in timber, 234. Anderson Lake, 215 Anian, Straits of, 54 Animals of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 297. Scientific names of those found in Vancouver Island, 305 Anthracite coal of Fuca Straits, 142 Antler Creek, gold mining population of, in 1860 and 1861, 74. Diggings at, 243, 244 Antonio, San, silver mines of, 26 Arabians, commerce of the, 338 Arms of Indians, 443 Arrowsmith, Mount, 40 Artesian Gold Mining Company, Li- mited, 247 Assay office in Victoria, 88 Astoria, on the Columbia River, 28 Australia, introduction of salmon into the rivers of, 125. Rhymes on the event, 125, note Azores, the, 2 ACON, price of in Vancouver Island, 198. Demand for, at the mines of British Columbia, 291 Banks in Victoria, 87 Baker, Mount, eruption of, 216 Barclay Sound, position of‘, 51 Barley, price of, in Vancouver Island, Bars, at the diggings, 240 00 562 INDEX. BEA Beaconhill Park, Victoria, 77. View from the high knoll in the centre, 77 Beans, price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Bears in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 297 Beaver Lake, farming land at, 287. Beaver dams in Vancouver Island, 158. And in British Columbia, 300 Beef, prices of, in Vancouver Island, 197, 198 Behring Straits, walrus fishing ground near, 169. Facilities at, for catching and curing fish, 169 Bella Coola, or Nookhalk river, 236 Bellingham Bay,lignitic beds at, 41, 42 Bentinck Arm, route from the coast to the northern mines of British Columbia, 235. Indian murder at, 462 Benton, Thomas H., his interpretation of the Oregon Boundary Treaty, 37 Bigbar Creek, farming land at, 287 Birch, Mr., Colonial Secretary’s report on the Kootanie diggings, 253 Birds of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 301 Blanco, Cape, discovery of, 52 Blanshard, Governor, how treated by the Hudson’s Bay Company, 311 Boulders, erratic, ~in Vancouver Island, 43 Bowls, wooden, of Island Indians, 50 Breweries in Victoria, 85 Bridge Creek, farming land at, 287 Brine springs of Salt Spring Island, 48. Of Naniamo, 48 Brown, Mr., his description of Van- couver Island, 46. His discovery of gold at Sooke river, 156 Brunswick, New, timber trade of, com- pared with that of Vancouver Island, 137 Bucardi, Port, discovery of the Bay of, 56 ‘ Bunch-grass ’ in British Columbia, 293 Burial among the Indians, 447 Burrard Inlet, exploded argument in its favour as a naval station, 127. Coal seams at, 41, 151 Bute Inlet, route to the northern mines by, 238. Indian massacre of the whites at, 463 Butter, price of, in Vancouver Island, 197, 198 Buzzards at Panama, 10 the Vancouver CHI ABRILLO, Juan, his expedition from Xalisco north, 52 Calaveras County, mammoth-trees of, 24 California, passage from Panama to, 10. The steamer and her passengers, 10. Gulf of, 12. Description of the state of California, 13. Fertility of the valleys of, 22. The vine, 22. Vegetables, 22. _The mammoth-trees, 24. Resources of the state, 24, 25. Placer diggings and hydraulic mining at, 26. Discovery of, 52. Rush from California to the Fraser river, 64, 65. Table of exports from Victoria to, in October 1864, 115. Civil disabilities of Chinese and negroes in, 381. Their temples to Buddha in, 385 Canada, heavy import duties in, 92. Timber trade of, contrasted with that of Vancouver Island, 137 Cannibals among the Indians, 436 ‘ Caribes’ of the West Indies, 4 Cariboo, diary of a journey from Doug- las to, 224. Paths from VVilliam’s Lake to, 235. Character of the Ca- riboo district, 245. ‘Creeks and Gulches,’ 246. Prediction of Sir Rod- erick Murchison, 246. Prospects of Cariboo, 251. Prices at Cariboo in November 1864, 252. Carthagena, town of, 6. Sharks off, 7 Cascade Mountains, the, 216, 237. Climate west of the, 282 Catholics, Roman, in Vancouver Island, 82. The Sisters of Charity on the coast of the Pacific, North of Mexico, 81. In New l/Vestminster, 220. Infin- ence of the Roman Catholics over the Indians, 472. Bishop de Mers’ self~ interpreting Bible, 475 Cattle, horned, in Vancouver Island, 195. In British Columbia, 293 Cavendish, his adventures in the Pa- cific, 54 Caviare, a bushel of, taken from one sturgeon, 167 Channel Islands, causes of the flourish- ing condition of the, 93. Cheese, price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Chilukweyuk, pastoral land at, 222, 228 China, demand for timber in, 122. Extent of Navigation of the Yangtse and Amoor Rivers, 122. Increasing trade with the Celestial Empire, 122. Current of warm water breaking at Vancouver Island, 175. INDEX. CHI Chinamen, number of, in California, 24. At Cariboo, 233. At Hope and Fort Yale, 24. Civil disabilities of the, in California, 381. Their habits in Cali- fornia and the British Colonies, 382. Results of missionary labour amongst them, 383. Their temples to Buddha, in California, 385. Visitto one, 385. The Chinese address to Governor Kennedy, in Vancouver Island, 386. Christianity among the Indians, 472, et seq. Clay, blue, found in Vancouver Island, I 54 Clayoquot Sound, mineral wealth of’, 51 Clearing land in Vancouver Island, 201 Climate of Vancouver Island, 174. The China current at, 17 5. Fraser river freshets, 176. Mean of the ther- mometer, 176. Occasional cold winters, 176. Drs. Forbes and Rat- tray’s register of the weather, 17 7. The climate compared with that of Canada and London, 179. Aspect of nature in May, 180. The climate of Vancouver Island, in its con- nexion with health, 181. The climate of British Columbia, 280. And of the proposed emigrant route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 368, 369 Clinton, town of, 233 Civil list of Vancouver Island, 319, 320 Coal in Vancouver Island, 141. The mines of Nanaimo, 41, 48, 141. Goals of Quatsino Inlet, 49. Those on the American side 01' Fuca Straits, 142. Consumption of coal in the North Pacific, 142. Goals from Goose Bay and Mount Diablo, 142. Coal fields of Bellingham Bay and Washington Territory, 142. Supe- riority of the Vancouver Island coals, 142. Chemical comparison of Van- couver Island coal with other varieties, 143. Dr. Rattray’s statement re- specting the importation of coal into San Francisco, 143. Comparative lists of prices of coal at Vancouver Island and San Francisco, 144. T hick“ ness of the seams at Nanaimo, 144. Formation of the Vancouver Island Coal, Mining, and Land Company, 145. Total quantity shipped from Nanaimo 146. Report of the company, quoted, 146, 147. Markets for Vancouver Island Coal, 149. Formation of the Harewood Coal Mining Company, 149. Coa seams at other places in the Island, 150, 151 5 6 3 COM Cod-banks, said to exist in Plumper’s Pass and North of Vancouver Island, 168 Colleges and schools in Victoria, 84 ‘ Colonial School, the,’ in Victoria, 84 Colonies, claims of young, on the aid of England, 508. Care of the Uni- ted States for young colonies, 511. Colonial statistics. circulated for the Colonial Emigration Society, for the year 1859, 517 Columbia River, the, 28 Columbia, British, discovery of‘ gold in, 64. The letters of the ‘ Times ’ cor— respondent in 1862, 75. Proposed union of with the free port ofVictoria, 95, 323. Advantages ofthe free port to British Columbia, 95. Resolutions passed by the legislature of Vancou- ver Island respecting the proposed union, 105. The sea-board of Brit- ish Columbia, 207. Explorations of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 208. Geology and physical geography, 209. General description, 215. The coast, 215. New ‘Westminster, 216. Total value of imports into British Columbia during 1861, 1862, and 1863, 217. Shipping and custom returns, 218. Journey from Douglas to Cariboo, 224. Pass from the coast to the northern mines, 235. The mines of British Columbia,2-10. Agri- cultural resources of the colony, 280. Animals and vegetables, 297. The first legislative council, 322. Public expenditure of the British Columbian Governmentin 1863, 310. Comparative statement of revenue from 1859-1863, 326. Check given to immigration by the re- strictive policy of the Colonial Government and thc Hudson’s Bay Company, 326. Red-tapeism as to land in the colony, 329, 330. Tes- timony of the grand jury of the colony as to the doings of the land oifice, 332. The negro element, 388. Religion in the colony, 418. The Indians of British Columbia, 423 Comiaken,VancouverIsland, 46. Farm- ing land in, 185 Common school system, the, about to be introduced into Vancouver Island, 84 Comox Valley, agricultural district of, 49. Extent of farming land at, 187 (‘.omstock gold lead at Washoe, the, 155 002 564 INDEX. CON Congregationalists, the, in Victoria, 83 Conifers of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 305 Cook, Captain, his reconnaissance of the coast in the North Pacific, 56, 57. His opinion of De Fuca’s story, 57. Coose Bay, coal of, 142 Copper, lodes of, at Koskeenio, 50. Copper mines in Vancouver Island, 151. Queen Charlotte Island mines, 151, 152. Inspection of a vein of copper in Vancouver, 152. Want. of capital to develope this source of wealth, 153 Coquahalla, diggings at, 241 Cortez silver mines, 26 Cottonwood, at Lightning Creek, 229 Courtenay River, excellent farmin g land of the region of the, 187. Its junc- tion with the Puntluch River, 188 Coutts, Miss Burdett, her foundation of the diocese of Columbia, 81 Cowichan River, gold found in the bars of, 47 Cowichan, agricultural district of, 46. Width of Cowichan Valley, 47. Pro- lific character of the soil, 47. Farm- ing land in, 185 Creation, Indian tradition of the, 450 Crests, Indian, 445 Crime in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 418 Crops, average yield of, in Vancouver Island, 193, 194. Prices of, in Brit- ish Columbia, 290 Customs’ revenue at New Westminster, 218 AIRY produce in British Columbia, 294 Davidson’s Farm, British Columbia, 291 Deer Island, pure copper found at, 153 Deer in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 189, 301 De Mers, Bishop, his self-interpreting Bible for the Indians, 475 Diablo, Mount, coals of, 142 Diggings. See Gold Mining Diseases of Vancouver Island, 181, 182 Dog-fish caught off British Columbia, 167 Douglas, Governor Sir James and the San Juan dispute, 31, 32. His appoint— ment and leanings, 311, 312. His restrictive policy, 326. His re- marks on Esquimalt Harbour as a naval station, 67. Notice of him, 393. His personal appearance, 393. His de- ESQ portment, 394. His petty diplomacy, 395. His modes of dealing with the Indians, 460. His adventure with an Indian tribe, 466. His land procla- mations, 528 Douglas pine, value of the, 132. Age and soundness of the, 132, 133 Douglas Lake, 223 Douglas Town, 223. Journey from Douglas to Cariboo, 223 Drake, Sir Francis, his adventures in the Pacific, 53. His journey north, 53. Parallel of latitude reached by him, 54. His discovery of New Albion, 54. Dramas of the Indians, 430 Duncan, Mr., his labours among the Indians, 47 6 AGLES, Fish, in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 301 East, trade with the, coveted by west- ern natives from remote antiquity, 336, 337. Effect of the discovery of the route by the Cape of Good Hope, 339. The discovery of America, the result of the search for a short route to the East, 339. Object of the search for the North-west Passage and why a failure, 340, 341. Proposed inter- oceanic railway, 335, et seq. Eggs, price of, in Vancouver Island, 197 Elks in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 189, 300 Emigrants, inviting districts in Van- couver Island for, 189. Extent of the troubles to be anticipated from the Indians, 190. Inducement to emigration to Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 493. Classes en- couraged to emigrate, 493. Those not wanted, 495. Openings for re— spectable women, 496. The dance round a bonnet, 497. Cautions to emigrants, 498. Rates of wages, 499. Prices, 500. Routes to the colo- nies, 502. Hints as to the choice of a vessel and outfit, 505. The Irish in America, 513. Importance of the subject of emigration, 514. Extracts from Messrs. Silvers’ pamphlet re— specting emigrants, 520 ‘ England of the Pacific,’ the, 39 Esmeralda silver mines, 26 Esquimalt, harbour of, 43. Extent and depth of, 43, 44. Governor Douglas’s remarks on its unequalled superi- INDEX. FAL ority, 67. Its value to the city of Victoria and as a naval station, 127. The harbour dues, 525. Exports of gold from the port of Victoria from 1858 to 1864, 109. English and American goods for six months end- ing December 1863, 112. To for- eign ports during October 1864, 113. ALL of man, correspondence be- tween the Scriptural account of the, and the traditions of the Indians of the Rocky Mountains, 455 Farming capabilities of Vancouver Is- land and of British Columbia. See Agriculture Ferns, roots of, for feeding hogs, 196. Monster ferns of Vancouver Island, 48 Ferrela, his expedition in the North Pacific. 52 Fisheries of Vancouver Island and Bri- tish Columbia, 121, 163. Herrings, 163. Hoolakans, 163. Salmon, 165. Trout, 167. Sturgeon, 167. Halibut, 167. Smelt, 167. Haddock, whiting, and dog-fish, 167. Sea perch, rock, &c., 168. Cod, 168. Seal and whales, 168. Morse or walrus, 169. Suit- ability of Vancouver Island for an export trade in fish, 170. Fisheries on the Atlantic coast, 170, 171 Flat-head Indians, 441 Flattery, Cape, 57 Flood, Indian tradition of the, 454 Flora of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 304 ‘ Flutter-w heels,’ use of, in gold-mining, 276 Foley, Mr., his account of the gold re- gion of Sooke river, 157 Forbes, Dr. R. N., his observations on the geological structure of Vancouver Island, 41. His register of the weather in 1850, I77 Fortune-telling among the Indians, 446. Foxes on Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 298 Francisco, San, foundation and growth of the city of, 14. Exports, 15. Dis- covery of gold, 15, 16. General Sut- ter’s mill, 16. Californian life in 1849, 17. Rowdyism and the Vigilance Committee, 17, 19. Destruction of the city six times by fire, 19. Pre- sent condition of it, 20. Judge McAlmond, 20. Progress of the city, 21. The mint, 22. Chinamen in 565 GLA San Francisco, 24. Effect of the high tariff in San Francisco upon the trade of Victoria, 121. Consumption of coal in, 142, 145. Dr. Rattray’s statement respecting the imports of coal into, 143. One of the head- quarters of the North Pacific Whalers, 169 Fraser River, discovery of gold at, 64. The rush from California, 64, 65. The monthly license granted to miners, 66. Description of the coun- try drained by the river, 66. Return of some of the speculators to Cali- fornia, 69. Settlements on the bars between Hope and Yale, 69. The new route via Douglas, and its hard- ships, 69, 70. Yield of gold on the Fraser for the first four months, 72. Gold found on the forks of the Ques- nelle, 74. Sand bars at the mouth of the river, 216. Scenery ascending the river, 216. The Lower Fraser, 221, 222. Gold-diggings north-west of the Fraser River, 262. Farming on the Upper Fraser, 291. Abun- dance of salmon found in the, 165. Trout found in the Lower Fraser, 167. Sturgeons caught in it, 167. Seal at the mouth of the river, 168. Freshets of the river, and coolness caused by them, 176 French, the, in Victoria, 80 Friendly Cove, 57 Fruit of British Columbia, 293. Wild fruit of Vancouver Island, 47, 48, I86 Fuca, Juan de, story of, and of his imagined discovery of a north-east passage, 54. Captain Cook’s opinion of the story, 57 Fuca Straits, 40. Survey of, by Captain Vancouver, 58. Anthracite coal of, I42 AMBLE, Fort. prosperity of the saw-mills of, 136 Gambling among the Indians, 444 Gas-works in Victoria, 85 Gaspy, in Canada, restrictions on ex- ports from, 92 note Geological structure of Vancouver Is- land, 41. Of British Columbia, 209 Georgia, Gulf of, islands of the, 45. Minerals found in these islands, 45. Numbers of whales in the Gulf, 168 Germans, the, in Victoria, 80 Glacial phenomena, records of, in Van- 566 INDEX. GOL couver Island, 42, 43. Glacier tunnel near Knight’s Canal, 236 Gold, discovery of, in California, 15 16. Mining operations, 26. Riches of Oregon, 28. Gold-bearing rocks near South River, 46. Gold found in the bars of Cowiehan River, 47. Discovery of the precious metal in British Columbia in 1858, 64. The rush to the Fraser River, 64, 65. Yield of gold on this river for the first four months, 72. Exports of gold from Victoria from 1858 to 1864, 109. Gold mining in Van- couver Island, 154. The existence of gold known since 1850, 154. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s miners in Queen Charlotte Island, 154. The Goldstream ‘diggings’ near Victoria, 155. Formation of companies to work the mines, 155. Governor Kennedy’s vigorous measures for the exploration of the colony, 155. The discovery of gold on the banks of the Sooke River, 156. General cha- racter of the country from the bar- hour to the canon, 157. Richness of the Sooke district, 158-160. Dig- gin gs on the east side of Leech River, 162. Gold found at Jordan River, 162. Diggings at Hope, 240. At Fort Yale, 241. At Similkameen, OKanagan, and Rock Creek, 241. At Tranquille and North Rivers, and Kamaloops Lake, 243. At Ques- nelle River and Antler River, 243. Cariboo, 245. The Artesian Gold Mining Company Limited, 247. Re- markable instances of success, 248. Lowhee Creek, 249. Shuswap dig- gings, 252. The Kootanie district, 253. Diggings north-west of the Fraser River, 262. Mining laws of the colony, 263 (and see also Ap- pendix). Description of the process of mining, 266. Essentials for carry- ing on mining operations success- fully, 266. The art of ‘prospect- ing,’ 267. Use of’ the ‘ rocker,’ 268. Hydraulic mining, 270. ‘ Water companies,’ 273. The ‘ flutter- wheel,’ 274. Turning a river out of its bed, 274. ‘Ground sluicing,’ 274. Tunnelling, 276. Quartz mining, 276. Gold discoveries east of the Rocky Mountains, 361. Slang in vogue at the diggings, 415. Kindheartedness of the miners, 418. Their ten commandments, HOR 418. Rules and regulations for working gold mines, 533-559 Grain, prices of, in Vancouver Island, I97 Granite of Vancouver Island, 43 Grasses of Vancouver Island and Bri- tish Columbia, 305 Grasshoppers, Indian mode of catching, for food, 448 Grazing in Vancouver Island, 196 ‘ Ground sluicing’ in gold mining, 276 HADDOCK caught 011' British Co- lumbia. 167 Halibut, caught round the coast, 167. Enormous size of‘ some of them, 167 Hamburg, its flourishing condition as a free port, 92 Hams price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Hare, the, unknown in Vancouver Island, but inhabiting British Columbia, 300 ‘Harewood Coal Mining Company,’ formation of the, 149 Harvey, General, visit at San Juan, 30 Harrison Lake, 223. River, its con- fluence with the Fraser, 223 Hay, price of‘, in Vancouver Island, 197 Haynes, Mn, his dispatch respecting the Kootanie diggings, 253 Health, the climate of Vancouver Island in connection with, 181 Heceta, Bruno, his expedition to dis- cover a north-east passage, 56 Heraldry, system of, among the Indians, 444 Herrings on the coast of Vancouver Island, 163 Hills, Bishop, his appeal for thirteen additional clergy and five catechists, 82 notes. His awkward predicament with the Indians, 475 Hindoos, commerce of the ancient, 337 Hogs, in Vancouver Island, 196. Of British Columbia, 291 Hongkong, as a free port, 93 Honolulu, one of the head-quarters of the North Pacific Whalers, 169 Hoolakans, shoals of, in the rivers of Vancouver Island, 163. Oil pressed from them, 164. Used by the natives as torches, 165 * Hope, town of, 230, Site of, 231. Dig- gings at, 240 ' Hops produced in Vancouver Island, 194 Horses in Vancouver Island, 195. Na- INDEX. HIM) tive horses from the Sandwich Islands, 195. Of British Columbia, 293 Hudson’s Bay Company, post of the, at Fort Rupert, 49. Obtain a grant of Vancouver Island from Government, 58,59. Their monopoly and its result on the colonisation of the island, 62. Mr. Labouchere and the prosperity of Vancouver Island, 63. Impediments caused by the restrictions of the Company, 69. Its gold-mining opera- tions in Queen Charlotte Island, 154. Settlement of its quarrels with the Montreal or North~ West Company, 208. Trade of the Company till 1858, 208, 209. Its Fort at Longley on the Lower Fraser, 222. Grant of Vancouver Island to it, 310. Check given to immigration by the restric- tive policy of the Government in 1858, 326. Question of the adjust— ment of the right of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the event of the construction of an interoceanic rail— way, 356. Discussion in the House of Commons on the rights of the Company, 371 Humboldt silver mines, 26 I-Iydah Indians, their thefts, 458 Hydraulic mining, for gold, 270 MMIGRANTS, simplicity of some of the new comers, 396 Imports, amount of, into the port of Victoria in 1861—1863, 106 Incantations of the Indians, 439 Indian buryingplaces, 226 Indians, troubles to he apprehended from, by intending emigrants to Van- couver Island, 190. Those of Van— couver Island and British Col- umbia, 423. Theories as to their origin. 423. Territorial limits of the tribes, 428. Their ideas of rank, 429. Festive ceremonies, 430. Their ‘ pot- latch,’ 430. Dramatic exhibitions, 432. The mysteries of ‘Kluquolla,’ 433. Medicine-men and their atrocities, 434—436- Cannibals, 436. Education of the ‘allied,’ 437. Medical men, 438. Incantations, 439. Witchcraft, 440. Indian ideas of personal beauty, 441. Flattening of the head, 441. Women, 442. Tattooing, 442. Arms, 443. An Indian village,443. Gamb- Lmg, 444. Indian heraldry,444. For- tune-telling, 446. Marriages, 446. Burial, 447. Food, 448. Catching 0‘! co ~t KEN grasshoppers, 448. Rain-making, 451. Indian tradition of the creation, 450. And of the fall of man, 451. Indian idea of the cause of thunder and lightning, 456. Their ideas of a future state, 457. Indian thieves, 458. Severe measures adopted against them, 459. Their massacres of whites, 462. Internecine wars among them, 470. Scalping, 470. Pro— titution among them, 471. Roman Catholic missions, and their influence among the Indians, 472, 473. The sign of the cross, 472-474. Indian selfish motives in religion, 476. Mr. Duncan’s labours, 476. Hind- rances to missionary works, 478. The new Christian settlement at Metlakatlah, 483. Ingenuity of the Indians, 484. Industrial arts and missions, 485. Threatened extinction of the Indians, 487 Indies, West, approach to the ‘ Virgin Group,’ 3. Columbus’s discoveries, 3, 4. The ‘ Caribes’ of the, 4 Inn, an, on the road to Cariboo, 226 Insanity in the colonies,410. Grog, 411, The religious maniac, 411 Insects of Vancouver Island and Brit- ish Columbia, 303 Irish, the, in America, 512 Iron manufactures of Victoria, 85. Magnetic iron ore, found in Van- couver Island, 153 Isinglass made from the swimming bladder of thc sturgeon, 167 APAN, advantages to be derived by Victoria in opening of a trade with, 123 Jew, the ‘ skedaddled,’ 409 Jews, their synagogue in Victoria, 83 Johnstone’s Straits, 49, 58 Jordan River, gold found at, 162 Joint stock companies in Victoria, 85, 86 Juan, San, visit to the island of, 29. 'The difiiculty between England and the United States in 1859, 29-38 AMALOOPS Lake, diggings at, 243 Karus, Lake, character of the land near, 189 Kayoquot, district of, 50 Kendrick, Captain, his alleged dis- covery of the channel separating 568 INDEX- KEN Vancouver Island from the main land, 57 Kennedy, Governor, his vigorous mea- sures for the exploration of Vancou— ver Island, 155. His reception in Vancouver Island, 322. Chinese address to him, 386. Indian address to him, 468 note. King George IIl.’s Archipelago, dis- covery of a portion of, 56 Kluquolla, Indian mysteries of, 433 Kootanie diggings, the, 252. Mr. Haynes’s dispatch respecting the, 253. Report by Mr. Colonial Sec— retary Birch, 255. Farming land in the, 290 Kootanie Indians, the, 257 Koskeemo sound, 49. Country from Cape Scott to, 50. Coal seams at, 151 ADIES’ College in Victoria, 84. American, 397 La Hache Lake, 227 Lamalchas Indians, their robberies, 469 Langley, on the Lower Fraser, 221. Coal seams at, 151. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort at, 221. Farm- ing land at, 286 Lard, price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Leech river, silver found at, 158. Dig- gings on the east side of the, 162 Lignitic beds at Burrard’s inlet and Bellingham Bay, 41 Lightning-bugs, at Panama, 10 Lilloet, 225, 226. Meadows at Port Pemberton, 286 Limestone in Vancouver Island, 154 Lock, Michael, his narrative of Juan de Fuca’s imagined discovery of a north-east passage, 54 Lowhce Creek, gold diggings of, 249, 251 Lytton, town of, 233 ACKENZIE, Sir Alexander, his explorations in British Columbia, 208 Mammoth-trees of California, 24 Manufactories in Victoria, 85 Marble, blue, found on the coast of Vancouver Island, 154 Marriages among the Indians, 446 Martens in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 297 Mayne, Commander, R.N., his explo- NEG rations of part of Vancouver Island, 187 McAlmond, Judge, of San Francisco, 20 McNeil Fort, coal mines at, 151 Meares, Captain, his discovery of the channel separating Vancouver Is- land from the main land, 57 Medicine-men of the Indians and their doctrines, 434, 435. Their mummery of rain-making, 449. Their opposi- tion to missionary work, 479 Metallic riches of California and British Columbia, 24, 25 Metchosin, agricultural settlement of, 43,185 Methodists, the, in Victoria, 83 Mexico, objects of the French in, 13. The priests of, 13. The trade of Victoria with, 111 Milk, price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Mining, gold. See Gold mining Mining laws of the colony, 263 (and Appendix) Mink, the, in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 297 Mofi‘at, Mr. Hamilton, his exploration of Vancouver Island, from Nimpkish River to Nootka Sound, 188 Morse or walrus fishing grounds in the North Pacific, 169 Mountains between Cape Scott and Koskeemo Sound, 50 Mules in British Columbia, 293 Murchison, Sir Robert, his prediction respecting Australia and Cariboo, 246 ANAIMO, town and harbour of, 48 Salt springs of, 48. Coal mines of, 41, 48, 141, 142. The country surrounding Nanaimo, 49. Thick- ness of the coal seams, 144. Con- venience of the harbour for shipping coal, 144. The Vancouver Island Coal Mining and Lead Company and its profits, 145. Total quantity shipped from Nanaimo up to Decem- ber 1863, 145. Salt springs at, 169. Character of the land around, 186. Address of the Indians of, to Go- . vernor Kennedy, 468, note Nanoose river, farming land in the valley of the, 187 Napoleon III., his designs in relation to Mexico and trade in the Pacific, 367 Negroes, civil disabilities of the, in INDEX. 569 NEV California, 381. Those in Van- couver Island, 388. Differences between negroes and the whites, 388 Nevada, quartz mills and crushing power in, 27 Newfoundland, fisheries of, 170 Nootka Sound, 50 Nootka Island, 50, 51. The present number of the Nootka Indians, 51 Northeast passage, Juan de F-uca’s imagined discovery of a, 54. Expe- dition of Juan de Perez, 55 North River, diggings at, 243 North west passage, object of the search for the, and why a failure, 340,341 OATS, price of, in Vancouver Island, . 197 Odessa, flourishing trade of, 92 Officials, defalcations of, in Vancouver Island, 399 Oil extracted from the hoolakan fish, 164. Indian method of obtaining it, 164. That extracted by them from the dog-fish, 167, 168 OKanagan, Lake, abundance of trout in, 167. Diggings in the tributaries of, 242. OKanagan district, farming land at, 231, 288, 289 Orchards in Vancouver Island, 199, In Oregon, 199 Oregon, gold mines of, 28. The mon- ster fruit of, 28, 199- The Oregon boundary, 37. Exports from Victoria to, in October 1864,115. Population of, in 1850 and at present, 126, 127. Orford, Cape, discovery of, 53 Otters in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 298 Outfit of emigrants, 506 Oxen, demand for, in Vancouver Island, 196 ACIFIC OCEAN, discovery of the, 25 Panama, isthmus of, 7. Railway on the, 7, 9. Scenes on the, 8. Town of, 9. Islands in the bay of, 10. Parmeter Gold Mining Company, for- mation of the, 155 Partridges in the interior of Vancouver Island, 189 Pavillon Mountain, 226. Road over the, 233. Experience of farming north of the, 286, 287 PUN Pears, monster, of Oregon, 28 Peas. price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Peavine silver mines, 26 Pelley, Sir J. H-, obtains a grant of Vancouver Island for the Hudson’s Bay Company, 58, 59 Pemberton, Mr., his explorations in Vancouver Island in 1857, 46 Perch, sea, 168 Perez, Juan de, his expedition to dis- cover the north-West passage, 55. His discovery of Queen Charlotte’s Island, 56 Perron, M. du, his comparison between the timber of the Douglas pine and spars from Riga, 133 Petra, commerce of, 339 Pico, Island of, 2 Pilot-fish, 7 Political statistics of Vancouver Island, 310 Pork, fondness of the Chinese and mining population for, 196. Price of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Portland, state of Oregon, 28 Ports, free, the principal ones in the world, 91. Victoria as a free port, 91 Postal communication with England, necessity for direct, 507 Potatoes grown in British Columbia, 292 ‘ Potlatch,’ the. of the Indians, 430 Prairie, the Grand, 289. Prairies at Sumass and Chilukweyuk, 222. Of OKanagan, 231 Precipiee, the, on the road north, 236 Presbyterians, the, in Victoria, 83. In New Westminster, 221 Prescriptions, medical, among the In- dians, 438 Prevést, Captain, of H. M. S. ‘ Satellite, 31 Prices at Cariboo in November 1864, 252. Of crops in British Columbia, 290. In Vancouver Island and Brit- ish Columbia, 500 Prince Edward’s Island, heavy customs’ duties at, 92 ‘ Prospecting’ for gold, the art of, 267 Provisions, prices of, in Vancouver Island, 198 Puget Sound, saw-mills at, 135, 136 Puma, the, in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 298 Puntluch River, the, 188. Its junction with the Courtenay River, 188 J 570 INDEX. _ QUA UADRA, Francesco de la Bodegay, his expedition to discover a north- west passage, 56. His discovery of a portion of King George III.’s Archipelago, 56 Quamichan, Vancouver Island, 46. Farming land in, 185 Quartz mining, 276. Primitive expe- dients for crushing quartz, 277. Steam power, 278 Quatsino Inlet, coal and other minerals of’, 49 Quatsino Bay, 50 Queen Charlotte’s Sound, navigated by Juan de Fuca, 55 Queen Charlotte’s Island, discovery of, 56. The copper mine at, 151. Re- port of a mining engineer on the mine, 152. The Hudson’s Bay Com- pany’s gold mines in, 154 Quesnelle, town of, 228 Quesnelle River, 228. Gold mines discovered at the forks of, 74, 243 ABBITS unknown in Vancouver Island, but inhabiting British Columbia, 300. Race Rocks, 43 Race, varieties of the human, repre- sented in Victoria, 378. Tschudi’s classification of human hybrids, 379. Civil disabilities of Chinese and Ne- groes in California, 381. Racoons in Vancouver British Columbia, 297. Rae, Dr., his route for a line of tele- graph from Red River to the Pacific, 355. Railway, proposed interoceanic, 335. The scheme slow but sure, 335, 336. Efforts of the Americans, 342. Would such a line pay ? 343. The shortest route to Australia and China, 343, 344. The political utility of the scheme, 345. The most eligible tract of country for laying down the line, 347. Value of the valley of the St. Laurence, 348. Central position of Red River Settlement, 350. Road vic'i St. Paul’s, 350, 351. A1- ledged difiiculties of extending the line from Fort Garry to Canada, 351. Urgency of an emigrant route, 352. The course it should take from Lake Superior, 353. Question 70f adjust- ment of the rights of the Hudson’s Island and SAL Bay Company, 355. Passes of the Rocky Mountains. 362. Viscount Milton’s account, 364 Rain-making, mummery of, by the Indian medicine-men, 449 Rain in Vancouver Island, 179 Rape-seed oil from Japan, 124 _ Rats in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 300 Rattray, Dr., his opinion as to the pro- per site for the Pacific Naval Sani- tarium,129. His statement respecting the imports of coal into San Fran- cisco, 143. His register of the weather in 1860—61, 177. His table of the yield of crops in Vancouver Island, 194 Red River Settlement, its central posi- tion for the proposed interoceanic railway, 350, 351. Telegraph being laid down from Red River to the Pacific, 356. Fertility of the land near Red River, 359. Memorial of the people of Red' River Settlement to the British and Canadian Govern- ments, 375. Religion, state of, in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 417. Reli- gious beliefs of the Indians, 457. Re- ligious bodies in Victoria, 81 Reptiles of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 303 Reese River, silver mines of, 26. Popu- lation of the district, 27 Roads in Vancouver Island, 204. Roundabout road to Cariboo, 233, 234 Rock Creek, diggings at, 242 Rock found ofi” Victoria, 168 Rocker, use of the, in gold mining ope- rations, 267 Rocky Mountains, gold mining on the eastern slopes of the, 361. Passes of the, 362. Viscount Milton’s account, 363. Railway through the Rocky Mountains, 365 Rupert, Fort, 49 Russia, strides of, in the North Pacific, 366 . AA NICH Peninsula, 45. in the, 185 Sacramento, trip to, 22. The state legis- lature in session, 22. Meeting of the ‘ Democratic Convention,’ 23. Pre- sent state of the town, 23, 24. China- men in, 24. Taxation at, 24. Inun- dation of the city of, 177 Salmon, introduction of, into Australia, 125. In the rivers of Vancouver Farms INDEX. SAL Island, 165. Great numbers found dead in the Columbia River, 166. The hook-bill, spring, and hump- backs, 165, 166. Indian revenue ob- tained from the sale of salmon, 166. Lucrative trade to be made in salmon, 166. Salmon River, farming land at, 188. Salt Springs of Salt Spring Island, 48. Of Nanaimo, 48. On Admiralty Island and at Nanaimo, 169. Salt Spring Island, 48. Brine Springs of, 48. Sanitarium, the proposed, for invalided nava' men, in the Pacific, 128. Dr. Rattray’s opinion as to its proper site, 129 Sandstone of excellent quality found on Vancouver Island, 154 Sandwich Islands, table of exports from Victoria to, in October 1864, 114. Native horses from the, in Vancouver Island, 195 Sansum Narrows, copper mines at, 48 Saskatchewan River district, its adapt- ability for colonisation,359. Mineral riches of the country, 360. Gold in the river, 361 Saw-mills in Victoria, 121. At Puget Sound,136 Scalping among the Indians, 470 Schools and Colleges in Victoria, 84. Schools in New Westminster, 220 Scotch, the, in Victoria, 80 Scott, Cape, 49 Seals found at the mouth of the Fraser River, 168 Seaton, Lake, 225 Semihamo, city of, 66 Septaria, nodules of, 42 Sewage of Victoria. 87 Sharks in the harbour of Carthagena, 7. Their fondness for white men, 7 Shawingan, Vancouver Island, 46. Farming land at, 185 Sheep, breed of, in Vancouver Island, 195. In British Columbia, 294. Mountain sheep in British Columbia, 301 Shells, list of, found on the coast of Vancouver Island, 305 Shipbuilding in Victoria, 121 Shuswap diggings, the, 252. routes to the, 238 Silver mountains, 26 Silver, yield of the mines of, at Washoe, 26. Mills in the state of Nevada, 27. At Hope diggings, 241 Two 5 7] sin Similkameen, diggings at, 242. Ferm- ing land in the, 288, 289 Sitka, trade of Victoria with, 111. Table of exports from Victoria to Sitka, in October 1864, 113. Vancouver Island coal in demand at, 149 Skunk, the, in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 297 Sluicing, method of, in gold-mining operations, 269 Smelts caught in the Fraser river, 167 Society, in Victoria, 398. The un— married couple, 400. Adventures of widows, 401. Extraordinary wed- ding scene, 402. Young colonists, 406. The ‘Skedaddler,’ 409. The social pyramid reversed, 412. Ox- ford and Cambridge men roughing it, 413. Character of society in the interior, 414. Slang in vogue among miners, 415. State of religion, 417 Soils, character of the, of Vancouver Island, 182. Of British Columbia, 284 Somenos, Vancouver Island,46. Farm- ing land in, 185 Sooke, agricultural settlement of, 43. Sooke River, discovery of gold on the banks of the, 156. Evidence of the richness of the district, 156-160. Agricultural land at, 185. Panthers at, 298 South River, 46 Sowing, times of, in Vancouver Island, 202 Spain, her discoveries in the Pacific, 52 Squirrels, in ‘Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 300 Stags in Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 300 Steamers, high-pressure, on the Fraser river, 231, 232. Prodigalindifierence of American steam-boat men to human life, 232 Stickeen River, pure copper found at, 153 Stock used in Vancouver Island, 195. Cattle, sheep, and horses, 195 Sturgeon, found in the rivers and lakes of British Columbia, 167. Immense size of the fish, 167. Caviare, 167 Sumallow Valley, farming land in the, 288 Sumass, prairies at, 222, 286 Summer Bay, 45 Summer in Vancouver Island, 181. The Indian summer, 181 Swift River, 229 INDEX. TAB TABOGA, island of, 10 Tadmor in the Wilderness, commerce of, 338 Taylor, Dr. Lachlin, his statement re- specting farming in British Columbia, 291 VAN N ITED STATES, preparations of the, to receive and distribute eastern commerce by the construction of an interoceanic railway, 342. Appearance of citizens of the United States in the British Colonies, 397. Care bestowed by the, upon young colonies, 511 Utsalady, saw-mills of, 136 VALDEZ INLET, 49 Tehuantepec, Gulf of, 12 Ten Commandments, the miners’, 418 I‘erceira, island of, 2 Thomas, St., island of, 3. Harbour and town of, 4. Trade of, 5. Inhabitants of, 5. Freedom of its port, 92 Timber of the Somenos plains, 46. Of South River, 46. Between Cape Scott and Koskeemo, 50. At Barclay Sound, 51. Great demand for tim- ber in, 122. Timber trade of Van- couver Island and British Columbia, 131. Table of the principal varieties, 131, 132. Value of the Douglas pines, 132. This timber compared with that from Riga, 133. Messrs. Ander- son 85 Co.’s export trade in timber, 134, 135. Comparative statement of export of lumber, &c., from Alberni Mills during 1862 and 1863, 135. Their trade in sawn timber, 135. Timber trade of other smaller firms, 135. Advantages of Van- couvcr Island over New Brunswick and Canada as regards the timber trade, 137. Saving to owners of saw~ mills who build their own ships, 138. Timber more remunerative to the common carrier than gold, 138. Opening for an export trade in rail- way sleepers, 139. Mode of render- ing timber proof against the destruc- tive action of a torrid sun, 139. Prices of spars, masts, &c., in Van- couver Island, 140. Townsend, Port, founded at, 66 Trade sufiicient for a steamer in the North Pacific, 510. Trades carried on in Victoria, 85. List of trades and professions in Victoria, 89 Tranquille River, diggings at, 243 Trout of Vancouver’s Island and British Columbia, 167. Those of Lake OKanagan, 167. Of the Lower Fraser River, 167 Tschudi, his classification of human hybrids, 379 Tunnelling, in gold mining, 7 6 .Turnips of British Columbia, 292 American town Vancouver Island, description of, 39. The ‘England of the Pacific,’ 39. Straits of Fuca, and first view of Vancouver Island, 40. Vegetation of, 40. Coast-line of, 40. Geological structure of, 41. Records of glacial phenomena in, 42, 43. Har- bour of Esquimalt, 43. City and harbour of Victoria, 40. Saanich Peninsula, 45. Summer Bay, 45. Agricultural district of Cowichan, 46. Mr. Pemberton's explorations in 1857, 46. Mr. Brown’s despatch, 46. Wild vegetation of Cowichan, 47. Copper mines at Sansum Nar- rows, 47. Copper mines of Nanaimo, 48. Comox valley, 49. Islands near Cape Scott, 49. Coal of Quatsino Inlet. 49. Koskeemo Sound, 50. Quatsino Bay, 50. Timber between Cape Scott and Koskeemo, 50. Cop- per lodes and quartz veins at Ac- cla, 50. Woody Point, 50. Barclay Sound, 51. The Alberni Canal, 51, Captain Vancouver’s description quoted, 52. Discovery of the chan- nel separating Vancouver Island from the main land, 57. The Island first traversed by white men, 58. Grant of it to the Hudson’s Bay Company, 58, 59. Terms of the grant, 59-61. Proposed union with British Columbia, as affecting the free port of Victoria, 95. Reso~ lutions passed by the Legislature of Vancouver Island respecting the proposed union, 105. Destructive efl'ect of the monopoly granted to the Company, 62, 63. General resources of Vancouver Island, 131. The timber trade, 131. Coal mines, 141. Copper mines, 151. Magnetic iron ore, 153. Limestone, sandstone, blue marble, and blue clay, 154. Gold,154 et seq. Fisheries, 163. Agriculture, INDEX. 573 VAN 172. Climate, 174. Total number of acres belonging to Vancouver Island, 184. Agricultural districts, 184. Mr. Moflat’s journey across the Island from Nimpkish River to Nootka Sound, 188. Average yield ofcrops, 194. Stock, 195. Prices of pro- duce and stock, 197—199. Animals and vegetables of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 297. Politi- cal statistics of Vancouver Island, 310. Grant of the Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company, 310. The germ of Colonial Legislature, 313. Disputes between independent colo- nists and the authorities, 314. The first bill of appropriation, 315. Disproportionate paraphernalia of Government, 316. Sources of colo- nial revenue, 317. Estimates of colonial expenditure for 1864, 318. Opposition of the Legislature to the proposals of the Duke of Newcastle, 320. Reception of Governor Ken- nedy, 322. The question of union between the two colonies. 323. Society in Vancouver Island, 378. Chinese in the Island, 386. The Negro element, 388. Governor Douglas, 393. Defalcations of officials,399. Religion on the Island, 417. Crime, 418. The Indians of the colony, 423. Land proclama- tions of Sir James Douglas, 528. Vancouver, Captain, his description of Vancouver Island quoted, 51. Sent to adjust a dispute with the Spanish authorities in the Pacific, 57, 58. His survey of the Straits of Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, 58. Reaches 100 miles above Nootka, 58 Vasco, Nunez de Balboa, his discovery of the Pacific Ocean, 52 Vegetables, prices of in New ‘Vest- minster, 293 Vegetation of Cowichan, 47. Of Vancouver Island and British Colum- bia, 297 Vessels, number and tonnage of, entered at Victoria, in 1861—1863, 108 Vermilion Pass, in the Rocky Moun- tains, 362 Victoria, city and harbour of", 44. In- fluence of the discovery of gold in the growth of, 64, 65. Rush from California, 65. Sudden rise in the value of land, 65, 66. The rival cities attempted by the Americans, 66. VIC Unequalled superiority of Victoria Harbour, 67. Reaction in Victoria and return of faint-hearted specula- tors to California, 69. Riots of the ‘rowdies’ assembled in the city, 71. Gloomy state of the city, 71. Yield of gold for the first four months, 7 Lowest point of depopulation, in 1858, 73. Cheering news from Ques- nelle, 74. The immigration of 1862 and disappointment and privation of the inexperienced, 75, 76. Descrip- tion of the city of Victoria as it now is, 77. Population, 77. Beaconhill Park, 77. Walks and drives, 77. Public buildings, 78. The streets and houses, 78. Volunteer firemen, 79. Theatre and drinking saloons, 79. Police barracks, 79. Reading-room and library, 79. Associations for various purposes, 80. Foreigners in the city, 80. Volunteer rifle corps, 80. The newspaper press,81. Religi- ous bodies, 81. Miss Burdett Coutts’s endowment of the diocese, 81. Col- leges and schools, 84. Manufactories and joint stock companies, 85. Gas and water supply, 85, 86. The muni- cipal council, 86. Sewage of the city, 86, 87. Want. of open spaces, 87. Banks, 87. Augmented value oftown property in Victoria, 88. List of trades and professions in Victoria, 89. Victoria regarded as a free port, 91. Importance of guarding the city against the introduction of customs’ duties, 93. Proposed union with British Columbia as aifecting the free port arrangement, 95. Comparative prospects of Victoria and New West- minster,97. Amount of imports into the port of Victoria in 1861—1863, 106. Number and tonnage of vessels entered at Victoria in 1861-1863, 108. Trade of Victoria with the American States on the coast, 110. Its trade with Sitka and Mexico, 111. Table of exports of English or American goods for the six months ending De- cember 1863, 112, Exports from Victoria to foreign ports during the month of October 1864, 113. Com- mercial capabilities of Victoria, 116, 117. Advantages of direct trade with, 118. Proposal for a depot for Euro~ pean goods, 119, 120. Efi‘ect of the increasing customs’ restrictions of‘ San Francisco upon the trade of Victoria, 121. Facilities for return 574 INDEX. ZEA Wesleyans, in New W'estminster, 221. Westminster, New, its prospects com- pared with those of Victoria, 97. Position of the city of, 216. Com- parative quarterly statement of im- ports into, 217. Shipping returns and customs revenue, 218. Rates of duties of customs now leviable at New Westminster upon goods, &c., imported into British Columbia, 219. Plan of the town, 219. Public build- ings, 219. Places of worship, 220. Schools, 220 Whales in the Gulf of Georgia, 168. The fishing grounds of the North Pacific, 168. The Indian mode of capturing the whale, 168 note. Pre- sent rendezvous of North Pacific whalers, 169 Wheat, prices of, in Vancouver Island, 197 Whiting caught off British Columbia, 167 Winds of Vancouver Island, 178 \Vild fowl, abundance of, in the forests of Vancouver Island, 189 Wild-Horse Creek diggings, 258 William’s Creek, 229. Diggings at Cariboo, 246 William’s Lake, paths from, to Cariboo, 235 Witchcraft, Indian belief in, 440 Wolves in Vancouver’s Island and Bri- tish Columbia, 300 Women, openings for respectable, in the colonies, 496. The dance round a bonnet, 497 Woody Point, 50 YALE, Fort, diggings at, 241 Yale, town of, 231 EALAND, New, trade of Victoria with, 125 VI L cargoes, 121, 123. Saw-mills and fisheries, 121. Ship-building in Vic- toria, 121. Prospective advantages of trade with China and Japan, 122, 123. Effect of the commercial rela- tions of Vancouver Island with other countries on the trade of Victoria, 125. An American view of the pro- spects of Victoria as a probable rival of San Francisco, 126. Other circum- stances bearing on its future as a free port, 126. Its proximity to the har- bour of Esquimalt, 127. The proposed sanitarium for invalided naval men, 128. Increasing value of land within fifteen miles of Victoria, 191. The voyage from Victoria to Fraser River, 215. Facilities of Victoria for becom- ing a vast emporium for Eastern commerce, 335. Importance of the proposed interoceanic railway to Vic- toria, 346. Varieties of the human race represented in Victoria, 378. The ultimate effect of this hetero- geneous mixture of types upon the character of the population, 380. \Vhite society in the city, 398. Har— bour dues, 525 ' Villages, Indian, 443 Vine, cultivation of the, in California, 22 Volunteer rifle corps in Victoria, 81 AGES, rates of, in Vancouver Is- land and British Columbia, 499 Washington territory, table of exports from Victoria to, in October 1864, 115. Population of, in 1850, and at present, 126, 127. Coal-fields of, I42 Washoe, silver mines of, 26. Rapidity of the rise of the town of, 27. The Cornstock gold lead at, 155 Water-supply in Victoria, 86 Wedding scene, an extraordinary, 402 WVellingtonea gigantea, the, of Cali- fornia, 24 LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW~STREET SQUARE . is ' ‘at >1} . 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