The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-16 00:00:00

he British Isles, a large permanent annual income

was indispensable to, 7enabie it to maintain, in an
effective state, its one hundred and thirty-two life-
boats, and to increase their number, should circum-

stances ren,:er it desirable to do so. The committee

appealed to the British public with fresh confidence
for support to an institution, whose mission and
mercy must come home to every one, and plead for
sympathy and support.

The report having been moved and unanimously
adopted, resolutions in furtherance of the objects of
the institution were proposed and seconded by
Montagu Gore, Esq.; J. MiCann, Esq., M.P.;
Stephen Cave, Esq., M.P. ; Col. Fitz Roy Clayton,
Sir George Sartorius, Admiral Hall, C. 8., F.R.S. ;
J. D. Allcroft, Esq. ; Rev. George Wilkins, Capt.
Robertson, RN., Surveyor-General of the oard of
Trade ; and the usual complimentary vote of thanks
having been given to the ehairinan,*the proceedings,
which were of a very interesting character, closed.

Royal Geographical Society,
The eighth meeting of this society during the session took
place on Monday evening, under the presidency of Sir
Roderick Murchison. Among the distinguished visitors
special attention was directed to the two Ambassadors from
Madagascar, who were presented by the President to the
meeting. Following the sound rule of as much as possible
treating of but one district or region on each night, the two
papers of the evening—one on Vancouver's Island, by Dr.
Forbes, R.N., the other on British Columbia (more espe-
cially Cariboo), by Lieutenant Palmer, R.E.—had been
judiciously selected for the purpose of throwing light upon
what has long been a vexed question—the prospects held out
to emigrants by our colonies in the Pacific. The two papers
indeed were, as the President happily put it, complementary
to each other, and opened up the agricultural, commercial,
manufacturing, and gold-producing capabilities of this re-
gion. In order to facilitate discussion they were read toge-
ther, and we have the more pleasure in laying before our
readers the present precis that both authors have confirmed
in every particular the favourable view entertained by our
special correspondent on the spot as to the splendid prizes
in store for properly qualified colonists, whether their capi-
tal be mere sinew and determined industry or energy, or a
sum of money, which can nowhere be employed to better
advantage, provided a proper investment be sought. Thus,
Lieut. Palmer warns all the loafing classes, to whom gold
acts as a will o' the wisp to lure them to destruction, that
there are no poor man's diggings at Cariboo. That business
has passed into the hands of large capitalists. Dr. Forbes is
equally clear upon the absurdity of supposing that where
labour now is, and is likely for many years to continue, at so
very high a scale, farming can everprove remunerative to the
capitalist,whether in the agricultural or stock- breeding lines.
But a farmer willing to work wi.h his hands will grow enough
corn and keep enough home stock in Vancouver to support
himself and family, and if he further cultivate fruit and vege-
tabies, for which the climate, not unlike that of the south-
west of England—a little cooler and dryer in winter, and a
little hotter in summer, with about the same average annual
temperature--is not unsuitable, he will be able to exchange
these at the centres of commercial industry for imported
articles. More than this—that is, saving so as to make
capital—he will probably fail to do for many a day to
come. The inves ment of capital opens•up, however, a
very different series of questions, consequent on the
rapid development of the mineral and timber resources of
the colony, which may be said to change from month to
month. The south or Vancouver shore of the Sound of
Georgia is now found to supply these seams, respectively
33. 10in,, 53., and 2ft. sin., of a remarkable fine coal,
which has already been worked at Nanaimo, destined before
long to be the chief town, and British Columbia generally,
and is traceable as far as the furthest north-west
extremity of the island, where Johnson's Straits furnish
excellent landlocked harbours. Up to 1858 the feeble and I
casual efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company had in nine
years extracted for their very limited market 63,000 tons of
coals. But during the last year past 22,000 tons had been
exported to San Francisco alone,where it found a remunera

tive sale, though the price at the pit-mouth is 6 dots per
ton. Behind Nanaimo a remarkable natural cleft, known
as Albaoni Cane!, leads into Barclay Sound, where a spirited
London firm have established sawmills, which during nine
months last year out and exported 15 million superficial feet

of some of the finest planking from the Douglas and other
pines. The singular outlines on either side of King Georg's
Sound has been often described ; but it may be as well to

ask the reader to cast his eye on a map of the country, when

he will observe that the coast is so entirely broken up that
it is possible, according to Lieut. Palmer, that there is no
other portion of the globe which possesses so extended a
coast-line, owing to the enormous island-spangled fiords
that run up into the laud. These are all feathered to the
water's edge with the most magnificent hard woods, above
which, at an altitude of 4,000 feet, spring a bold, moss co-
vered, round summit. Up these it has been attempted to
carry a new route to Cariboo, so as to avoid the difficult na-

vitiation of the Cariboo, and if found feasible, of which there
seems little doubt, before long Nanaimo, lying at the foot
of two of the largest and the great coal centres of the colony,
must increase daily. Lieutenant Palmer's paper gave a
graphic description of the splendid scenery of the Frazer
below Yale, of its tributaries from either bank above that

•
point, which have in places hollowed out for themselves
channels 3,000 feet deep, and finally conducted his audi-
tors to the goldfields, where he noticed the singular ra-
diation of the more valuable gold claims, each 13 ing in its
own " gulche" or narrow torrent bod, six or seven of which
diverge towards all points of the compass from one or two
central isolated mountains. Tbis, however, the president
stated, showed that what had hitherto been found was mere
alluvial or suelace gold, washed down from the central or

fried strata, the line of which was exemplified by a map
exhibited on an enlarged scale running 'nearly due north-
west along the west side of the Great Rocky Mountain
chain as far north at least the Penn River. As, however,
this last mentioned river runs eastward to join the Slow
River, it is not improbable that drift gold may yet be met
with cn the cast side. But the general direction, Sir
Roderick held, of the main quartz gold-!reds would bo found
to follow one uniform course. Colonel Moody, R.E., after
confirming the previous remarks and the contents of the
papers, the fidelity of which he bore testimony to from

actual experience, said that much stress had bean laid en

the fact of Americans having monopolized most of th;
business. At all events, if they did so, what they made
they virtually invested on the soil ; but ho dealt Nt ith much
clearness of argument on the splendid future before both
Vancouver and British Columbia, so soon as British capi-
taliats could be hulloed to direct their attentions thither,

to report that during the time that these storms
lasted, the life-boats were providentially the means
of rescuing no less than 385 shipwrecked persons.
With a shipping representing about sixty millions
of tons, and 400,000 vessels which cleared outwards
and entered inwards from British ports during the
past year, a large number of shipwrecks had become
almost a natural sequence. Accordingly,
found that 1,602 casualties took place last year
on the shores and in the seas of the British
Isles, accompanied with loss of 568 valuable lives—
lives of the utmost consequence to the commerce and
defence of the conntry. It was, however, gratify-
ing to find that during the same period 4,565 per-
sons were rescued by lifeboats, the rocket apparatus,
shore-boats, and other means. The total number of
lives saved during the forty years from the esta-
blishment of the Institution in 1824, to the end of
the year 1863, either by its lifeboats, or by special
exertions for which it had granted rewards, was
13,568. Daring the year 15 silver medals, 26 votes
of thanks inscribed on parchment, and £1,297 in
cash had been granted for saving the lives of 714
persons by lifeboats, shore and fishing boats, and
other means, on the coasts and outlying banks of
the United Kingdom. Since the formation of the
Institution, it had expended on lifeboat establish-
ments nearly £lOO,OOO, and had voted 82 gold and
738 silver medals for saving life, besides pecuniary
awards, amounting together to £17,830. The
Committee referred to the cordial co-operation of
the local Branch Committees, the Board of
Trade, the Coast Guard, and the Railway
and Steam Packet Companies, The expenditure
of the Institution in the year 1863, on its life-
boat establishments, was £11,377 14s. ld.; £1,351
6s. 41. in rewards for services to shipwrecked
crews; and £2,441 9s. ld. for coxswains' salaries,
and the quarterly practice of the baats' crews. The
institution had received £lOO from a Sailor's
Daughter, per Messrs. Diummonds; £lOO as a
thank-offering for preservation at sea during the
storm of the 31st October last; £1 63. 9d. being
the amount of a collection at St. John's Sunday
School, Manchester; 18s.• 81. collected in
Mochrum Parish Church, as a new year's offering
to the Institution, per Rev. R. Craig; £lOO from a
friend,' in gratitude to God for the preservation
of his wife for another year; and £2O from a sea-
man's daughter (C. T.) the produce of her needle
work. The following legacies had been bequeathed
to the Institution since the last report :—James
Miller, Esq., of Glasgow, £lOO ; Wm. Carrie,
Esq., of Carnhill, London, £200; John Farnell,
E-q., of Isleworth, £l,OOO (free of duty); Milborne
Williams, Esq., of Whitchurch, £5O; Miss Emma
Keate, of Kensington, £300; and Richard Spencer,
Esq., of Gower-street, London, £2OO. Tne items
of receipt and expenditure were detailed in the
annual financial statement attached to the report
audited as usual by Mr. Begbie, the public account-
ant. Consiciering the magnitude and unavoidable
costliness of the operations of the National Lifeboat
Institution, embracing the whole of the coasts o'