The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-25 00:00:00

THE GOLD DIGGINGS OF BRITISH

COLUMBI.A.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)

VICTORIA,IVANCOUVER'S ISLAND, JAN. 20.
I shall send this letter by express via Panama,
because I am informed that the mail stages across
the continent have broken down. It may take

longer to reach you, but the old route is much safer
than the overland route. In my last letter I gave
a detailed account of the mining operations in
British Columbia during the season of 1861. In
this letter I propose to give a general sketch of the
mineral region, with the view of conveying to such
as have not been in the country a definite concep-
tion of the extent and capabilities of the goldfield.
Beginning with Fre.ser River, the main artery of
the auriferous region, I may state that gold is known
to exist and has been worked at a great many places
in the river and on its banks from a point about 45
miles from the mouth of the river up to near its
source in the Rocky Mountains; in other words,
from the 49th up to the 53d parallel of north lati-

tude, a distance (taking in the 'windings) of some 800
miles. The south branch of the Fraser has its sources
near Mount Brown, in the Rocky Mountains, in
about 53 deg. north latitude, 118 deg. 40 min. west
longitude. Thence this branch flows for 290 miles
to Fort George, a post of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany. The north branch rises in an opposite di-
rection. It receives its supply from a series of lakes
lying between 54 deg. and 55 deg. of north lati-
tude, longitude about 124 deg. 50 min. west, and
runs a course of 260 miles to its junction with the
south branch, some miles below the 54th parallel of
north latitude. Here the union of the two branches
forms the Fraser River proper. Adding the north
branch, which is also a gold-bearing stream, and
which was " worked" last season to the other arm,
the two will give us a continuous stretch of aurife-
rous riverain territory upwards of 1,000 miles in
length, extending for many miles back into the
country on both sides, but not including the tribu-
tary rivers which fall into the Fraser. In short
the river itself is now known to be auriferous
and to pass through a gold-bearing country
throughout its whole course. Gold is also
found in most of the tributaries of the Fraser, of
which no less than 59 are known. The great length
of the main river, and the number of its tributaries
will give some idea of the auriferous resources of
the country.
But these facts do not by any means convey a
comprehensive or accurate view of the vast extent
of the area of the goldfield, because they are limited
to the central portions of the country, while the
whole of the upper portions of British Columbia,
from its southern to its northern boundary, is
auriferous. _

Besides the gold found in the beds and on the
shores of these streams, the Fraser itself and many
of its tributaries are skirted or bordered by ter-
races, all of which yield gold also. These terraces,
or " benches," as the miners call them, run at in-
tervals along both sides of the rivers for miles in
length, and they recede, where the mountains re-
tire, for distances back into the valleys, varying
from a few acres to a few miles in breadth. They
are objects of curiosity and speculation, and add
much to the beauty of the rude scenes in which
they occur from the regularity and evenness of
their structure. They generally occur on both
sides of the river (opposite to each other), at the
same place, sometimes at the same elevations on
both sides, sometimes at different elevations, high
on this and low on the other side of the river ; and
in some places they are multiplied into several suc-
cessive level parallel plateaux, rising one above the
other as they recede from the bank. These terraces
are composed of the ordinary alluvial deposits
loam, gravel, stones, sand, and boulders ; and they
are thick masses generally rising to a height of
150 to 200 ft.

-- —...
This geological formation occurs more fre-
quently on the Fraser than on the other rivers.
The terraces are also larger on the main river,
in some cases assuming the proportions of hills, all
with regular and perpendicular faces. Their for-
mation is, perhaps, due to the fact, that the valleys
between the mountains were at one period filled up,
or perhaps, formed lakes. Each " bench" may
mark successive periods of drainage or subsidence of
the water; and their present elevation above the
rivers may he due to their having been cut away by
the rapid-flowing streams. The tumultuous and
swift-flowing Fraser would soon cut a bed for itself
(as it has done) down to the rock.
Leavis.n; the solution of their formation to the
learned in such matters I ,a, ill hasten to explain
their value to ...+he miner. They contain vast dopo-
e be worked to advantage the
sits of gold, and t:
must.._ a stream of water
" bench diggings" must
supplied from a source higher :Ilan their own sul'
the
faces, so as to give a fall to enable miner to "oPPIY
- - a hose.
the water to the face of the " bench" by `he
The force of the stream -
is due to the height of ~._,

fall. A good strong stream playing upon the face
of the hill will disintegrate a great quantity of
" pay dirt" in a short time. The floating rubbish,
or "dirt," is caught in a long sluice at the base,
provided with " riffles" on the bottom, and spread
with quicksilver to catch the gold. This mode of
mining is called by the miners " hydraulic mining."
Such is the wealth of Cariboo that no quicksilver
was tined, for the miner could afford to lose all the
" fine dust" an 4 be satisfied with the " lumps."
Leaving the Fraserat Fort Hope, 100 miles from
its mouth, and following in the track of the miners
to the southward and eastward for 60 miles, we
come to the Similkarueen. These mines yielded
last season, 16 dols to 17 dols a day to the hand
occasionally. A party of three men took 240 dols
in three days' work from " sluice diggings ;"
and the "rocker," used in "wet diggings," yielded
4 dols, 5 dols, and up to 8 dols. a day to the hand.
Number of miners 200, of whom 150 were Chinese.
A waggon road for 25 miles from Hope, and a
bridle road of 15 miles in continuation approaches
this district.
I have already stated that the Fraser yielded 3
dols to 15 dols a day on the various points on which
it has been worked, for a space of 270 miles, I shall
therefore omit all further detail of the river from
the point where Bridge River empties into the
Fraser, about 20 miles below the 51st parallel of
north latitude, up to the point whore it receives the
Quesnelle Rive.. a little below the b;;d
This river has two branches, one of wnich drains
Quesnelle Lake, lying a degree and a half to the
eastward of the Fraser, and which is 50 miles long.
The other branch drains Cariboo Lake, which re-
ceives Swamp River and Lower Cariboo Lake, into
which Keithley's Creek, one of the Cariboo streams,
empties. At the junction of the two branches a
town, the nearest to Cariboo diggings, is built,
chiefly for the supply of the latter. The place is
called " the Forks of Quesnelle."
Governor Douglas was good enough to furnish
me with the following statement in writing, taken
down by himself from a Cariboo miner, Mr. Steele;
but I received it after I had finished my letter :
Steele's company consisted of five partners, of
which Mr. Steele, an American, was one. Their
claitnwas on William's Creek (Cariboo, of course).
In the summer they sawed the lumber themselves
and made their own sluices. Their claim did not
prospect as good as many other claims. Neverthe-
less, they went at it with a will ; i, ade nothing the
first three days; persevered, and the fourth day
made 4oz. ; the fifth day 10oz. ; and the sixth day
day 41oz. (the market value of 41oz. of gold in
sterling is £290 4s. 2d). From that time, after the
sixth day's work, when the return rose to 41oz.
a-day, it kept increasing until it reached 3870 z.
a-day; and the last day's work yielded a return of
4090 z. The five partners employed " four hired
hands" to assist them to clear away the tailings.
The claim was one of the most difficult to work, as
it required 8 feet to 18 feet of top-stripping of super-
incumbent earth which covered the aurifercus
stratum, or "pay dirt." This latter was composed
of a blue clay, six feet thick, mixed with gravel
and decomposed slate. The whole area of the mine
worked was only 80 feet by 25 feet, and the yield
amounted to 105,000 dols., equal to £21,875. That
so much gold was dug out of so small a space as SO
feet by 25 feet is a pregnant fact. It proves that
the wealth buried in this remote regiod lies concen-
trated in masses thick and plentiful, which is cor-
roborated by the shortness of the period of labour
—not over two months' actual work. This is a short
period to have earned L 21,175 in, certainly, yet the
exuberance of the gold of these mines is more clearly
demonstrated by the rapidity of the acccumulation.
I shall show this result more clearly by converting
Mr. Steele's gold ounces into American currency.
The produce of the labour of the first day that the
claim yielded anything was 68 dols. ; that of the
next day, 170 dols ; of the following day, 697 dols. ;
and so on, increasing until it reached the astounding
sum of 6,579 dols. in a day ; and culminated in a
"return" of 6,953 dols. on the "last day's work."
To prevent any exaggeration in my conversion
of the gold-dust, I have taken the money value of
the ounce at 17 dols., although the average value of
Cariboo " dust" is 17 dols. 65c. and 37-I,oooths, so
that lam under the mark. In other words, this
company's gold produced to the partners more
money in the market than I have valued it at. Their
gold may have been worth 18 dols. the ounce.
To show still more clearly to your English readers
the prospects and rewards of labour in British
Columbia, I will paraphrase Mr. Steele's statement,
which will place it in another and perhaps more
practical light. I will suppose that the five miners
who owned this mining claim were Englishmen, and
that they had sent their earnings home. The gold
would, by the rule of trade, go to the Bank of Eng-
land, and be converted into sterling money—say in
London. I will deduct all the charges of remitting
the bullion (gold-dust), and then see what the
miners would have net money in London. The fruit
of their first day's "yield" would be £l3 1O 2d; of
the next day's yield, £34 14s 2d ; the following day's
yield, £1,343 4s 3d; and the last day's yield would be
£1,419 Ils sd. The mine would have been to them a
prolific mother, for the last day's return shows an
increase of L 76 is 2d over and above the general
run of the yield of " lucky days," as the miners
term their successful and satisfactory periods. Mr.
Steele's return of the gross yield was corroborated
by the quantity of gold-dust brought to Victoria,
where he remained for some time.
In the foregoing sketch I have continued my obser-
vations to such portions of the country as have been
proved to be auriferous. To give a perfect descrip-
tion of the goldfield is out of the question. In fact,
much of it is still undiscovered, and must continue
unexplored in a country of such dimensions as
British Columbia, extending over five degrees of
latitude and embracing a great portion of ten de-
grees of longitude, and which contains some 200,000
square miles of surface. Such au extent of country,
and having such resources of gold, silver, and other
metals, and a large quantity of agricultural and
pastoral land, is an empire, and will require a large
population even to explore it thoroughly. Suffice
it to say, that as gold has been discovered at many
points all over this vast surface and in quan-
titiesihitherto unequalled, the goldfield of British
Columbia is practically, illimitable and its wealth
inexhaustible.

My advice to emigrants from the old country will
be short, and, while it can easily be remembered,
cannot be misunderstood. British Columbia wants
two classes only—men with money and men with
bodily strength—capitalists and labourers. Both
classes will do well. The one will find lucrative em-
ployment for its capital, the ether still more profit-
able employment for its labour. If either fails it will
be its own fault. Should either of these two
classes be married, let them bring their wives and
families; the more numerous the progeny the
better.