The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-30 00:00:00

FITLY 30, 1 S 5 8.

LATET FROM THE FRAZER RIVER
GOLD

(1,:" 00Yrespoadeat of rize ,Fan Franiaa aill4gin
of Tune 21.)
PORT TOWNSEND, W. T., Jura 13, 1858.
On the 27th May, the Governor, accompanied
by Mr. Dallas, one of the four Directors of the

Hudson's Bay Company, and Captain Prevost of

the Satellite, left the Fort for a trip up the river
to Fort Yale. The Governor and party were

received by the miners on the river with salutes
and cheers, and at Hill%), Bar dined in one of the

.og cabins of the boatmen's party, and, as I hear,
he affair, if not as recherche as if given at the
"St. Nicholas," passed off as pleasantly as could

be desired. The Governor was highly delighted
with the warm reception he met with, and it

certa;nly evinces the feeling existing towards him
from the miners, who, so far, have experienced

n many instances his kindness towards there.

Re appointed custom-house officers at Fort Yale,

and magistrates on the main bars—the latter from

amongst the miners themselves.
Some forty canoes arrived while I was at Fort
Langley, averaging six persons in each. But few

of them had obtained clearances at Victoria, and,
on the Governor's return from up the river, he

gave notice that he should hereafter stop all
canoes from ascending or entering the river, as
the time stated in his Proclamation had expired
already some time. He, however, gave clearances
to all then there—some one hundred in number.

The next day he left, in the Company's steamer
Otter, for Victoria. Since then no canoes have
been allowed to pass Fort Langley, not having
cleared at Victoria ; and since my arrival here I
learn that the Satellite, now in Esquimault Har-

hour, will return to her anchor off the mouth of
the river, and prevent any vessels whatever from
entering the river, without having cleared at Vic-

toria. The canoes are all numbered and regis-

tered, and any found not so will be seized and

forfeited. The Satellite's launch will be stationed
at the outlet of the Lake, on the river, twenty
miles above Fort Langley, where the trail from
Bellingham Bay reaches the river, and will

effectually prevent any from " dodging the ques-
tion" by that way.
Three canoes, with about 15 men, came down
to Fort Langley whilst I was there, from some 30
miles above the Forks. They were without pro-
visions, and came down from that cause. I was
acquainted with several of them, and they showed
me their dust. They had averaged from an ounce
to three ounces, all the time they had been on
the diggings—some five weeks. The river had
risen over seven feet above the "Canons" and
was then still rising. There was no such thing
as going up the river again until the water tell.

They were bound for the Sound.
Mr. Furness came down from Hill's Bar, with
over 750 dols. in gold dust, the product of four
weeks' work—besides having sold his claim at a
good price. He told me the river had risen over
two feet there, and the miners were working in
the bank, making good wages even there.
I left Fort Langley on June 5, in a canoe, and
at night camped about 20 miles up the river.
There were four other canoes in company with us.
After supper and a smoke, watches being se..iled,
e got under the IA rukets and were talking,
when one of the party exclaimed that he heard
the sound of paddle-wheels. In an instant we
were on our feet and listening. There was no
doubting it. As the steamer neared us with her
lights shining out in the darkness, our camp was
in about as excited a state as could be imagined.
Along she came until abreast our fire, when the
anchor dropped and in two minutes I was aboard
the Surprise, whilst the party ashore were saluting
her with guns and revolvers. It certainly was au
event calculated to excite us, as we had not the
slightest idea of there being any such steamer in
the river. I left the canoe, as you can imagine,
and took passage on her, being obliged to take out
a mining license on going aboard, the boat not
being allowed to take any miner up the river
without it.
She had left Fort Langley, at 7i p.m., and had
made 20 miles in two hours, the current running
about six knots against her. The next morning,
the 6th, at 3i a.m., she went ahead, and at 2
p.m. arrived at Fort Hope. This was an average
of Vi knots. She could have gone at greater
speed, but it was not desired. Mr. 1 ale at Fort
Langley had sent an Indian aboard, who piloted
her up and down, and who evidently knew every
eddy and shoal on the river.
The Indians on the river evidently did not know
what to make of the "Surprise ;" and as to the
different camps and canoes we passed of white men,
they all but stood on their heads for astonishment
at seeing her going along in the centre of the cur-
rent, showing what those infernal Yankees could do
when necessary. She worked well, steered like a
pilot boat, and though caught in some tight place,
went ahead through all. At one or two places,
they "opened her out," and away she went around
a sharp bend, or through a narrow pass, with a
ten-knot current against her, as if she was aware
what was expected of her, and the renown that
would attach to her if she went through. Having
gone tip as light as possible—not knowing how
shoal it might be in some places—there was but
little coal left, and it was concluded not to go up
to Fori Yale then. She remained at Fort Hope
two days.
Thera were some 120 men camped at Fort Hope,
bound up. The same afternoon about sundown, a
difficulty occurred two and a half miles below Fort
Ef ope, between a party of white men who were in
two canoes, and the Indians—in which an Indian
chief of the Harrison river tribe was shot with a
revolver. The Indians in return shot one of the
party, who fell overboard ; but whose body was
found an hour or two afterwards on the beach,
stripped and already mutilated by crows. It
appears that the boats stopped at a bar where a
number of Indians were mining, and in getting out
one of the party stepped on the gunwale of a canoe,
splitting it. The Indian to whom it belonged de-
manded payment for it, and took a shovel out of
the white's canoe, as being more desirable than the
money. Thereupon he was struck with a paddle.
He returned the blow with the shovel across the
face of the man who struck him, who instantly
shot him through the body. As soon as he fell,
the whites pushed off. The Indians fired into
them and shot a man, as I have above stated—but
who was not the one that struck the Indian or bad
anything to do with it. The Indians down the
river, as soon as they received the news of this
affair, stopped all canoes from ascending above
Harrison river, but harmed none, I went on up
to Fort Yaie in the moaning, and found a great
commotion. The Indians were running down
the river in great numbers ; but through Mr.
Alard, the Hudson's Bay Company's agent at Fort
Yale, they were partly pacified, and when I came
down the men were again at work on the bars.
The water was high, but still almost all were at
work. At Fort Yale they were making from 5
dols. to 6 dols., right in the bank. At Hill's Bar
all reported good dirt. Mr. Joseph Morgan, whose
claim was on the lower end of the bar, was averag-
ing from 8 dols. to 10 dols. per day. The claims
above his were paying better—up to 30 dols.
Mr. Hill came down with me, on bis way to
Olympia. He had been four weeks at work on the
bar, which is known by his name ; and had aver-
aged 50 dols. per day for that time. He intends
returning as soon as the water commences falling,
going down meanwhile to settle up some busines
affairs.

A party of five who were mining some 35 miles
above the Forks, and who came dawn in the Sur
prise for provisions, averaged from 20 dols. to 25
dols. pEr day. It being impossible to get anything
up the river until the water falls, they Lad to come
down.

Thera are no men now working on Thompson
river, the Indians there not permitting any one to
go up. The gold. on Thompson river is known to
ba coarser than that on Frazer above the Folks.
On the 9th June, at 4.30 a.m., the Surprise left
Fort Hope, and swung out into the current. We
flew past the trees, rocks and points at railroad
speed ; but all went right, though the thougit, I
suppose, intruded on all en board, " What a plea-
Banc ending it would be for her bow to cone in con.

tact with some unseen rock !" About 10 mils
above Harrison river we met the bee. Bird, bound
Up, We -rent past luir like n, ailed, and anchored
off Fort Langley at 8 a.m. The next trip she will
collie down in much less Lime.

The same owning we arrived at Bellingham Bay,
having been detained some two hours on the sands
at the mouth of the river. I hardly recognised the
place. I was here before the gold fever broke out,
and altogether there were about ten houses.
Where there stood a dense wood before was now the
tow❑ of " Sehome !" Whilst on the other side of
the coal mine was "Whatcom" larger than Sehome,
but having the drawback of about a mile of bar in
fi out of it, at low water. There were, as nearly as
I could judge, about 1,000 men here, nearly all
busy staking out water lots, about which there
seems to be great trouble brewing. Others were
making preparations for starting out on the trail ;
but by far the greater part were apparently in-
tending to go no further. The pack train had just
left, and as I was told, charged 20 eta. per pound
I for goods.

Provisions at Bellingham Bay were plenty and
cheap. Flour was $l6 per bbl ; bacon, 30 cts. per lb.
As those are the two grand staples, the rest were
priced accordingly.
About 120 passengers came aboard here, and
the Surprise returned to Victoria. There, on the
12th June, the Republic armed with her crowd
of passengers, the majority of whom went on to
Bellingham Bay.
The same day (yesterday) I left in a canoe
with six Indians bound for Port Townsend,
where I arrived an hour ago, to find it deserted
of the crowd I heard was there. The fact ap-
peared to me that it has " gone in," at; the saying
is. The storekeepers were seemingly ruminating
on the past four weeks' excitement, and as they
smoked their cigars, wondering where the deuce

the people had gone to.
On my way over I stopped at San Juan Island,
where the late fracas occurred between the In-
dians and Mr. Hubbs, the U.S. Inspector there ;
and found that a crowd of Coquille Indians, in
eight canoes, had arrived on a small island con-
tiguous to it, wrier() they had captured, or rather
"corralled" three Americans, who had stopped
there to camp, taking everything away from them.
The Indians also stated that they had shot a
Kanaka, but I do not know how true it was. Mr.
Hubbs was not there when I arrived, having gone
to the place to see about the affair. As I had
need of urgent haste to reach Port Townsend, I
did not stop long.
I return to Victoria immediately, and from thence
I will go up the river again, whence 1 shall write.
The Surprise will run regularly between Victoria
and Fort Hope or Fort Yale, connecting with the
mail steamer from San Francisco. Thus any one
can slip aboard a steamer in San Francisco and
got off on any bar they may wish to stop at this
side of Fort Yale. In my opinion, to talk of any
other route is a farce to men from San Francisco.
Now that the water is high, the trails must be re-
sorted to, to get up to the Forks; but when the river
is even moderately high, canoes can he taken as high
up the river as desired, making but one or two fifty-
yard portages, at the Grand Falls and one rapid.
However, I 1.11,11 write from my experience soon,
though my authority is good for the preceding.
Tile maps of Frazer river, which are so plentiful,
are poor ; the course of the river is not right ; and
whilst a great number of imaginary streams aro put
down, the great number of large and well known
ones are not to be found. A great number of
places on the river are now known by distinctive
names, none of which appear on the published
maps. The sketch of the river which I lately sent
you is correct to the time it was drawn. 1 suppoe
that after the places get a little better known, the
maps will be correct enough.

STATEMENT OF A RETURNED IVIINE:t
FROM FRASER RIVER.
Mr. George B. Wilbur, a brother of one of the
firm of Strobridge and Co., who his just arrived
on the Panama, has c tiled upon us, and given some
interesting particulars of his experience in the
Fraser River min,s, which will be found below.
He left San Francisco on the 20th April, on
board the steamer Colombia ; stopped at Port
Townsend one day. Himself and party, composed
of seven others, bought a canoe for 50 dots. and
started for Frazer River. Were ten days making
the distance from Port Townsend to Fort Yale,
about 260 miloc. At Fort Yale they went on ab..ut
1.2 miles, and came to rapids, where they had to
make a portage of about eight miles—one mile of
which they were compelled to pack oven their
canoe upon their backs. At " Sailors' Digging"
they camped and mint d ; and continued to move
slowly up the river, prospecting as they went along
the river's banks. They found gold everywhere.
At some places more, at others less—sometimes
they took out as much as four larts to the pan, at
other times five ceivs. They went up about 25 miles
further than Fort Yale, and were prevented from
ascending higher by some rapids or where
the water fell near 15 feet over the rocks. It
was impossible to take a canoe higher. Near the
Falls they prospected and found gold very plenty.
They noticed as a characteristic of the mines, that
the higher up the river they went, the coarser
was the gold.
Near the Falls, and scattered along the river
banks, from Sailor's Bar up, were many miners at
work—all with rockers, as the gold was too fine
to be saved in any other way. They had to pir,
blankets in the rockers to save the fine particles.
The average was from two to three ounces per
day to the rocker, requiring two men to the
rocker. Some places were much richer than
others.

The Indians were very troublesome. They
would seize upon the dust dug by the whites
and wash out the gold. They would even take
the tools from the miners. The whites were
afraid to resist, as they would have been over-
whelmed by numbers. In five minutes time five
hundred Indians could be gathered at Hill's
Bar. These Indians were very expert thieves.
They would steal the pistols from under the
head of a sleeping man, and the very clothes
from his person.
From the fact that the gold is only found on
the river banks, Mr. Wilburn is ce►tain that the
gold-bearing country is above. The river is about
a quarter of a mile in average width. It is full cf
bars, that are exposed when the waters subside, all
of which must be full of gold. When the freshet
is over, the miners can ascend higher—and the
higher up they go, the richer and coarser the gold
appears to be. Canoes were selling at Fort Langley
for one hundred dollars each. The Indians were
very treacherous, and had to be watched. They
would cut the tow-line of canoes they were hired to
tow up, and sometimes would jump out and desert
you when on the rocks.