The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-28 00:00:00

BRITISH COLUJIBIA. •

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
VANCOUVER'S ISLAND, MAY 10.
The following is a summary of the mining news
for the last fortnight :
The correspondent of the Victoria Gazette, at
present travelling in the mines on a tour of inspec-
tion, writes that the mining locations which extend ,
from about 15 miles below Fort Hope to that place
on Fraser river yield an average of 5 dols. a day to
the hand, but that the miners, not satisfied with so
small a return, had gone higher up, to the Canoe
Country, in search of richer diggers. The town of
Fort Hope is growing rapidly. Close to the town
dry diggings were producing such results as de. to
the pan of earth. Several of the " bars" on the
river were yielding 5 dots. to 8 dots a day to the
man. One man, with a rocker, made 39 dols. in
five days, and the week after made 21 dols. in
three days. " This is a little above the average,
none making less than 5 dols. per day, and some
reaching 8 dots." Of the mining between Fort
Hope and Fort Yale, a distance of 15 miles, we
learn that—
" This side of Yale many of the miners are taking out
big amounts of gold daily, some of them almost fabulous.
Victoria bar is at present the scene of some as profitable
mining as any, reasonable man could desire. Puget Sound
Bar is also yielding a handsome return to several com-
panies. On Texas, Emory's, and other bars, where the
pay-dirt' lies high up, so that the work will not be re-
tarded by the high water, many of the miners will, doubt-
less, stop the entire season.' And on,Union, American,
Puget Sound, Victoria, and Hill's Bars
made; and upon the latter, which works 40 sluice heads, good wages are
is safe to put down the receipts at 6,000 dols. per day, or
42,000 dols. per week, clear of all expenses. A few sluices
are taking out from 300 dols. to 500 do l?. per fly eafh;
one miner on Hill's Bar, who has been aid
up with sick-
ness for some time, says his share has paid him 100 dols.
per day for the last month, he hiring a man to work in his
place. I think Hill's Bar more nearly resembles the richer
bars of California in its general features, location, &c., than
any I have seen on this river, and induces the opinion that
by the downward tending cur-
the gold is there deposited
rent.'
Of the town of Fort Yale, which contains 152
houses, the writer says
The appearance of the settlement as we approach from
below is somewhat imposing, although there are no large or
prominent buildings to attract the eye. Some of the houses
are tastefully painted, and have an air of decided comfort
as well as permanency. The court-house, gaol (now empty),
post-office, and gold commissioner's-office are the only pub-
lic edifices here at present, and I am told most of the struc-
tures now occupied for these purposes are temporary, it be-
ing the intention of Government to erect more suitable and
substantial buildings on the Government reserve at a future
day. The lower fiat, now the site of the principal street, it
is said, will also be vacated, with a view to the introduction
of a string of-sluices and washing for gold."
The streets of Yale may be said, without a
stretch of the imagination, to "be paved with
gold." But far more interesting and important is
the pleasing account of a Sunday at Yale :
"Every Sunday morning a sermon is preached by the
Rev. Mr. Robson, Wesleyan missionary, in the Court-
house. In the afternoon, this zealous Christian preaches
at one of the bars on the river, and again in the evening at
Fort Hope, where he is about to erect a church and par-
sonage. One of the novelties of missionary labour on this
river consists in the preacher paddling, his own canoe up
the rapid stream from Hope on Saturday, and returning,
preaching at intervals, on the Sabbath, to the place of
starting, with the current. The town is much more quiet
and orderly than I had expected to find it ; not a broil or
disturbance of any description having marred the harmony
of the place since my arrival, if I may except the not un-
musical chant of the savages last Wednesday, upon the oc-
casion of celebrating the nuptials of their medical tyhee
and a dusky maiden."
The account of Fort Yale is wound up with the
following remarks. The " Little Canon" men-
tioned is the first gorge of Fraser river, which opens
a short way beyond the town :
" Considerable excitement is created here to-day by the
development of more auriferous wealth near the ,Little
Canon, where parties are said to be taking out a bit to the
pan, with; pay-dirt five feet deep. The more I see of this
country the more thoroughly am I convinced that it has
not been even prospected as yet, and every. man who now
leaves it I believe tramples his own fortune in the dust."
The journey has been continued up the Fraser
river ; and for the first 20 miles beyond Fort Yale
the writer reports at all the mining locations much
more than average wages are being made, and that
any man who is willing to seek gold under the sur-
face of the ground can find it. The word
" under " is emphasized in allusion to numbers of
idle men who " wait on Providence," " speculating
on the chances of something turning up," without
labour, on the surface. Like Mr. Micawber, they
will have "to wait " a long time. At one place at
which the writer had arrived. " one party of five
men weighed 118 dols., the result of the day's
labour."
Higher up he came to a mining location of which
the following is his report :
"Island Bar is one of the richest localities of the Lower
Fraser. During the month of March a company of three
men took out the snug little sum of 10,000 dols. and last
winter, when they were compelled to build bonfires upon
the claim, in order to thaw the ground, they averaged 25
dots. per day to the man. Several parties are possessed of
good claims, and when the water recedes all the modern
improvements will be brought into use to wing-dam the
river here. The last pan of dirt taken out of the claim
while the water was rising a short time since paid four dol-
lars. It is believed by many old California miners that the
river has deposited tMs vast bed of wealth, and they will
stick to the claims until the now rising water again
recedes."
Of the mining country many miles beyond the
places just mentioned, near the junction of the
Fraser and Thomson rivers, we are informed on
good authority that the dry diggings are producing
from 8 dols. to 10 dols. a day. Several " flats" in
this vicinity are being profitably worked—a fact
corroborated by the announcements that " the
miners are bringing in a ditch of some miles in
length for the purpose of working them, that they
have located themselves permanently, and have a
good season's work before them." Of several other
" bars" on the Fraser, near this place, it is also
reported that some " are paying handsomely " and
others " paying well," while on the Thomson
river, at several of the " locations," the miners " are
making 15 dols. to 30 dols. per day to the man."
Such is the tenor of the intelligence received
from British Columbia during the last 14 days.
In my last letter I mentioned that a general
exodus of the miners was taking place from the
Lower Fraser to the Canoe Country. This country
begins at a distance of about 120 miles north-west
of the Forks of Thompson and Fraser rivers. It
is distant about 360 miles from the mouth of
Fraser river, by which it is watered ; and it ex-
tends to New Caledonia. It is a level country,
affording abundant pasture and capable of much
agricultural improvement. Being beyond. the coast
range of mountains, it is drier and milder than the
Country lower down, and is on the whole,
&Walled to be a desirable place for settlement
eretagricultural produce could be raised for the
supply of the mineral regions of British Columbia.
Some short time back the most extravagant reports
of its mineral wteeeth_got spread among the mining
population on Fraser and Thompson rivers,
which had the effect of exciting the fervid imagina-
tions of the miners to a degree which impelled them
thither from their paying locations—from such
places as I have just above described, and which
ought to have satisfied ordinary cupidity—in search
of the fabulous wealth of the new Dorado.
t The remoteness of the Canoe Country,ju a country
without roads, carried the miners beyond the reach
of supplies. The traders could not follow them
with sufficient despatch to meet their daily Wants ;
their own small stocks, carried on their backs, soon
became exhausted, and they, in consequence, soon
became " disgusted," to use their own term when
they wish to express dissatisfaction, and they re-
turned in shoals " sadder" and, it is to be hoped,
" wiser men " than they went to the Canoe
Country ; some complaining that they " were
taken in," others reproaching themselves for having
left good paying " locations" for a will-o'-the-wisp,
and a large number hurling anathemas on the
" merchants" for overcharging in the prices, and
on the muleteers for " laying it on so thick" on the
freight of provisions. The merchants and newspaper
writers gave the complaint another turn. They
blamed " the Government" for not making roads.
" Roads," " roads to the mines," " roads to the
Upper Country," " roads" everywhere are the
burdens of the songs sung at present, and I suppose
they will continue in vogue until a" new grievance"
is started. The Government has made one road, and
it cost £14,000, and if it had the means it would
extend and improve this road and make more; but
when I hear side by side with the cry for roads the
refusal to pay the miners' license fee, and a strong
censure upon all taxation of a feasible and just
character, I really cannot see how the Government
is to get the money to make roads with. Roads,
liket other good things, will come in time ; and un-
i). their advent it would be well that the miners
should remain on the Lower Fraser River, where
t6.3r can, with ordinary industry and perseverance,
make such
,earnings as I have reported in the first
portion of this letter on the authority of an eye-
witness, and whose testimony is corroborated by
gentleraeu who have very lately traversed the same
ground. They will thus save the reproach of one
of their own number, who, writing from the spot,
says of Hill's Bar, near Fort Yale, and the first
rendered famous 1.1; its richness, and quite within
the reach of all the necessaries, and of many of the
comforts of life, " the accounts are almost incredible,
yet I am acquainted with several who sold their
claims early, last fall, declaring that in a month the
ba€ would be worked out,' who started off for
" richer locations " in the Canoe Country ; and
who are now returned " to see their old claims pay-
ing-. well, while they have fooled away all they had
inade."
fa the conflict of accounts touching the Canoe
Country, I am not able to say whether it is really
rich in' gold or not ; but as the Fraser flows through
it, and us we know that gold comes from " Above,”