, 1858-08-20

or two pei cent in advance. They appear
quite independent and bold, and require
civil treatment They will not suffer abuse
or harsh language, nor tampering with !;
they make their demands and leave you to
decide. / find it quite an advantage to
talk to them in the Chenook language, as
thereby a better understanding is had be-
tween parties, and in nearly every instance
they believe that those who speak the Gar
gon" are. King George men," who are oil
right with them. am fully satisfied that
the Hudson Bay Co.'s servants make it
convenient to prejudice the Indian mind
against all Boston men i'm fact several
have told me So But find / am running
out long episode on the North American
Indians, which perhaps will be tedious and
Of little interest, SO III branch off on to
something more near the strings of your
purse, viz the shining "oro," and the
process of obtaining it.
As before stated, the distance between
Forts Hope and Yale is Is miles, between
which places the principal mining is done
on the river below the canyon. noticed
one or two bars few miles below Fort
Hope that we're being worked, but the
men upon them told me that they were not
making grub" Above Fort Hope there
are four bars of some consequence, to-wit:
Puget Sound bar, Texas bar, Emery's bar,
and HIPS bar. There is also a small bar
and bank washings at Fort Yale, but not
worked but little. Puget Sound bar is the
irst of any note, and it is not much as yet,
though it is thought that when the river
falls that rich deposits will be found upon
it, l presume there is about so claimants
on this bar, not more than ten of whom are
making what would be considered good
wages. One or two rockers are said to
wash ont about $l2 q day-two men to
each rocker At Texas bar / presume
there are fully as many or more claimants
than on this bar. / noticed two sluices on
Texas bar, which are said TO be doing we'll
say an ounce day to the man. think
thatOthere are between 80 and 40 rockers
at work on this bar, but they do not aver
age more than five dollars day to the
man. Emery's bar comes next, which is
about as good as Texas bar, though not
quite as large, and pays about the same
per day. Hills bar is the largest below
the canyon. 1 think there over hundred
claimants on it. l passed along there a
few evenings since and saw Is or 20 rock
ers cleaning up" most of which contained
from two to three ounces, making about an
ounce aud a half to the man per day; but
when this is told all is told, so fara have
seen. 1t is true there are several other
small bars and bank washings, with per-
haps ten or dozen claimants on them, but
none doing anything of consequence. The
river is still very high, with but little pros
pect Of falling soon, as it is now raining
The water fell foot or two last week, but
is now slowly gaining ground again, which
makes it about what may be termed on a
stand" Much speculation exists as to the
probability of its falling much below its
present mark until the setting in Of freezing
weather on the mountains, so as to stop
the melting Of the SHOWS. When we got
up this morning we noticed thot the tops
Of the high peaks Of the mountains around
had received fresh supply of snow from
the clouds that gave us rain during the
night. There are not less than 1000 men
on the river between Forts Hope aud Yale,
and of that number not more than two
hundred are making more than enough to
pay expenses. We find now that we are
at least month too early,-but there is
no use to give advice, for when man
makes up his mind to go, he will go if he
knew he would meet mountain Of water
A large number Of the gold seekers are
laying in camp eating up their provisions,
hopelessly waiting for the water to fall so
as to enable them to go to mining or as.
cend the river through the canyon, which
cannot be passed at this stage of the water
with anything like safety. A few adven-
turous whites and boat load or two Of
cinnamon undertook to pass the canyon
last week, from whom nothing has been
heard since, except that two or three boats
have been seen to come back bottom up,
and one or two drowned men found. 1t is
said to be eight miles through the first
canvon, but there is a succession of them
for near 40 miles, then the stream widens
out and forms many islands and bars, upon
which is found the larger particles of gold.
There is another route to the upper Fra
ger and Thompson river which is now being
generally Travelled, to.wit: by way of Har-
rison river and lake. By this route the
Thompson river mines can be reached easier
than by any other way. The steamer
UmatilLa is now making regular trips up
Harrison river.
see more men going down the river
now than l see coming up, which is all
well enough, for there are too many here
already. There is not gold enough this
side Of the canyon to make one-tenth part
of them rich. Many are daily becoming
discouraged-selling out for what they can
get, and leaving for home or some other
more inviting region. 1t is said the Indi-
ans above the canyon show signs Of hostil-
iy, having issued an edict that no " Boston
man" will be allowed to niue in their
country. l have conversed with several
gentlemen who have recently returned from
there, and | find it to be the general opin-
ion that the miners will find difficulty with
them, or in other words, will have to fight