The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-12
GOLD DISCOVERIES.
A Warning Against the Spectators.
be San Fran cisco Bulletin says:-

Warning Against the Spectators.
The San Fran cisco Bulletin says:-
''Our neighbors in British Columbia we're
anxiously waiting, at the date of our latest
exchanges, for the result of the assay of the
quartz which has lately been discovered in
the neighborhood of Victoria. There is no
doubt whatever that gold-bearing quartz
exists in more than one locality in Vancouver
Island, and in such quantities as to afford
room for the expectation of rich mines being
developed there, provided the quality of the
rock is good. 1t is somewhat extraordinary
that the locality of certain of these veins of
quartz has been known to many of the old
residents for some years past, but up
to the present time no practical attempts
have been made to turn them to good
account; and it is doubtful whether, even
should the assay promise we'll, much benefit
will be derived by the colony from the work.
ing of these mines, until the country is more
thickly populated, and labor becomes cheaper.
Gold may be bought too dear; and as the
present supposed discoveries are in the imme-
diate vicinity of the town of Victoria, the
ground will all be speedily taken up by greedy
spectators, who in all probability will not
have sufficient capital to work quartz mines
with any prospect of success. When the
ground is all taken up there will be grand
formation of joint stock companies, the
shares in which will again be taken up by
still more needy speculators-men who have
not the energy to climb up the hillside to
stake off claims, and who will expect to
realize a fortune by the sale of shares at a
premium.
Capitalists who would be ready to embark
their money in any legitimate mining opera
ton which gave fair prospects of success,
will find themselves hampered by spectators
and stock jobbers. We might perhaps use a
,oIoinar fp 6aciUDafa ~
adventurers who, always on the lookout for
spoil, do not hesitate to cripple any under
taking by their eagerness to secure pickings
for themselves, which might, but for their in
reference, result in benefit to the CON-
munity. Men without capital cannot sue
cessfully engage in quartz mining, but they
can very successfully keep better men out.
We don't pretend to say that our friends in
Victoria might not succeed in carrying on ex-
tensive gold mining operations with profit;
but from what we have seen of former opera
tions in that forlorn city, as well as nearer
home, we have but little hope of seeing
any energetic movement made by the
colonists which will lead them to prac-
tical success, until some organic change
takes place which shall transmute the
citizens of Victoria from dull and listless
spectators waiting upon fortune into active
citizens with practical ends in view, intent
upon raising homesteads for their families
and acquiring q comfortable independence
for themselves. 1t Is possible that the result
of the assay may be such as to induce rush
to Victoria, but it is to be hoped that the
local press will be most guarded in the ac-
counts which they publish. Nothing could
be more fatal to the interests of Victoria, and
the colony of British Columbia, than another
rush of miners, who would be certain to en-
counter disappointment, hardship, and loss.
One or two quartz mining companies, with
abundant means at their disposal might
work successfully upon the hills ad AGENT to
Victoria-such, for instance, as Cedar Hill,
where the late discoveries are reported, and
at the Goldstream, where gold could be
worked with profit, as has been proved by
assay. But it will not pay capitalists in this
city, or in any other place, to buy out the
needy discoverers, who would, upon the first
rumor of purchasers being in the market
become exorbitant in their demands
''The people of British Columbia have pro-
badly learned by this time that mining, like
any other business, can only be successfully
carried on by due observance of legitimate
and business-like methods and habits. The
| day is past for getting up fraudulent excite
ments on this coast. Whatever may be the
result of this present assay, there is little
doubt that in few years time we shall see
! quartz crushing mills in operation in the i'm
diate neighborhood of Victoria. In the
meantime we shall be glad to chronicle any
real and substantial prospect of quartz
mining, or anything else likely to raise the
tone of our Deighbors, and whilom good Gus
toners, of Vancouver Island; but we must
} mphatically warn the members of the press
of the colony against giving the slightest en-.
couragement to any sensational paragraphs
intended or calculated to create an unwar.
rantable excitement. Nothing, for instance,
can Justify the expression of the opinion
that, should the assay turn out we'll, the dis
coyery will be one of the most important ever
made on this coast, and we fear this is the
strain into which the Victoria papers ar,
drifting"