, 1890-08-14
Another Entertaining Letter
From Nelson, b. Q.
MOUNTAINS OF RICH MINERALS.
The Mining Laws of British Co
lumbia--A Description of
the Mountains.

athpSN iiNtlhiiy peiihSbNO NhteN ioiNf
mountains. Seen from the steamer
Galena, the town is not altogether pre-
possessing in appearance. A few log
houses, a few tents and very few more
prctcntious story-and-a-half frame
houses, the latter with their gable
ends disguised by false square fronts,
are scattered in an irregular fashion,
surrounded by stumps, upon the race of
the narrow bench" between the pre-
cipitous mountains and the noble koo-
tenai river. The entire population seem
to hurry down to the river bank as the
little steamer makes its semi-weekly
visit, eager for news from the outside
world and curious to inspect new.
comers. 1t is impossible not TO feel that
you are in u mining camp, or away from
railroads and telegraph and telephone,
far away from the regularity and method
that characterize those eile.e commun-
tiles where civilization has u stronger
and older grip. All the way down the
river you have been listening To the
inner particulars of the new strike in
Billy This claim, and the jumping of
Jack That's, the sale of one property
and the bonding of another. And as
you wend your way up to hotel, you
begin to feel that mineral in some form
or other is about all there is worth living
for. The miner dong may he wave) is
no novelty to Western eyes and needs
no description, but he is ever "a delight
full study and rest for eyes long
accustomed to more conventional and
less independent humanity in the
highways and byways of cities. Even
the dude clerks from the "old country"
-ior we are under the union jack here
have caught some of the infectious free
dom oil manner and dress, and the
lonely Indian squats on the bank and
seems to be still haif-dazed at the Won
drous changes that are taking place in
his old hsunts.
Nelson claims to be the metropolis of
the West Kootenai mining country, and
II her claim is well founded,
it is difficult to see where
all the growth which seems
assured the central town of this section
will find place to alight. To the casual
observer the area oflaud in Nelson avail
able for habitations is hardly larger than
u fair sized farm and yet, To the same
observer, Nelson seems to have had the
pick OF localities for miles around. The
banks of kootcnai lake and outlet arc
almost generally mountains, with hardly
beach enough to haul up u canoe. But
with all its claims and all its hustle,
| Nelson seems small and unimportant to
| the American visitor accustomed to the
mining camps of the United States.
| The discovery of such mineral show
/ ing in Iankeeland as the Hall lead in
Nelson or the Skyline lead in Warm
/ Springs would be followed by the growth
oil busting cities, instead OF hamiets,
and the mountains would swarm with
prospectors. Leadville, Tombstone.
/ Deadwood-dozens of American mining
camps-grew into cities, ana the capital
lists scrambled ut the heels of the pros
pector, in less time than Nelson has
been growing into a village, and yet
experienced prospectors have told
me that nowhere have they seen
such rich surface showings as the Koo-
tenai possesses. About all that has
been done here has been done by Amer.
leans. 1t is u safe bet that nine-tenths
of the mines and prospects here were
discovered and are owned by men from
the other side OF the line. Her Brittanic
Majestys faithful subjects seem to be
too conservative for the mining industry.
They want u property TO be mine
tangible and real-bufore they will look
at it. OF the many reasons given tor the
slow growth of the kootenai country,
two seem TO have much force. One is
the difficulty experienced by both pros
pector and capitalist in reaching here.
Even now the trip i'll Is positive hard
ship, despite the fact that nature has
furnished splendid highway to the
south, in the kootenai lake and river,
and to the north in the Columbia river
and the Arrow lakes. The other reason
given is, that Americans, at least, arc
under the impression that British laws
are not calculated to encourage mining.
One generally well-iniormed man on the
American side of the line assured mo
not long since that the British Colum-
bian government had levied n tax OF b
per cent. on the product of all mines in
the province for the benefit of the
Canadian Pacific railway. The impress
sion that some such obnoxious tax eN-
lists is general in Spokane. 1t is only
tair to state that there Is no real ground
for fear in this direction. II is
true that the last legislature en-
powered tho lieutenant government to
levy a tax OF per cent
under certain conditions. upon the net
product of mines, nut no such tax has
vet been laid, and public opinion in the
province is SO strong against the action
that the next legislature is morally GER
tain to undo the work OF its predeces-
sor. On the whole, the mining laws of
this country are declared by both pros
nettOT anu
with the American code, on which they
were modelled.
In the Nelson district there are, / be-
lieye but two mines in active operation
| that Is, development work is confined
to them with the exception OF what is
| incidental to the annual assessment
work. OF the latter tn ere is considera-
Bile, and all reports thereirom are very
favorable. Indeed, IL is IL favorite boast
here that the Kootenai country has yet
to record failure when common intel
ligence accompanied the expenditure of
work and money. i have SO far made
only O hurried tour of the principal
mineral belt, and can not speak "by
the book" of many claims visited. It
is not really necessary: The REVIEW
has carefully covered tho ground in
this district and there are few prospects
of note here that have not been do
scribed in detail in its columns at one
time or another. This fact makes the
REVIEW great favorite here, and its
correspondent met no end of courtesy
.s the represen tative of live and frienu-
ly Journal. The general situation here
is fairly encouraging. The government
is building a well.graded wagon road
up the side of Toad mountain,
which will tap most of the principal
claims on the Silver King (HalD belt
and be of immense benefit to all inter-
| ested. 1t takes q tour OF this camp to
comprehend all that may be conveyed
by the term "mountain trail" The
mountain sides are steep and broken,
and il requires sturdy muscle, good
wind and unlimited patience to make
the rounds. The prospectors arc heav-
ily handicapped at present by the diffi-
Guilty of transporting supplies and the
shipment of ore is practically prevented.
Nature has been good to them In some
respects, however. Except IN spots