Year: 1870

The San Francisco Bulletin says:


'Our neiehbors In British Columbia
were anxiously waiting, at the date of our
latest exchanges, for the result OF the assay
of the quartz which hBs lately been dis
covered in the neighborhood Of Victoria.
There is no doubt whatever that gold bear
ing quartz exists in more than one locality
in Vancouver Island, and in such quanti-
ties as to afford room for the expectation
of rich mines being developed there, pro-
vided the quality of the rock Is good It
is somewhat extraordinary that the locali.
ty of certain of these veins of quartz has
been known to many of the old residents
of 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 well, much benefit will be derived
by the colony from the working of 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
immediate vicinity of the town of Victoria,
the ground will all be speedily taken up
by greedy spectators, who, in all prooa-
bility, will not have sufficient capital to
work quartz mines with any prospect of
success. When the ground Is all taken up
there will be q 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 fortune
by the sale of shares at a premium


Capitalists who would be ready to en-
bark their money in any legitimate mining
fafr Ofc
cess, will find themselves hampered by
spectators and stock jobbers. We might
perhaps use palmer term to designate the
unscrupulous adventurers who. always on
the look out for spoil, do not hesitate to
cripple any undertaking by their eager
ness to secure pickings for themselves,
which might, but for their interference,
result in benefit to the communitv. Men
without capital cannot successfully engage
in quartz mining. but they can very sue
cessfully keep better men out. We don't
pretend to say that our friends in Victoria
might not succeed in carrying on extensive
gold mining operations with profit; but
from what we have seen of former
operations 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-
teal success, until some organic change
takes place which shall transmute the citi-
zens of Victoria from dull and listless
speculators waiting upon fortune into act
i've citizens with practical ends in view,
intent upon raising homesteads for their
families and acquiring comfortable indie
pendence for themselves. 1t is possible
that the result of the assay may be such
as 10 induce a rush to Victoria, but it is
to be hoped that the local press will be
most guarded in the accounts which
they publish. Nothing could be more
fatal to the interests of Victoria, and the
colony of British Columbia. than another
rash of miners who would be certain to
encounter disappointment, hardship and
loss. One or two quartz mining companies
with abundant means at their disposal,
might work successfully upon the hills ed-
iacent to Victoria-sUch, for instance, as
Cedar Hill, where the late discoveries are
reported. and at the Goldstream, where
cold could be worked with profit, as has
been proved BY essay. 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 pur-
chasers being in the market, become ex-
orbitant in their demands.


''The peoples British Columbia have
probably learned by this time that mining,
like any other business, can only be sue
cessfully carried on by due observance of
legitimate and business-like methods and
habits The day is past for getting up
fraudulent excitements on this coast What
ever may be the result Of this present es-
say, there is little doubt that in a few years
time we shall see quartz-crushing mills in
operation in the immediate neighborhood
OF Victoria. In the meantime we shall be glad
to chronicle any real and substantial pros
pect of quartz-mining, or anything else likely
to raise the tone of our neighbors. and
whilom good customers of Vancouver
Island; but we must emphatically warn
the members of the press of the colony
against giving the slightest encouragement
to any sensational paragraphs intended or
calculated to create an unwarrantable ex-
citement Nothing, for instance. can JUS
tify the expression of the opinion that
should the assay turn out well, the discov-
cry will be one of the most important ever
made on this coast, and we fear this is the
strain into which the Victoria papers are
drifting"