Ordnance Office

Southampton. Sept. 8th, 1859

My Dearest Janet,

You will see from the above address that I am changed
again, knocked about like an unfortunate shuttle-cock, and
my next destination will be rather a distant one namely
New Columbia for which place I believe I am to start on Octr.
End with a detachment of men. I was sent up suddenly from
Chatham to the Horse Guards to see the Adjutant General to
whom I had been recommended by Col. Sandham and the officers
at Chatham. Of course I gladly accepted the offer and the
result is that I am sent down to Southampton to get all the
information I can about the duties I shall have to perform
out there. The principal thing is to survey the North Amer-
ican boundary between New Columbia and the United States.
I am looked upon as an extraordinarily lucky fellow as so
many others have been passed over. I am afraid the above
intelligence will rather startle you, but you must consider
that I shall now have a great deal to do on my own respon-
sibility, and it remains to be proved whether I shall suc-
ceed or fail. Astronomy is what I must chiefly study here
as that is my only guide in the North American back woods.
I am afraid I shall stand little chance of any leave as my
time is so precious that they will not let me come away, but

1

I shall try and get two or three days to see you all be-
fore I go. I am sure Uncle John will agree with me in my
choice and I am quite certain if I had refused such an ex-
cellent offer, nobody would have troubled their heads about
me again. I shall most likely be rolling in wealth out
there, no expenses and a great deal of extra pay. I shall
have a good many things to get previous to my departure but
I have a balance of about L 40 to get the necessary articles.
I know Uncle John will be pleased to hear that I have lived
within my pay although my changing about so often has en-
tailed a great deal of extra expenses. I suppose I shall be
away for 3 or 4 years and who knows what may happen in that
time? I am sure dearest Janet you will see that there is
very little opportunity of doing much at home, and I trust
I may turn to good account this favorable chance......

Yours ever,
Sam

2.

Ship Golden Gate
Off Acapulco, Mexico
Novr. 3rd 1859

My dearest Janet,

Having reached another stage of my journey and as I
hope to go ashore early tomorrow morning, I am anxious to
take this opportunity of letting you know a little of what
I have been doing. I was very vexed to find that we had just

2

missed the home steamer at St. Thomas, West Indies, for when
we reached there we found she had started the day previous
in consequence of the yellow fever which is very prevalent
among the shipping there at this time of the year. We found
we had two days to spare before the other steamer started
for Colon, but we were obliged to stay in the Hotel there
all the day as it is impossible to venture out till the sun
goes down. I picked up with three very nice fellows aboard
the ship whose names were Lambert, Weir, and Mansfield so
we all kept together. St. Thomas' is a Danish island, gar-
risoned by a few Danish soldiers, and presents a very pretty
appearance as we entered the harbour, 13 days after we had
left England. The whole town is in three separate parts,
and in each of these the houses seem to be in tiers, the num-
ber in each tier diminishing till there is only one left at
the top. All the houses have large verandahs, painted with
gaudy colours, principally green, yellow and blue, no glass
windows in the houses, but shutters like venetian blinds we
used to have in our old house in Blenheim Place. The trees
however strike me more than anything else, palm trees, cocoa
nut trees, and no grass, a kind of brush wood a heather seems
to cover all the hills. The place is of course filled with
niggers all of whom speak nothing but English, in fact even
the Danish soldiers speak English too. There is a large ho-
tel built close by the landing place with European Hotel

3

written in large letters over it and that is the principal place
in the island. Sherry cobler seemed to be the fashionable re-
freshment and the ice was really most refreshing. They drink
claret for breakfast, dinner and supper, and they give you a
very good dinner, including as much claret as you can drink
for 4/ - (a dollar). You see no horses and carts about the
streets, but plenty of shops, the owners of which call them-
selves merchants and write to that effect over their doors.
Of course they tried to swindle us in every way and the only
way to deal with them is to take possession of whatever you
want and give them whatever you think its worth in English
money, and it generally turns out to be half what they origi-
nally asked. However they generally seem satisfied. We were
all invited to a party at the home of a Mr. Heise (a German)
who had come with us from England and we had a very good dinner
and dance or two afterwards. All the ladies sit in rocking
chairs and they keep on rocking and fanning themselves so in-
cessantly that it made me quite fidgetty. Everything is per-
fectly open, nothing but large windows all round, so that there
is always a very pleasant draught. The ladies dress just the
same as they do at home, except that they have not such ex-
travagant crinolines. In going up the street on the following
evening we heard music going on in one of the houses so we
knocked at the door and modestly demanded so they admitted us,
and we listened to some very pretty music from a band com-

4

posed of three harps, two fiddles and a clarinet. They played
selections from all the new operas. There seemed to be a par-
ty assembled, however they made way for us and after staying
there for about half an hour and more we thanked them and
started. They all looked however rather surprised when we took
the room by storm. They got 10/- out of us for the Missionary
Society, as they sent the plate round before we left. - There
are so many sharks in the harbour that we could not bathe in
open sea, but they have a place fenced in where we had a swim,
tho' we were obliged to take it about 5.30 a.m. as the sun so
soon gets powerful. We slept on board the ship each night,
tho' we found it very close. We were very glad to get trans-
ported to the other ship the "Solent" as it was impossible to
find any amusement on land, and we were more pleased than ever
to find that there were to be only 9 first class passengers so
we had plenty of room and were as comfortable as could be. The
clergyman that we had on board the other ship, heard the news
of his daughters death as soon as he arrived, and he had come
out from home with the express purpose of seeing her as he knew
she was dying. He was in a sad way poor fellow, and I believe
he intends to return to England in the same ship. We touched
at two places between St. Thomas's and Colon, first at Santa
Martha and 2nd at Carthagena, both formerly Spanish places but
now belonging to the republic of New Granada. I could not go
ashore at the first place as I believe the Captain wd just as

5

soon have sailed without us as not and we had only about two
hours to stay so we did not even anchor. We arrived at this
place three days after leaving St. Thomas and the sea was like
a millpond the whole way. We saw land nearly all the way which
is always a great gratification in itself, nothing but hills
all beautifully wooded, and little villages every here and there
along the coast. One of them was the village of lepers, composed
entirely of nigger lepers, a disease not uncommon among the
blacks of that coast. They are driven away from any other human
beings as I believe the disease can be caught even by touching
their clothes. We arrived at Carthagenes 24 hours after leaving
the other place and the Admiralty Agent a Mr. La Touche took
me ashore with him in his mail boat, that was on Sunday Oct 23rd.
All the houses in the distance seemed to be built of white brick,
and there are many large buildings with domes and spires. The
whole place was completely fortified at a cost of 8 millions
of pounds to the Spanish Govt. but it is a republic now and
all the fortifications and the beautiful Spanish houses are all
partially pulled down and there is just sufficient left to show
what a fine place it was once upon a time. The inhabitants are
copper coloured that is to say a very decided red tinge and the
only boats they have are canoes, hollowed out from a tree and
the width of these not permitting the use of oars, they use pad-
dles just like our shovels about the same length, and these they
use perpendicularly. They have no rudders, but another man has

6

a shovel a paddle which he makes answer the same purpose.
The Admiralty agent introduced me to Mr. Bernal [ina] the Brit-	ish Consul, and he took us to his house where we saw Mrs.
Bernal. I found out from them that Col. Sandham at Chatham
is their uncle, so we soon became great friends. The town
was almost in a state of siege in consequence of political
quarrels and no goods were allowed to be landed fortunately a
British man of war "The Racer" took up a very nice position
just in front of the town, so we had no difficulty in getting
our goods landed, tho' a Danish ship which had just arrived
was ordered home. It appears these quarrels never come to any-
thing so that neither our consul there nor his wife were at
all nervous. They said everybody in distress flies to our con-
sulate from the prime minister to the lowest nigger so you
may imagine they are very much pestered at times. Most of the
shops seemed to be opened tho' it was Sunday and there was one
large restaurant called Sebastopol which had a great many visitors
at the time we passed. Well, after a delay of about three hours
we pursued our journey and arrived at our destination Colon, on
the Atlantic side of Panama, On the following Tuesday Oct 25th,
and the first thing that attracted our attention was a wooden
light house, consisting of a sort of box resting on 4 lofty
wooden legs, a more fragile concern I never saw in my life. The
next thing I noticed was a railway Engine, a very flimsy con-
cern with a chimney just like the letter V, the top part being
about six or eight times the diameter of the bottom, the arrange-

7

ment being I believe to felicitate the consumption of the
smoke and to prevent the sparks flying about, as all the houses
are of wood and consequently rather combustible. Colon merely
consists of one street with a few shops mostly drinking shops,
and this was the first place where we experienced the unplea-
santness of the American twang, and then it was nothing but a
continued series of guesses and calculation, all spoken thro'
the nasal organ. It happened to be the rainy season at the time
we were there, and it certainly was rain; it came down almost
in buckets full and so suddenly that looking/the street you
would see the rain in torrents at one end of the street and
it would hardly give you time to the nearest place of shelter,
before it seemed to [ Remainder of letter missing.]

3. My address will be.

Boundary Commission
Victoria, Vancouver Isles.

Dec. 4, 1859

My dearest Janet,

I arrived here all safe Dec. 2nd, and shall have to pro-
ceed at once into the interior two days journey by steamer to
join our party, perhaps only for a few days and then to return
back here, but of this I am not certain. Bitterly cold last
night, therm'r 18 degrees below freezing just in my bed room, and
clothes all crisp with frost when I got up in the morning.
Very pleasant and safe voyage as far as this, the particulars
of which will be truly and fully detailed in a letter to E.G. by
the soonest mail, as these few lines will be despatched by a
private express thro' the states at once. I am sitting by a

8

log fire and consequently roasted in front and frozen in rear.
I have met with the greatest kindness and attention from all
sides, am in excellent spirits, in first rate health, and an
excellent prospect of getting on well here. We were detained 7
days at San Francisco, 6 days at Portland on the Columbia River
for a portion of which time I was the guest of the American
General Harney who caused all the dispute out here. I have seen
Capt. Gosset and Mr. Dundas and they have both been very kind....

I am, Your most affec. brother,

Sam

4. Camp. 8 miles from Semiahmoo
49th Parallel. Jan 6th, 1860
Despatched Jan. 20th, 1860.

I

My dearest Janet,

It is now more than three months since I left England,
and no letter yet......I was then/staying at Col. Moody's camp,
New Westminster, and waiting for an opportunity of getting fur-
ther up the Fraser river, where our own people were encamped.
The river was all frozen up at that time and all traffic was
of course completely stopped. The river got a little clearer the
day after I despatched my last letter, and we made a start in
the river steamboat on that day. We got as far as Langley that
day, a town about 25 miles up the Fraser river above New West-
minster. I found there two of our own officers, Darrah and
Wilson, the former 2nd Astronomer and the latter Secretary to

9

the Commission.. (My duties are to be surveying and recon-
noitring ahead of the other parties, and to assist the Astro-
nomers when not employed in those duties.) We stayed at Langley
that night and slept in the Hudsons Bay Co's fort and I slept
on a very hard bed, for I had nothing but five blankets, no
matrasse, pillows, sheets or any luxuries of that description.
Nobody ever uses sheets in this country, as you cannot get your
things washed under 12/- a dozen. Of course this does not
apply to ourselves as we make our own servants do our washing
for nothing. Our Head Quarter camp was about 20 miles above
Langley on a little River called the Sumas river and we started
for it on the following day. I met Mr. Pringle at Langley and
he went up with me in the steamer. He lives at a place called
Fort Hope, still further up the Fraser River and Bob Pitnam is
staying at about 2½ miles from his hut, but on the other side
of the river. Bob is living with a man called Annandale and I
believe they are trying to do a little in the mining way when-
ever the weather permits. An average profit for a miner is about
16/- per day, but this only just covers his expenses as every-
thing is so enormously dear. There is no doubt that there is
plenty of gold in this country, but until roads are made, and
means of transport for provisions provided, mining will not pay.
In our own party we have to keep 120 mules and horses, and we
have to make our own roads as we get along, and establish depots
of provisions along the road. The roads that we make in this

10

country are called trails and they are merely footpaths, and
as the greater part of the country consists of thick forests,
and the trees being blown over in all directions by the wind, they
make the process of trail-making rather a tedious one. A
great quantity of the land is marshy, and of course bridges
have to be made over all such places, saying nothing of the
streams of which there are plenty. There is very little dif-
ficulty in getting across the rivers, for all you have to do
is to fell a tree on one bank which will fall across on to the
other and there is a foot bridge at once. Baggage and stores
of every description are transported from place to place en-
tirely on the backs of mules, which process is called packing,
and the men employed as packers to look after the mules and pack
the baggage are generally Mexicans. They (the mules) give
very little trouble. They all follow one another, the front
one being ridden by one of the packers and having a bell round
its neck, they all follow at the sound of the bell, and at night
they will never stir away from the one with the bell. The
Mexicans receive about 8/- a day, and they are provided with
everything, and they really would be worth that in any country.
When I arrived at the first camp at Sumas I soon made myself
comfortable in a tent, and had the snow well scraped away from
underneath it, for there was a good depth of snow on the ground
at that time. We were all on salt rations too, but we managed
to keep the table pretty well supplied with wild duck, and
occasionally with grouse, but birds more like partridges than

ll

grouse. They all get up in the branches of the trees, and the
dogs are trained to bark at them and frighten them from the
trees. While I was there we felt a severe shock of earth-
quake, which made all our glasses and bottles rattle pretty
freely, and a tremendous rumbling sound, as if a train were
passing close to us. It only lasted for about three seconds
and we heard nothing more about it, except that it was felt
at another of our camps about 20 miles away. The camp I was at,
was in the corner of a large tract of flat land called a Prairie
in this part of the world, covered with a long and coarse kind
of grass, which had been all laid low by the water which covers
it in the spring. In the autumn the whole ground is covered
with most beautiful flowers, but then there is the plague of
mosquitoes which makes every one's existence scarcely endurable.
The wretched horses and mules do nothing but keep up an inces-
sant gallop the whole night long and many of them die. Even
the natives, the Indians, all leave the country and go up to
the hills to get out of the misery, in fact it is a perfect
plague. I luckily arrived when they were all gone, but people
still talk of them and look forward to the next season with per-
fect horror. The natives are all very friendly and as far as
I have been very honest. We communicate with them in a certain
king of jargon called Chenook which is made up of English, French
and all kinds of words. It is soon picked up and I can already
manage to get on very well with them. They are very supersti-
tious and the old people are miserable wretches. They all live

12

huddled up together in a kind of hut called a Ranche and
and they apply themselves during the day in fishing in their
canoes for salmon, which they dry and save for the winter
time. We keep a certain number of them in employment at 4/-
per day to act as messengers, to cut fire wood and for the
various odds and ends in a camp, and what they can do, they
do well. They can carry tremendous loads, strapped either
to their forehead or across their breast, and they have fine,
black silky hair which falls over their shoulders. However
those we employ we make cut their hair to a rational length,
and send them down to the river every morning with some soap
to have a good wash, which they would not think of doing
otherwise. We had a cow and a calf at our camp, the former
had supplied milk all thro' the summer and we were reduced to
killing the cow and the calf in order to have fresh meat for
Christmas day. The former was rather tough and the calf was
not much better, but we had some beautiful venison the
ordinary price of which is 3 1/2 d per pound, and we had a
roaring plum pudding with plenty of sherry and beer, so we
were not so badly off. It was a Sunday too and a miserably
wet wretched day, so much so that we could not stir out of the
camp. The men were all of course pretty tipsy, but they had
the good sense not to make too much noise, and they sent for
us all to come down to their mess hut in order to drink our
healths. On the following day we all had to pack up and be
ready for an early departure on the morrow (Dec. 27th), as the

13

whole party were going down to Victoria to winter in our bar-
racks there, except the second astronomer Darrah (RE) and my-
self for we had to remain out in the field for another two
months at least, cutting about 25 miles of the Boundary Line
thro thick forests of cedar trees all the way, and to do this
we have about 60 axemen, men of all nations, nearly all of them
broken miners, who fell the trees in the direction we show them.
We cut a line 30 feet broad, which enables you in a favourable
position to see the line for a very great distance. Our Com-
missioner is determined that the Yankees shall never have a
chance of disputing the land Boundary. Their Commissioner has
refused to help us in cutting the Boundary line through the
forests and marshes which are never likely to be inhabited,
and he is no doubt right there to a certain extent, for it is
a very great expense. This expedition last year cost the gov-
ernment L 30.000 at least, but the Foreign office people are
notoriously much more liberable than those either of the War
or the Colonial Offices. I think the colony ought to bear a
little of the expense, as we are opening up the country by the
trails and of course benefiting the colony by spending the above
sum in it. One commission acts perfectly independent of the other
and never consult one another in anything, in consequence of
both Commissioners being extremely tenacious of each others
rights. All their people are civilians and they have a mili-
tary escort of 300 men to keep off the Indians. We have to per-
form the duties of both, so our Government are the gainers

14

decidedly by the transaction, for we have only 56 soldiers to
provide for. We thought it very probable that both Commissioners
would be changed in the hopes of getting two others who would
agree better, but I believe ours Col. Hawkins is already in Vic-
toria again. When the principal part of our party went down to
Victoria on the 28th Decr. I was left behind at a place called
Langley, a sort of town on the Fraser river. We had to row 25
miles down the river before we got to this place and as it was
raining nearly all the time, we found it uncommonly cold in the
open boat and were only too glad to relieve the men at the oars
to warm ourselves. We had got up at 4 o'clock that morning two
hours before sunrise and at that hour in the morning it is the col-
dest time of the 24 hours. The first thing to be done after get-
ting up in this country is to get a good fire. This you generally
have to do yourself when you get up unusually early, tho' on
ordinary occasions the Indians that we keep manage that for us
before we turn out of our tents. We just make a fire out in the
open ground and get toasted on one side and frozen on the other,
so like a joint at the fire we have to keep up a continual ro-
tation to make our blood circulate everywhere. The smoke is the
greatest nuisance for a changeable wind will blow it in all di-
rections and compel you to get out of its way. If we want a lit-
tle exercise to warm us up we generally get an axe and fell a tree
which generally has the desired effect. The remorselessness with
which we cut down young and old trees I think will in a short time
considerably enlarge our bumps of destructiveness. The rivers are

15

blocked up in many places by bars or banks of sand, so unless
your knowledge of the rivers was perfect, you would be sure to
stick on some of them. Of course we performed a trick or two of
this sort in going down the river and as the boat must be light-
ened before it can be pushed off, 4 of us had to get out of the
boat and push her off. We were 6 hours getting down the river
on this occasion the tide being against us, so we were not a
little glad to get to Langley, where we got some dinner at the
Hudson's Bay Company's fort and not a very grand one either.
The river at this place is about as broad as the Thames at Lon-
don Bridge. On the opposite side of the river a great number
of Indians live in their wretched looking huts called ranches
and they keep principally to their own side of the river. Ex-
cept at Langley which is pretty flat and clear ground both sides
of the river are lined with trees down to the waters edge. The
water is continually floating large trees down which constantly
stick in the mud leaving their large branches towering above the
water. These impediments which are called snags prevent any
large kind of boat returning up the river in the dark. When I
went up the river in the steamer we anchored just where the
most of these things were and in the morning we found that the
receding tide had left us high and dry on a sand bank so we had
had to wait in that position for 6 hours, and two or three of us
took the opportunity of going ashore and shooting a few birds.
I saw among the bushes the track of a tremendously big bear.

16

We seldom see the tracks of them at this time of the year as they hide themselves in the ground and sleep all through the year round. One of our working parties a few days ago came across two inside a tree which they were beginning to fell. One of them escaped the other one tried to escape, but a Canadian axe-man of the party jumped and seized hold of him by his neck and by his tail and rammed his head in the snow. The bear tried to bite but the man held on to the back of his neck like grim death till another man secured a neck round his neck (the bear's) when the animal followed them quite quietly into the camp. We are going to try and buy him and if possible take him home as a trophy. Our camp was only 2 1/2 miles from Langley so we walked out to it the next day while the rest of the party about 40 in all proceeded on their journey. We shifted our camp two days afterwards to within about 8 miles of the sea as Darrah wanted to explore and reconnoiter the country in that direction. We were able to get fresh meat all this time as we were close to a farm of the H. B. Company, from which we got other luxuries such as butter and milk, but we have got used to doing without them now. Watches never go in this part of the country, and in fact we have no need of them for we generally get up soon after it is light about 8:30 a.m., and go to bed when it is dark. Sometimes at 7 but generally about 8:30. We are allowed a pint bottle of wine and a bottle of beer per diem when practicable and we generally contrive to keep a supply of them at all hazards. A keg of brandy is generally kept as it is very acceptable sometimes on a

17

cold winter's night when we have to sit up till sunrise observing the stars. In shifting our camp we had to walk about 15 miles, our horses being loaded with camp necessaries and we went ahead to choose a camping ground, which we did and had a good fire alight by the time the train of mules and horses overtook us. I made a fire pretty readily as I took the precaution to put in my bag several pieces of what the Indians call Gum stick, taken out of the interior of a tree and full of turpentine and it flames up as soon as a match is put to it. The bark of the trees was the fuel which is even better than coal, and it can always be got dry very readily especially if the trees are old or rotten. While at this place we took the opportunity of going to see the American Commissioner Mr. Campbell at Simiahmoo on the coast 8 miles from our camp, for all their party were in winter quarters. Mr. Campbell seemed tremendously afraid of us and there was no sign of cordiality about him so we soon put an end to that visit. We then went and saw some of the American officers of the escort, all of whom I must say are exceedingly nice fellows and display a openness and goodhearted sort of manner which it is a treat to see in a Yankee. They all seemed so glad to see us and pressed us very much to stay the night there which we did not do. The three days we were encamped at this place we occupied in penetrating through the bush consisting of a thick forest and horrible marsh. We unfortunately had no compass, so we found it rather difficult to go straight ahead

18

19

dinners for the last week, and there is still some left. He has only been 5½ years a subaltern, so he has been extremely lucky. He is a very nice fellow and we get on very well together. None of them seem to like the Colonel as he is said to have rather a petty and mean disposition. However I don't intend to be prejudiced but to give him a fair trial. One bad trait in his character and particularly Gosset's is running down that unfortunate man Col. Moody. The latter (Gosset) calls Moody a drivelling idiot. He told me so the very first time I saw him, and that is rather a strong term for one officer to use towards another so much older. I could not help taking a dislike to Gosset from that very fact. Gosset had rather an eye towards this Commissionership in the event of Hawkins' not returning but I am delighted to say that that is not to be. He has also an eye on Moody's appointment, if he gets it, I pity the officers under him. The whole colony is still at loggerheads and will be so unless they change the Governour or Moody. I hope it may be the former as I think Moody from his experience would get on well now if they gave him a fair chance...... We are all quiet here about the San Juan affair, though I believe our government is holding it strongly against the Yankees, and I think we shall get the island in the end. The population in Victoria being a greater portion Yankee, demonstration of displeasure if that there would be a great happened. We shall be out of British Columbia altogether next summer and far away from any English settlement. We shall

22

if all's well spend the two next winters at a place called
Colville on the Columbia river, as I do not think we shall
be kept out in the field this time next year. People in
Victoria pity us exceedingly and think we are suffering great
hardships with snow and rain, but we make ourselves very com-
fortable notwithstanding. We have four ships of war at Vic-
toria so the naval men keep the place gay enough. Plenty of
parties and that sort of thing going on, but I had much sooner
be out here than down there, for we do just as we like here
and have nobody to bother us. There are a few ladies, about
20 in all, so that there is enough to get up a little dance.
They give a ball on board ship sometimes, and theatricals
very often. All the naval men make quite a convenience of
our barracks as they are on the direct road from the harbour
to Victoria, so we have never any want of visitors down there.
They constantly invite our people to dine on board ship, in
fact there is always something going on......

Your ever affectionate, etc.

Sam

5.

Camp, 100 miles from Victoria

British Columbia. Feb. 7th 1860.

My very dear Aunt Harriet,

......Our Commissioner Col. Hawkins has not yet
arrived here but he is expected by the next mail in a few
days. The ship that brought the last mail from San Francisco
to Victoria was lost a short distance from here and most of

23

2

the passengers were lost, including a son of the Late Bishop of London. We thought that Col. Hawkins was in that ship, but were delighted at finding that he had missed that one and was coming on by the next. The mails were saved and arrived in a very pulpy condition, but I received your dear letter and Annes' quite safely. I am pretty certain that if I am encamped for any length of time in one place (which is not probable) that you will be bringing the same charge against your Indian and British Columbian correspondents. We are hard at work now in cutting our 20 feet passage through the forests to mark the Boundary line, and all we ask now is a little fair weather. I think February must be a rainy month in this part of the world as we have had a large share of it lately and have been waiting 10 days for a fine night for Astronomical purposes, and are likely to be disappointed for a week more. Of course in rainy weather we are obliged to remain under canvass most of the day, and read, and write letters, or amuse ourselves in some other way. The ground for miles around our camp consists of large lofty trees without branches (comparatively speaking), the stumps being all charred as black as coal. We have luckily had little windy weather lately, as in every gale these rotten trees are blown down in all directions with a crash like thunder. The whole ground is strewed with them, but still there are as many left standing as there is room for. Our captured bear is getting quite tame and he will eat out of our hands. He is very fond of cranberries of which we can collect a great quantity in the marshes,

24

3

also bread and treacle and raw meat. They generally sleep all
the winter in a hollow tree but our one, Mrister Tom, has shown
no inclination of finishing his winter's nap. One of his wild
brethren came and paid him a visit the other night, but depar-
ted before we had a chance of shooting or catching him. There
are a great many wolves about; we hear them howling at night,
but I have never encountered any yet, as they are generally
found in the prairies at night. British Columbia consists al-
most entirely of thickly wooded districts, and except for the
gold I think it would never come to be a very valuable colony.
You occasionally meet with prairies or low grassy plains but
these are generally swamps in certain seasons of the year, many
of them abounding in cranberry bushes, and in the winter time
there is always plenty of that fruit to be got. We employ Indians
to go and gather them, and for a dollar (4/2) they gather enough
to last 3 weeks or a month. They also bring in grouse, the price
of which is 1/ a piece, and they are most acceptable when we
happen to be rationed on salt provisions, as of course fresh
meat is not always attainable in a country like this without
roads, or easy means of land carriage. There are a few old Hudson
Bay Company farms about, the cattle on them all quite wild
and have to be shot down with a rifle, and as they are not generally
very careful in preparing the meat for sale, it generally
reaches us in a very tough state, so much so that salt rations
are often more preferable to fresh ones. I never tasted such
good bread anywhere as our men make us, they use some chemical

4

25

5

composition instead of yeast which I think makes the bread
lighter and more palatable. There is very little game to be
got near our camp, but I believe on the other side of the Cas
cade Mountains where we shall be going in the spring, there will
be plenty. I find the waterproof wrapper that you gave me most
invaluable and have been wishing it were large enough to en-
velop the whole bed. One feels so comfortable with a water-
proof cover on the bed, when one wakes up in the morning and
finds sundry little pools of water on it trying to get through
into the warm blankets underneath. I am so thankful to think
that I am keeping so well, for all the people here think it
rather a hard test for any one coming out from home, to go
straight into the field in winter here, and remain there under
canvass; but I was very glad myself as there is nothing like
plunging into business at once, and besides that I shall be pro-
fitably employed while the others are doing nothing at Victoria
but spending money and going to balls and parties, which I
think turn out (to) be a failure, as all the young ladies are
either married or the next thing to it......... There is at
present a great excitement up the river and great quantities of
men have gone up in the last few days in consequence of the good
news about the gold. They all have to provision themselves for
about 6 months or so, in order to be perfectly independent. Of
course it is quite a chance whether they are successful or not,
and many after making 2 or £ 300 gamble it away or squander it
recklessly at Victoria and San Francisco and go back to work for

26

6

more when it is all done. Many of them are continually coming
to our camp to hire themselves as axemen, when they are fairly
tired with the mines. We consequently get all kinds of char-
acters as you may imagine, Russians, Prussians, and Poles, Mex-
icans, and Canadians. Rheumatism is very prevalent among all
classes, and that is about the only thing to be afraid of, and
this is brought on for the most part by exposure at night, as they
are very careless about that. It is very lucky that we are all
under the Foreign office, as our officers who are under Col.
Moody being in the pay of the colony can't get any, as the colony
has no money at present. They are all very uncomfortable and
heartily wish to go home. We hear nothing about the American
quarrel in this out of the way place but I hope the home people
see the necessity of making a stand against Yankee impudence.
They had an election in Victoria the other day for members of
Parliament, there was almost an excess of candidates over voters,
and the lucky ones now do nothing but quarrel among themselves
Gosset has been ordered up the country to New Westminster, and
as he had made himself snug in an iron house in Victoria, he is
rather disgusted and Mrs. Gosset talks of going home. Gosset 's
pay is not even so good as mine. He only gets £500 a year and
has to provide himself and family with house and food, so his is
not a very lucrative post, and shows the evident necessity of my
making hay while the sun shines. I expect to be out here in the
woods about 3 weeks longer and then go down to Victoria for about
a month before starting off again. I don't care at all about

27

7

going down there, as I am very comfortable here and so independent of everybody. We have two years more work at least, and if we run the line across the Rocky Mountains, perhaps 3 or 4 years, so it is no good thinking of that yet. The next thing to look forward to on getting home is to be appointed to the Ordnance Survey, which is the great thing to be aimed at...

8

Ever your most devoted nephew,

Sam

6.

Esquimalt Barracks, Victoria

March 6th, 1860

My dearest Janet,

I have left the back woods now for a short time. I am sorry to say, and am quartered in our barracks at the above mentioned place, and do not expect to make a move till we the end of this month, when/shall leave this place for good, and we shall hand over our barracks to the Admiralty when I suppose they will be occupied by the Admiral and his wife and family, the latter being at Valparaiso which is at present the naval head quarters of the Pacific. In consequence of the importance which this place has attained, the Head Quarters of the Fleet will no doubt be here....There is a Dr. Hector here, of the British North American Exploring Expedition under Capt. Palliser. He is of Edinburgh, his father being a W. S. I believe that I have no doubt whom I have no doubt Uncle John knows by name at all.

28

events, as it is not a common Edinr name. Dr. Hector is a
very clever young fellow about 24, and distinguished himself
a great deal in all the various duties of exploring and re-
connoitring. He is about to return to Edinr, and as he and I
have been great friends, I hope if he calls Uncle John will
show him his usual hospitality............ There is very little
going on at this place. There are however a great many ladies,
none of which I know or care to know as I am likely to be only
a short time here. I have not made any calls on anybody since
I came back, but I shall have to go and see the Governour and
the Admiral if possible to-morrow, and then there will be the
bother and formality of dining with them which objectionable
tho' not the less necessary. There are 2 Miss Douglas's daugh-
ters of the Governour and of course the greatest flirts on the
island and I certainly have very little desire to make their
acquaintance in consequence. We keep open house here, both
various
to the naval officers and the people about so we have
a constant influx of visitors, as refreshments are always going.
As we all have horses, we have the luxury of a good ride every
afternoon around a place called Beacon Hill, and we have glo-
rious races in all of which my horse has come off victorious,
for he gets so excited on these occasions that he cannot be
kept back. Every body in the town is in great excitement, as
immense quantities of clothing have arrived in one of Hudson
Bay Co's vessels. Every body walks into their fort, takes out
what they want and the shopmen take no notice, and do not even

3

4

29

book their sales, so I should think they would lose a great
deal of money in consequence of their carelessness. We have
discovered two musical boxes lately which have quite eclipsed
the flute for a short time. It has been rather neglected late-
ly, as I have had a great deal to do, principally riding about
looking after the parties of men working on the Boundary Line.
We had unfortunately two men killed by falling trees so I was
not sorry to get out of the woods. With kindest love to all,
Believe me, your most affectionate brother

Sam

The address is - Dr. Hector, B. N. American Exploring Expe-
dition, 5 Inverleith Terrace, Edinr

7 Esquimalt Barracks, Victoria, March 28, 1860

My dear Jack,

I arrived here on Dec 2 so my passage was
exactly two months, and was certainly not of such a comfor-
table character as to make me wish that it had been a day lon-
ger. Being constitutionally a bad sailor, the sea under any
circumstances would have but few charms, and in the present
style of Yankee steamers, comfort is wanting, cheapness being
the only thing thought of. The more we see of the Yankees,
the less we like them, as their conceit is beyond all bearing.
As soon as I arrived in Victoria I had to leave all my men,
except the two photographers, and go straight up to the coun-
try to join the main body of our expedition. I remained en-
camped in the woods, all Dec. to the end of February when we

2

30

moved down and after some few delays on our journey arrived
in Victoria about Mar 6. I was very much disappointed about
the quantity of game that was reputed to be in this country,
and except at one of our camps near some small streams where
there were a great quantity of wild duck, I have seen scarcely
any game such as deer or grouse. I have not even seen a live
deer since I have been out here, and only a few grouse which
are very much like our partridges at home. It was only a few
of us that were left up the country at Christmas, as all the
rest came down into snug winter quarters at Victoria in the
end of Dec. and all the people down here expected that we should
be frozen to death, but in this they were most luckily disappointed,
as we had very little severe wintry weather, but a great
deal of damp and rainy weather. This is the most unpleasant
weather to have when you are under canvass, as the tents are
too small for anything but sleeping in, but with waterproofs
on we used to sit round the camp fire and make ourselves as
jolly as possible with a halfglass of grog. We were very busy
for some time taking Astronomical observations and used to have
to sit up all night for this purpose when the weather was clear
enough, as we had to find out where the 49th Parallel of Latitude
actually was and lay it down on the ground, cutting a gap
through the forests 20 feet broad, so as to mark the boundary
distinctly for years. The Natives of this country are the most
extraordinary looking individuals I ever saw. They have all
long black hair hanging over their shoulders, have thick lips,

31

4

sible to save her, as she has 2 large holes in her bottom.
She remains pretty steady and will not go to pieces most like-
ly till a regular gale of wind sets in. One of our men of
war has gone to the disputed island St. Juan which I dare
sa y you have heard about, to land 100 Marines as I believe
a joint occupation of the island by ourselves and the Yan-
kees has been agreed upon, till the dispute is settled, and
I hope we shall get the island in the end, tho' I think the
Yankees will not give it up without a struggle. The Ser-
geant that I brought out with me is getting on very well, and
is very much liked. He has been put in a very responsible
position and is quite independent of all the other sergeants
which is of course a great thing for him. The photographer
has turned out to be rather an invalid and the Doctor says
he ought never to have been sent out. He gave me a great
deal of trouble on the passage out, as he was very often drunk,
but was otherwise very useful. He has not been drunk since
he has been here, so I think he intends to turn over a new leaf.
I believe all the men have turned out well but two, who were
corporals and have since been reduced for drunkenness. I think
I shall be separated from all of them, as I shall have to re-
connoiter and will only have perhaps one or two of them with
me, and one or two Indians to act as guides. We expect to make
some good bargains in trading with the Indians, as they will
often give a fine horse for an old red jacket, and also some
very valuable furs. ...... There is a very good show of ladies

33

["here, but the most of them have been spoiled by the host of na-\nval officers and others running after them. Of course they are\nvery different to our ladies at home, as the most of them have\nbeen in this country all their lives, and have consequently\nhad few advantages in the way of education and accomplishments.\nThey are all very fond of dancing, but I have only been to one\nof their dances yet and enjoyed myself very much, tho I don't\nthink I shall take the trouble to go to another. We are to be\noff on April 3rd on our next campaign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3

the order came from home. We had a visit from the American officers Captns Woodruffe and Hunt, who of course received every attention from the naval officers and ourselves. I dined at the Admirals with them, and of course we were obliged to drink the health of the United States President, after we had drunk the Queen's health. Most of them appear so distant generally, and they cannot understand our always calling them by their surnames as they always give us our titles of Mr. or Captain. Even speaking to one another, they address themselves in that way. The Governour and Col. Moody are still at loggerheads and Gosset is discontented with his Treasury appointment, and says that unless he gets the Colonial Secretaryship he intends to go home. There seems to be a very common impression out here that Col. Hawkins, if he comes out again will hold a different appointment, and we are all kept in such a state of ignorance ourselves about his movements, as we seldom hear any tidings about him. I have been down here now about 3 weeks and am already tired of the place and very anxious to commence work again. We seldom go up to Victoria, as there are so few people up there worth seeing. The Governour is always so very glad to see any of us, at least he always says so, but then he is so reserved and formal that a visit there is not very pleasant. I have been to one party in Victoria since I have been here, and enjoyed myself very much. Of course there were about 3 times as many gentlemen as ladies, but there was no difficulty in getting partners for the dances. Most of the younger ladies have had few advantages in the way of education, and are not good hands either at playing on the piano or singing,

35

4

and one can scarcely ever get them to perform, as they consider people coming from England must be great connoisseurs. Two or three naval officers have been inveigled into marrying out here and our chief Astronomer Captn. Haig is reputed to have met with an unrequited attachment. Luckily for him as the young lady he is said to have proposed to is not his equal in point of birth. People in Victoria, now that they know we are going away say that the Boundary Commission has not done it's duty towards the Victoria ladies. However it is a kind of reproach that nobody is taking particularly to heart. We hardly ever have a quiet evening to ourselves here, as our Barracks are Liberty Hall to everybody, and tho' our Mess plate is composed chiefly of tin articles warranted not to break under any circumstances, few people object to eating their dinner off them. We had our place on fire yesterday, and as the place is made entirely of wood, the blaze soon got ahead. The men were all in bed at the time, but they soon turned out with their blankets in hand and after soaking them in the well, and passing them and buckets of water up to the top of the house where the fire had begun, it was soon extinguished. If we had not had a body of men on the spot we certainly could not have extinguished it without a great loss of property. I amuse myself generally with my flute in my spare time, but I never expect to improve to my own satisfaction, unless I had begun to learn some years ago. They say I am getting stouter. When I weighed myself last time in my rough costume I weighed

36

5

6

165 lbs. so I am pretty certain I have gained nearly 14 lbs. since I left England. That increase is all very well in its way, but I shall soon have to put a stop to it. We have had scarcely any importations of miners this year, as they have had no encouragements to come, there being no roads nor means of communication and it is a very serious question now whether they will ever come into this country in large numbers as other mines have been discovered in American territory on the other side of the Cascade Mountains. This is the country that we intend to make for, on our next trip and a great many people here have been asking us to write to them privately as to the actual state of the mines. I have been investing lately in 30 yards of Tarletan that being the best substitute I can get hold of for mosquito curtains. These animals are the only real enemies we expect to encounter. The rattlesnakes which abound in great quantities in that country are not likely to give us nearly so much trouble nor annoyance. I am sorry to say our photographers have not been very busy lately, on account of sickness or bad conduct, but I hope soon to send you home some good pictures of the country that we shall be passing through this summer. Our surgeon a Dr. Lyell R.N. of Aberdeen, is a most experienced man. In addition to having been in every ordinary portion of the world, he has been on an Arctic expedition under Franklin, and on an Antarctic expedition under Sir E. Belcher, and the not a very talkative man, we get curious yarns from him at times. There is a wonderful majority of Scotch-

37

men out here, especially among the naval surgeons. Our Ad-miral has lost a cousin Capt. Lambert of H. M. S. Vixen who was murdered at Lima, and of course there is little chance of the perpetrator being discovered.

With best love,

Sam

9.

Esquimalt Barracks, Victoria

April 14, 1960

My dearest Janet,

Col. Hawkins arrived on March 15th quite un-expectedly and our departure from this place which had been fixed for April 14th was delayed by him till the 20th, as he heard the roads were not yet free from snow. He brought us no news of any kind, in fact the intention of the Home Government seems to be to procrastinate indefinitely the settlement of the San Juan question. We have had very little going on here lately. The Governor gave a dejeuner at 3 o'clock one day and invited a few of us, and altho' it went amazingly slow, there being only 3 ladies and 10 gentlemen present the provision business was managed with exceedingly good taste. Mrs. Douglas never appears and her two daughters, aged about 22 and 18 respectively, they say make her do all the domestic work, while they sit in the Drawing room doing nothing. The new frigate which has just arrived here, the Topaze, has been giving a few dinner parties at which all the Boundary Commission were invited in a body, and we spent a very pleasant evening. They had a good band, which played every afternoon

2

38

3

and evening on board ship, and the captain is very goodma-
tured in letting them play in the town on special occasions.
Their captain, Hon. J. Spenser, makes himself most agreeable
to all his officers and has them in his cabin every evening to
play whist and smoke cigars, which is a practise that all the
other captains are rather surprised at. The old Admiral,
Baynes, makes all his captains dine with him twice a week, and
lately he has made Col. Hawkins dine with him every Saturday,
as it is not thought right on any consideration to refuse his
invitation, tho' everybody would gladly get off if they could.
He always sends his boat ashore at about 7:30 a. m., with his
[we] invitations, and/have to get out of bed to send an answer. He
always gets up about 6 every morning, and so obliges everybody
else to be about, at that time. I met some friends of Bob the
other day, and they say he will never save money as long as he
lives, for he is so ridiculously generous. His name was in the
paper the other day, as being on the Grand Jury at Fort Hope,
which rather amused all his friends. A man called Aind, who
was one of his mining acquaintances, stands a very good chance
of being Colonial Secretary, which is the next appointment out
here to the Governour. A new batch of parsons arrived here the
other day, and there were no less than 6 parsons in church on
Sunday. We have service in our own Barracks, which the Colonel
reads, as it is 3 miles from here to the nearest church, and
the Bishop promised to send a clergyman down here every Sunday,
but he has not done so yet, and we shall have most likely only

39

4

one more Sunday here. We are very busy in getting all the stores ready, and as our men are of different trades they all come in very useful, and we are then able to perform most kinds of work among ourselves. The Colonel being here has made very little difference in our ordinary mode of living, but he is a very amusing man and so methodical that he is quite a curiosity in his way. He is very touchy about his own dignity, and is by no means friendly towards Moody, as he fancies that the latter wants to order him about, which I think is quite a mistaken notion of his. The ladies out here are not quite so ceremonious as those at home, they very often speak of gentlemen by their surnames, and one of them who happens to be a namesake of mine also speaks of me as her cousin, tho' I should be very sorry to own any relationship. They say this very young lady was proposed to by Capt. Haig, one of our officers, and the story goes that she was actually so silly as to refuse him, so we consider that he has had a wonderful escape. In fact the only one of the whole party of 70 or 80 of us that has fallen into the snare was a young sapper who was caught by a nursery maid, that some deluded gentleman had brought out to this country thinking she would stop with him, and in less than a year she married a sapper, and I believe the wedding came off the other day with great eclat. The mining excitement now has quite gone down, as some wonderful diggingsthey say have been discovered in Oregon, on the American territory, so it is a great question now whether the miners will ever come into British Columbia again, as they were so badly treated last year by the Governour and his officials.

40

The Bishop seems to be a very excellent man, and he has taught
all his clergymen to go about for subscriptions in a most bare-
faced way, and they go to gentlemen's and say they can't take
less than 20 Pounds. This is for a new church, the foundation
stone of which was laid with great ceremony by the Governour,
but I did not go and see it. ............

Believe me, your fond brother,

Sam

10.

Victoria, Vancouver Isld.

April 23, 1860

My dearest Janet,

............ we shall be quite out of the way of com-
munications with anybody in British Columbia in a few days, as
we hope to make a start about April 28th, and will most likely
never see Victoria any more. The Victoria people have been
sending round a subscription list to us to subscribe for a Col-
legiate school for the education of their children, but as the
parents of these juveniles could buy us all up over and over
again, and as they have refused to give us any balls or parties
lately, we have respectfully declined, for they think 5 quite
a small subscription. The Bishop has been giving some severe
lecturing sermons to the ladies about gossiping, which I am
afraid will do little or no good, as they have no other way
(as they think) of passing their time. The regular rendezvous
for the ladies of Victoria is the Hudson's Bay store where every

2

41

possible thing can be purchased, and as the place is pretty ex-
tensive they wander about the place, overhauling all the things
and create a great uproar. All the officials are or are supposed
to be gentlemen by birth, so the younger storekeepers are of
course on intimate terms with all the ladies, so that they de-
light in showing the ladies all over the place and dont mind
whether they buy anything or not. We generally go up to Vic-
toria every afternoon, and one sees naval men of all sorts and
shapes and ages wandering about the streets and every now and
then about a dozen friends meet one another at the corners of
the streets, and stop and talk having nothing else to do, and
quite indifferent as to the obstruction they cause in the pub-
lic highway. The Governour's daughters have a great weakness
for saying they are out, when visitors call in the afternoon,
and as everybody knows that they must be at home (Victoria being
so limited that no one can go out without somebody and very soon
everybody knowing it) the servant who answers the door is very
often put to a severe cross examination as to the where abouts
of the aforesaid young ladies) and who are known to be listening
behind the curtain of the adjoining window, and the servant is
often informed that he is telling a white lie. I believe one
of our officers has got rather into disgrace for he happened to
be calling at their house with a naval officer who came to say
Good Bye before going to England. The young ladies were reported
"out" as usual whereupon the naval man wanted to put P.P.C. on
the corner of his card, so his companion, knowing that the ladies

42

3

were behind the curtains, having caught a glimpse of their
faces in coming up the avenue, remarked, "Its no good putting
P.P.C. for they won't understand it", and they have been pretty
cool to him since, but I dare say they could not help laughing
at the time. There is not only a Roman Catholic Bishop here,
but also a convent, and the sisters of charity belonging to
the latter place are always to be seen going about; till very
lately all the young ladies of the place went to a school which
they conducted, but which was broken up about some dancing
difficulty. Their Bishop was appointed a year or two before
ours, so it shows how diligent they are in getting converts,
and there is no doubt they must do a great deal of good in the
place. One of the men of war the "Plumper" went down to San
Francisco the other day to be repaired, and the officers were
regularly feted by the people of the place. The former were
very much amused with the Yankee ladies there. One of the
officers had been joking with the Commodore's daughter, and on
his saying something she did not like, she told him with a nasal
pronunciation that he was "uncommon mean" and she said she
thought the naval officers were uncommon slow. The ship stayed
there about 3 weeks and by that time the officers and men had
spent all their money, so they were very glad to come back and
remain quietly in the harbour here. We seldom give any dinner
parties, in fact never, as nearly all our mess utensils are tin
and consequently not ornamental. However we generally have every-
day one or two casual guests whom we are always delighted to
entertain in that way, for there is generally rations enough

43

4

for one or two extra mouths. When one of our officers, Darrah,
got his promotion the other day he was done out of two dozen
of champagne, and by the last mail his commission was found to
be antedated a fortnight, so they made him give an extra dozen
on the strength of that, and he acquiesced very good naturedly.
So you see we are not altogether without luxuries. The Colonel
was looking over the mess bill the other day, the expense of
which is as you know defrayed by the public, and he saw one of
the items was put down as "Golden Syrup" in other words common
treacle, whereupon he had it struck out of the account saying
that it was luxury that must be paid by the officers themselves.
We had a great laugh at this, as we can get enough for a shilling
to last us a fortnight, and it certainly was a great luxury for
when in the bush, we had nothing to eat with our bread at break-
fast and tea. I believe he thought it was some costly preserve.

Your most affectionate brother,

Sam

11.
Camp, 8 miles from Dalles City
Columbia River, State of Oregon

May 27th, 1860

My dear Jack,

I remained another month at Victoria after
I wrote to you last and we were expecting to leave in a few
days, but the same steamer that took away that letter brought
Col. Hawkins our head man, from England and he delayed us all
that time. We all used to do just what we liked. I used to

44

2

get up about 9, read the newspapers, take a few solar observations with a Sextant till 12, have luncheon, and ride up to town about 2, lounge about the town paying visits and shopping till 3, then go for a ride till 4.30, get home about 5.30, have dinner at 6, cup of tea at 7.30, rubber of whist (for love) till 11, and then turn in and that was our ordinary employment. We used to be overrun at various portions of the day by naval officers coming on shore for fun, and in the evening we used sometimes to have as many as a dozen at a time in our mess-room, and we were all very great friends with them. I was invited to Luncheon with the Governour, and when I got there I found there were 12 or 14 gentlemen and only one other lady besides his two daughters. Nevertheless I had a long chat with one of the daughters and after it all I came to the conclusion that she was a born idiot. The other daughter had a propensity for laughing at any little peculiarity of their guests before their face, tho I never caught her doing so at me, or else I should certainly have spoken to her, and asked her what she meant by it. The Governour gave us a capital luncheon, and there was plenty of champagne going. One of our officers who was promoted to be captain while we were at Victoria, furnished no less than 3 dozen of champagne to drink his health with, all of which he paid for out of his own pocket, and the total cost could not have been less than £25 so he was what you might call a liberal fellow, and one that deserves to get his promotion. 2 of our officers and another gentleman gave a ball between

45

3

them, and what do you think it cost each of them, £40 a piece,
and every time one went to a party, one had to pay 6 shillings
(1½ dollars) for a pair of kid gloves. However those were luxu-
ries I only indulged in once and then I made them last me twice,
so it only came to 3 shillings each night after all. And what
is most provoking, after all the kindnesses which the people
of the town received from our people they were too stingy to
give us a ball before we left. One day I went to hear a won-
derful trial for libel against a newspaper man by a gentleman
whom the newspaper man had called a scoundrel, or a blackguard,
and as the thing could not be proved the case was dismissed.
Whereupon the gentleman got up in the court and said that he
not [get]
knocked him out of the way.
I knew he could be a justice there, and that the proceedings of
the judge were most disgraceful. So the judge fined him £10,
and put him in prison for 24 hours, and not content with that
punishment the fellow wrote a most abusive letter to the judge
for which he was summoned to appear in the police court, but I
believe that ended in an apology. We left Victoria on April 28th
on board a little bit of a screw steamer, about as big as a ½d
boat on the Thames, only with the sides a little higher. The
Yankees however never speak of a screw steamer, but always call
it a propeller. It was with great difficulty that we stored
ourselves away on this boat, as we had so much baggage, and just
when we were starting some soldier was found missing, and he
was known to have been pretty drunk about an hour before, and
they thought he had laid down in the woods and gone to sleep

46

4

So they scoured the woods for about 3 hours, and at the end of the time they found him asleep in his own room. So we were delayed about 3 hours, which disgusted us not a little. In leaving the harbour, directly the sailors saw we had started, they scrambled up the rigging as hard as even they could tear, and if they did not shout, its a pity, and didn't the bands play Auld Lang Syne; and didn't we shout and didn't we take off our caps, and didn't we astonish the fishes? All these things we did and we left, I am sure, with the good wishes of all our naval brethren, with whom an attachment had sprung up not easily to be effaced. Next 48 hours we were at sea. Sick of course, terribly disgusted with ourselves, and for a time tired of life, with some vague idea of committing suicide, which was very timely prevented, by our getting into smooth water inside the Columbia River, and we then sat down and ate such a good dinner that we astonished ourselves with our powers of consumption.

Well now, if you really take an interest in my proceedings, get a map of North America, look about the latitude of 48 degrees and find Victoria. Then find the Columbia River a little lower down, and my present camp is 200 miles from the mouth of the river inland. I hope you will take the trouble to look, and if you see the Frasers River, that is where I was left last year, 100 miles up it. Look for the 49th Parallel of Latitude and that is what we have to survey, as far as the Rocky Mountains. We have splendid salmon here, 20 lbs weight, price 3/- and we catch small trout in the streams occasionally. No shooting at

47

2

This was on Sept. 1. It snowed pretty fast all day, so as to prevent us moving camp, and I knew it was too early in the season for the regular fall of snow, and so we waited till the next day which was Sunday. It was snowing fast still, so I began to get rather nervous about being snowed up altogether, so I determined to clear out as quickly as I could for I knew that about 1¼ miles would see me out into the valley. All that Sunday we had to work hard in the midst of the thick falling snow, and we succeeded in getting into the valley where there was not an atom of snow to be seen tho' the hills all around were covered. This was the first time in my life I had ever seen a snow storm on the 1st of Sept. I thought of Eb and his usual attack on the partridges on that day, and thought of him toiling over the ploughed fields under a hot burning sun tho' the same sun was not sufficiently powerful enough to prevent the possibilities of my being snowed up in the mountains. The unfortunate animals, the horses and mules, did not seem to make it out at all, and set to nibbling the bark and small branches of trees, while you would see one or two veterans quietly scraping away the snow with their fore feet and nibbling the grass, while one or two lazy ones following in the tracks of the first scrapers would with a much less amount of scraping get at a larger quantity of grass. The grouse were rather plentiful about there and very tame, and as of course in surveying I could not carry a gun, I used to be reduced to the unsportsmanlike practise of knocking them over with sticks or stones, and the birds will

49

Camp, 49th Parallel. Near Rock Creek

October 29, 1860

My dearest Janet,

............ Ever since I last wrote I have been more
or less in the vicinity of gold diggings and have been enquiring
every where after Bob P. and from all I can hear I believe him
to be mining in the Similkamene River, but about 70 or 80 miles
at least from where I am now. I heard that he was the discoverer of some silver mines near a place called Hope, and everybody had been purchasing pieces of ground in the neighborhood
of the place and of course as discoverer he secured the largest
share for himself. These mines have not been worked yet. A company will no doubt be started to do so, and will put a good sum
into Bob's pocket. In this country he has the character of a
generous, open hearted man who is always leaving himself without sixpence in his pocket and he is looked upon as a man of
little or no energy. He must have suffered a good many hardships last winter, as all his mining party which consisted of
7 gentlemen had broken up after making nothing. It is said they
worked like a set of horses, early in the morning and late at
night, but the place on which they had started work called Union
Bar was a notoriously unproductive place, and of course they did
not meet with the success they deserved. If I could only find
him out I would use my best endeavors to get him on this Commission in a gentlemanly and independent capacity of most likely
Commissariat Officer, and I think I have already gained the good

2

552

3

will and favour of our Commissioner sufficiently as to give
me reasonable hopes of my request being granted. We have also
the greatest need of 2 surveyors, who would get from 250 to
£500 a year and everything found them, but nobody has been
secured. I am in consequence doing double duty, but I have
fortunately 2 or 3 smart young Non-commissioned officers, whom
I have been able to instruct a little, and who afford me most
valuable assistance. In fact they are as competent to do the
work now as I am myself tho' they occasionally require a little
assistance. One of them does most of mathematical calculations
for me, tho' of course he does not understand the why and where-
fore of everything. If I were to attempt to explain everything
I should have to begin at the very beginning of Arithmetic and
Algebra, and turn schoolmaster. It is a great advantage having
also my own men around me. If I were to trust to getting civil-
ians as assistants we should get on very slowly indeed. The
Colonel has now given me the sole charge of the surveying of this
Commission, with the charge of the preparation of the plans and
maps which are of course sent home to the Foreign Office. I am
consequently quite independent and my own master, and I am sure
that is by far the best arrangement, and of course I am quite
prepared to take the responsibilities which such an arrangement
carries with it. My time in the winter will consequently be
fully occupied, which I am very glad of, for it is not a very
bright prospect after leading a pretty active life the best part
of the year to go into winter quarters, snowed up, with no fixed

53

cept what I could gain from the Indians, who shook their heads,
and said we could not travel there on account of the rocks and
dense timber. However I did not despair, and made up my mind
that I would not go back the same way I went, even if I had to
go on foot with a lump of bacon and piece of biscuit, and send
the horses and mules back. (I have just been disturbed by a
large grouse descending like a rocket and settling under a bush
a few yards off. I got up, and the bird seemed so scared that
he was easily secured by the hand, so I shall have him cooked
for my dinner today, which otherwise would most probably have
consisted merely of bacon and beans.) However to continue with
my narrative, I started at first up a beautiful wide open val-
ley, and the object of my journey was first to find a mountain
pass to another river which I knew to be 30 or 40 miles east
of me. This valley called the Okinagan Valley was so open and
level, that the loaded animals were able to travel 26 miles the
first day, tho' for loaded mules 14 miles is considered the
regular distance, where camping places were found convenient.
I had them all loaded light, none with more than 200 lbs, tho'
on other occasions I might have put 300 or even 400 lbs on each
of them. I had endeavored previously to secure the services of
an Indian guide, but I could not get anyone who would undertake
the task, as they all said it was impracticable. The first day
we passed several beautiful lakes for the valley is so level,
that in many places the small river running down the valley forms
lakes, there being no narrow channel for the water to flow through.

55

5

The River was I may almost say perfectly alive with fish, but the water was a great deal too clear for them to be secured with a bait and hook. In fact the Indians who live on them never attempt to catch them in that way, but use a long rod perhaps 30 feet big, with a spear at the end. And they wade about in the stream, and spear the fish with great dexterity. No white people could attempt to compete with them in this art. They strip all but their shirt and wade about up to their waist for 3 or 4 hours at a stretch, and I believe none but an Indian could stand the exposure for so long. The fish are a kind of salmon trout. They vary from 1½ to 2 feet in length and are very good to eat. Even the Indians, dexterous as they are, are not successful in more than one out of 10 attempts, for the fish are so wonderfully quick. The old Indians make all their young boys go out and catch the fish, the girls being employed in collecting berries when they are in season, and in dressing the fish which are dried in the sun and stored up for the winter. They are too lazy to grow either corn or potatoes, both of which I am sure would thrive well in such beautiful grass land, in fact they never will exert themselves as long as the fish are so plentiful. They are very well contented with that and a few roots which serve them for vegetables. They are getting too lazy to hunt even, as they get money readily from the white people to buy blankets and clothing with; formerly they used to give skins in exchange for blankets. Some of the boys with a bow and arrow. I used to see plenty of grouse are very successful in killing grouse, and could have shot as

56

many as I liked. However I used to content myself with shooting as many as I could eat. One day a family of 7 got up all around me and perched in the adjoining trees, and without scarcely stirring from the same spot except for the purpose of getting two in the same line and so killing two with one shot, I got the whole seven, not one attempting to fly away either while the shooting or loading was going on. They were all such fine birds that I could not resist getting them all so we all dined on grouse that day and after that I contented myself with shooting 2 or 3, and the men used to shoot a good many with their pistols, the only objection being that a bullet makes such a big hole in the bird. I went two days journey up this valley, in all about 36 miles, and by getting observations at night, I very easily found where I was. The valley was still going North and I wanted to go to the East, and as yet I had seen nothing but high mountains on each side, of it. I hoped soon to find a stream flowing from the east into the valley where I was, and then follow up that stream to its source, and so make sure of the most necessary thing for ourselves and animals, namely water. I hunted about among the Indians at their place, and found that there was a hunting party going to start on the morrow, consisting of 3 Indians and a young girl, and they were going to take 2 horses; and by paying one of them 4/2- (one dollar) a day, I secured the services of the family. We had previously secured their goodwill by exchanging old clothes for bear skins and other skins which of course we secured at a great advantage, as the skins

6

57

7

very neat engraving somehow or other on the bracelets. These
Indians did not give me such a bad account of the mountains as
I had hitherto had, so I began to think we should succeed after
all. However we got all our axes and knives out, as of course
we knew we should have to cut our way thro'. So I made the 2
Indians go first each carrying an axe, then one of our own men,
carrying an axe, all a foot, then all the rest followed in sin-
gle file, all the mules following the bell-mare, and the Indian
woman on one horse, and a little boy on another horse brought
up the rear, and I am sure if you could have seen the procession,
it would have amused you. We kept on travelling most of the
day up hill and over very rocky ground, and tho' we were tra-
velling all day we did not go much further than 12 miles, and
then the immense amount of fallen timber prevented our proceeding
further that day. So we looked about for a small clear spot
to pitch our tents upon, and then we soon made ourselves com-
fortable. On the following morning when I emerged from the
tent I found all the horses and mules had disappeared. The
2 Mexicans were away looking after them and I heard nothing of
them till about 2 o'clock in the afternoon when one Mexican
came back with all the missing animals but three. He had tracked
them back to the starting place of the day before, where there
was much finer grass, and no fallen dead timber. I was very
much annoyed at 3 animals being still missing, so I sent the
Mexicans and all the Indians in search, offering the Indians a
reward, and in about an hour an Indian returned with all the

59

8

three. I thought perhaps he had driven them off during the
night to get a reward, so I only gave him 5/- which did not
seem to satisfy him very much. I gave orders then to tie the
forelegs of all the horses and mules, and in the morning I
found that only the horses legs had been tied, that they had
broken their fetters and that they had all disappeared. This
was Sunday, and as I should have made a halt at any rate, I did
not feel so vexed as I otherwise should have done, and in the
course of the afternoon all the animals appeared tho' in 2
different batches. I had every one tied up then, and a fence
of branches built all round them, so as to make sure of their
not getting away this time. They never like to feed in ground
where they cannot lie down. A mule always likes to lie down
twice during the night to take an hours sleep each time, and
if he cannot make himself comfortable he is sure to walk off
to find some flat and open ground where he can graze and sleep.
Even when they were all tied up, I felt rather anxious and I
compose
could not myself to sleep, and I heard one get loose about
twelve, but I raised an alarm before he had gone very far. Ano-
ther made an attempt to escape about four so I got very little
sleep that night. We were able to start in good time the next
morning, tho' were delayed a great deal in cutting trees and
dead timber. One mule carrying my portmanteau and bed rolled
right over from the top of a hill about 100 yards to the bot-
tom where he was perfectly fixed between 2 trees, and required
considerable assistance before he could get out. He was bleeding

60

at the mouth and nose but suffered no real injury, and carried his load as before. My portmanteau and bed cover being of leather also escaped without injury. Another mule carrying the cooks things, pots and kettles, provisions (bacon and flour etc.) rolled over too, and was more unfortunate than the others for in his rapid descent he struck his head 3 times against the projecting stumps of trees and was killed before he reached the bottom, scattering pots and kettles, and flour and beans and knives and forks in all directions. The mule was unsaddled and left as he was as we had not time to cut him up, tho' he would have been vastly superior to our salt bacon and as many of the things as could be found were collected and put in a bag. I lost in that affair half a bag of shot which in this country is almost worth its weight in silver, and which vexed me very much. The bag of flour burst: the scattered contents of it could not be collected, and altogether it was an unfortunate disaster, and to guard against the risk of any more being killed on that particular hill, all the mules were unloaded and their contents carried up on the men's backs, and this had to be done up 2 hills on that day. The implements for hunting that our Indians had were principally large snares with strong iron springs. With these they snare deer, beaver and bears. It is impossible to get within shot of them, even an Indian has to give it up, and consequently in catching these animals there is no real sport. They had no success while I was there. One unfortunate deer had been caught by his leg in one and had es-

61

9

caped on 3 legs, and the poor thing most likely soon died for
loss of blood. Our Indians led straight across the Mountains
in an easterly direction for 4 days and showed a most exact and
minute knowledge of the country by the way they kept winding
about and picking out the best places for the horses and mules
to travel. The swamps were the most difficult places to get
over. The place I came to looked very dubious, but I urged
my horse on and in about 2 steps, the horse with myself on his
back was imbedded in the swamp, in fact there was only his head
and his back sticking out. He plunged of course vigorously and
at last regularly fixed himself by getting deeper. Being thus
fixed I got clear of the stirrups and jumped on a spot that did
not look quite so soft and then after pulling the horses head
round, and shouting and pulling, by a desperate effort or two
he extricated himself in a dreadful mess. We collected all the
wood we could and felled trees, cut it up into lengths of 4 or
5 feet and after about 3 hours made a sort of bridge over the
swamp that is to say over the worst part of it, so that a horse
without a load got over without sinking above his knees. But
with a loaded mule it was a very different thing, as they have
such small feet they sink much more readily. So 2 men had to
stand on each side of the mule and support the load, while a
5th man urged the animal on, and they were all pushed thro' in
this way tho' with considerable difficulty besides making every-
one in a horrible mess. We saw a great quantity of trees felled
by beaver in the construction of their dams in a stream. Some

62

trees were 15 or 18 inches in diameter, and they had just the
appearance of having been cut with an axe. It is all done with
time
their teeth, and it must take them a tremendous\_for they bite
such small pieces at a time. Most of the trees were quite fresh-
ly gnawed, and the chips lying all round gave it the exact ap-
pearance of having been cut with an axe, so neatly is it bit-
ten. I am sure half a dozen or more must set upon a tree at
one time for one or even two would never be able to do it. And
yet these beaver can never be shot. The only way they can be
got is to snare or trap them, and the old servants of the Hud-
sons Bay Company who used to spend their lives in that way got
the name of trappers for that reason. At several times in our
journey the only clear road we could find was the bed of the
river which had a good stone bottom, and as the river was not
[deep]
more than ¼ feet/in most places, we travelled sometimes as much
as 3/4 or 1 mile down it, the banks being completely blocked
up on each side with fallen timber which it would have taken
ages for us to have cut through. There was a pretty good cur-
rent in the river and as we went with the current the depth of
water was an assistance rather than an impediment. I was de-
lighted when I saw this big stream flowing south for I knew it
was either one or the branch of the one I wanted to come upon.
It turned out afterwards it was a branch. I then followed along
it for ¼ days when we came upon the large River called by the
Americans the Kettle River and another day's journey brought
me to a place called Rock Town, a few log houses having sprung

63

up there in consequence of the rich gold mines which have been discovered all round it this season. At one place there is a company of men each making £20 a day and all about the place gold in greater or less quantities can be found. Even by taking up a little basin of the gravel, and washing it, specks of gold can be seen with the eye. The gold which they find here has exactly the appearance of brass, and is consequently considered rather coarse gold, and on the spot it is worth £3. S 12. d. 0 per ounce. There are a few shops started already, where you can buy anything you want in the way of clothing and provisions, tho' of course very dear. In these places everybody is considered on an equality, and the miners are all styled "Gentlemen", and always speak of one another as Mr. so and so, and always say "Sir" to one another. It sounded very odd to me at first to see two disreputable looking fellows with dirty face and dirty hands and ragged clothes, converse and attempt to behave so politely to one another. They are mostly Americans, and in fact if it were not for their extreme perseverance and energy, this country would never either be opened up or mined. To get to this place which they call Rock Town as I said before, I had made a circuit of 130 miles for the sake of exploring the country North, for I have no doubt in a few years all the grazing land will be taken up and farms established. The great objection is the severity of the winter. The snow is 3 feet deep in many places for 3 months in the year, and there is great difficulty for the cattle and horses to find food.

11

64

This is the report of the Indians, and people are beginning
to doubt the truth of it, so they are going to try it this
winter, and I should not be surprised if they suffer great loss
in consequence. The rich gold mines that I spoke of are only
just 3 miles North of the Boundary Line, and I have no doubt
that gold will be found on the American side of the Line too,
but we have luckily got the richest spot as yet. We have been
very particular in marking the Boundary at this place, buil-
ding large cairns of stones at suitable intervals, and cutting
down all the trees that are 10 feet each side of the Line.
At the little town there are but two "ladies", with their hus -
bands, the 5 or 600 men. But I believe all the married men
will send for their wives in the spring. It is certainly a
most daring thing for a woman to undertake a journey of 400
miles into a rough country like this where many unsuccessful
people suffer great hardships, but these two ladies make plen-
ty of money in washing for which they charge 16/- (4 Dols.) a dozen,
and it is not grudged either. They also do the duty of tailors
and make a good deal in that way. A man will cut the shape of
his own coat and then it sewn for him, and as no one knows the
value of money she is just as likely to get a couple of ounces
of gold dust for her trouble as anything else. I only stopped
at this place one night, as I heard that another party of the
Commission were camped on the Line and about 3 miles from the
town. That night I had for my supper at the magistrate's house
lodgings, champagne in "tumblers", and biscuits and a splendid

65

said "Well, you know, you can hardly (?) call this sport." By
the bye I found out from him that he knew of Uncle Blair in
Ceylon also of Aunt Helena and all the family of the Roughs.
Uncle Blair had however gone home before he came to Ceylon, but
he said he always understood Miss Rough was engaged to Unc. Blair.
As soon as I arrived at the camp of the other party I spoke of,
consisting of about 25 men under Capt. Haig R.A., he quietly han-
ded me over his party to continue and finish the marking out and
cutting out of the Boundary Line and posted off 35 miles further
on, to commence operations afresh. I thought he would let me in
for this as soon as I made my appearance, and I was not sorry
to get a little peace and quietness after being on the move for
so long. Besides I had a great deal of indoor work, as it were,
to do which had of course accumulated, and which I was very anxious
to do before I went into winter quarters, when I knew I should
have enough on my hands. The Boundary line about here passes
over a succession of sherp mountains divided by deep ravines, so
it is no slight task to walk from the top of one mountain to the
top of the next, and altho' I have 2 horses to ride, yet it is
more trouble taking them than walking, tho' in the latter case
there is a frightful expenditure of shoe leather, which cannot
be replaced except at exorbitant prices. I have worn out now
5 pairs of strong boots in about 5 months, and my clothes are
patched up in a most amusing way. Whenever I tear my coat or
my trousers, which happens about once every other day, I generally
get a bit of buckskin or some (remainder of letter missing).

67

I suspect drinking has been the cause of it all, for there are
more cases of drunkenness recorded against him than any other
man that we have out here. Nearly all our best men are Scotch-
men. The Englishmen are apt to be very independent and the Irish-
men are very hasty and fond of a row. The Scotchmen are by far
the steadiest, the most careful and respectful set of men, and
consequently the most easy to manage. We spent a very quiet
Christmas this year. Last year the men had a grand dinner, and
invited all the officers in to dessert, the Colonel being away
at that time in England. They then proposed and drank the health
of each one individually, and on the whole there seemed to be the
best feeling existing between the officers and men. This time it
was very different in consequence of the presence of the Colonel
of whom I am sorry to say the men have the greatest aversion, and
this feeling was known to their comrades at home before I came
out, for the home people could not get any men to volunteer to
join the Boundary Commission although such high rates of pay were
offered, all in consequence of the bad name the Colonel has among
the men. To show you that this feeling is not without foundation,
at about 10 o'clock on Xmas night the Colonel hearing a man singing
and making himself merry came out of his room and had him locked
up in the Guard house, and the unfortunate man spent the remain-
der of his Xmas night there. That night the Colonel retired from
the Mess Room about 10, and immediately afterwards all the singing
parties of the men came outside the Mess Room and sang all kinds
of songs suited to the occasion, in which we all joined Chorus,

72

but it requires to have the snow about a foot deep to make the
ground in good order. The sleighs can only travel over beaten
tracks, where the snow is quite hard, and then you can travel
very conveniently at 10 miles per hour. The harness of the horses
in a sleigh is covered with bells which tingle at a great rate
when the horse is trotting. The object of these bells is to
warn people of the approach of a sleigh, so as to avoid colli-
sions, and people being run over, as the sleigh glides over the
snow without the least noise. There are a great number of wolves
all around us now, and hunger forces them to come nearer civili-
zation than they would do at any other time of the year. One
was found asleep in a bunch of hay near the stables the other
day, and we had one trapped the other day bigger than a large
Newfoundland Dog. It is very hard for them to get enough to eat
at this time of the year, and they say that quantities of them
who have become weak through want of food are killed and eaten by
their own species. They are so offensive to the taste that not
even a hungry dog will eat any portion of a wolf that has either
died naturally or been killed. There is a great Indian war going
on about 80 miles from here, between two tribes of Indians called
I think the Crees and Blackfeet. The latter were on the look out
for one of their enemies called the Crows and they came across
a party of Crees whom they mistook for enemies tho' they were all
friends. However a fight began and after a few had been killed
on both sides, the chief of the Crees shouted out and wanted to
know what the cause of the quarrel was, whereupon the Blackfeet

75

4

discovered their mistake and said that as some had been killed
on both sides, they were bound to continue the fight. So they
fought all day and the chief was killed on one side and the chief's
son on the other. The Blackfeet were victorious, and the Crees
are making every preparation to renew the contest and have their
revenge. There is very little of diplomacy among Indians, and I
dare say they get on all the better without it. I do not think
it likely that they will interfere with us, but we shall have
to keep a sharp look out, as if they were in great want of sup-
plies, I dare say they would not hesitate very much to take some
of ours. The Indians hate the Americans most deadly, and if it
were not for the presence of a large garrison, all the American
settlers would be scalped to a certainty. When they first became
acquainted with the whites, the Indians could not make out how
there came to be a difference between English and Americans,
for they said that we both speak the same language and the Ca-
nadians who came into the country, all of whom spoke French,
also said they were "King George Men" to the Indians, so they
latter were at first fairly perplexed; but now they say they
can tell an American at first sight, but I don't think that they
are always correct.

We have got up a sort of musical society among the men which
seems to please them very well. The band is not extensive, so it
is principally solos that are performed as the orchestra only
consists of a fiddle, a cirnopian and 3 flutes, and my piccolo is
lent when required. I have had practise on it a little, since

76

I have come here, but unfortunately I cannot make up my mind
to keep to the scales, as I generally find in the middle of the
scales that I am wandering away to the British Grenadiers or
the Red, White and Blue, or some other popular melody, tho' I
daresay my versions would startle their original composers if
they heard them. We have unfortunately no music, for one of
our men that deserted walked off with a trombone and all the mu-
sic, so they have all to play from ear. They dance hornpipes and
all kind of jigs, and generally seem to pass the evening merri-
ly enough. We were rather amused at a scene which occurred the
other night at the Hudson's Bay Cos. Fort. Mr. Macdonald has a
large family of children half Indians, his wife being an Indian,
and all these children varying from the age of 15 to 1 year num-
ber at least seven. Now unfortunately there is no nursery nor nurse,
so these young brats wander about and make dirt pies to their heart's
content. But the sleeping arrangements of all this family were
what amused us. About nine o'clock the eldest girl appeared per-
fectly enveloped in blankets, thrown over head and shoulders, and
this burden she deposited in one corner of the room. She made sev-
eral dives into the adjoining room, and appeared each time with a
load of blankets some between her teeth, and others in her hand,
till at least about 15 blankets were brought out and placed in
different portions of the room. The boys were then told to go to
bed, which was as quickly done as said, for they went straight off
to the different corners of the room, rolled themselves, dressed
as they were, in one blanket and then lay down on two others and

77

can

Send

were soon asleep. And I suppose like the dogs, on getting up
in the morning they gave themselves one shake and their toilet was
complete. I shouldn't think it was very difficult to provide
for a family out here as the boys can always earn their living and
the girls are certain to get married. If you wish to know the
routine of my every day life here, I must previously inform you
that since I have become Housekeeper the very strictest punctuality
has been carried out. Breakfast is on the table exactly
at 8:30 a.m. so that we can all get to work by nine. Luncheon
at 12:30, and dinner at 6 and a cup of tea at 8, and by this
arrangement the time seems to pass through our fingers very rapidly.
We have three months of it to look forward to, so I should
think we shall be pretty well tired of it by that time. We unfortunately
get very little exercise now, for it is not very pleasant going out for a walk with a foot of snow on the ground,
especially when there is a comfortable room and a fire to retire
to. Besides that it is either always snowing or else it looks as
if it were going to snow, so it is difficult to find a promising
afternoon for a walk. This letter is going to be a shorter one
than I generally write but you must not expect very long letters
now, as you'll hear from me every fortnight, for I do not believe
that you hear from Johnny or Eb oftener than that and then
only very short letters from them. I must say you have written
hitherto with most exemplary regularity, at the rate of two per
month, and I should have liked very much to have been able to say
the same of our correspondence in return. All the roads are still

78

passable for horsemen, so I hope the mails will be carried regularly all the winter. Please give my love to Johnny and tell him to write me a few lines about himself, and I will not grumble at the shortness of the letter. Also give my love to Eb and dear little Ralph when you write. Eb has been a most excellent correspondent, but as I wrote to him last mail I am sure he will not expect me to write him a separate letter by this mail. I hope Aunt Pitman returned safe and sound from the Continent, with no more serious losses, though I hope she recovered her lost baggage. I am so glad to hear that Aunt Harriet and Uncle John are keeping so well. Please give them my very best love.
And now dearest Janet Goodbye, and I hope you will take care of yourself and believe me, your most affect. brother,

Sam

16.

B.C. Barracks, Colville, Washington Terr.

U.S., Jan 26, 1861

My dearest Janet,

About a fortnight ago our Colonel invited down to our Barracks the 2 married American officers and their wives, and much to our surprise and amusement they accepted our invitation for last Tuesday. When the day arrived the Colonel gave up his house which consists of two rooms for the accommodation of the ladies and about 2 o'clock in the afternoon not only husbands and their wives came, but 6 other people also thus making 10 altogether. Now our mess consisting of 8 people can in an emergency accomodate 13½ or 14 people, but to supply 18 was perfectly impossible. And as I was Housekeeper of course all

79

this trouble and anxiety fell upon my shoulders. So I drove off
in a sleigh to the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort about 2½ miles off,
and got them to lend me all the crockery, and china and glasses
and knives and forks and decanters and jugs they could muster, and
also borrowed 36 blankets, 6 being the allowance for each one and
we had 24 spare ones of our own. I then ordered a double quan-
tity of meat, vegetables puddings and tarts to be cooked at once
and it was very lucky they let us know in time that they were com-
ing in such force, or else there would have been no time to make
any extra preparations. On this occasion, I had to get out from
the bottom of my box the little roll of green baize containing
3 knives, 3 forks, 3 spoons etc. etc., and which was so neatly
got up and made a present to me by Aunt Harriet before I went
to Chatham. The only thing we were actually in want of was wine
glasses; the wine glasses were placed round the table as far as
they would go, and then a mixed collection of coffee cups and
tumblers placed round for the champagne, a dozen of which was
provided for the occasion. By the time all these preparations
were made the ladies had made themselves comfortable in the
Colonel's quarters and were receiving afternoon visits from the
different members of the Commission. I am sure they must have
found all the rooms very chilly for they kept on their shawls
and fur cloaks all the time. One of the ladies, Mrs. Lugenbeel,
is the wife of the commanding officer who is of German extraction.
I suppose she is about 37, and she can't be much less for she told
me she had a son 17 years old at college in Kentucky. She has

3

80

4

also 3 small children with her and no female servant, but I suspect she is an old stager and accustomed to rough it. She was a neat little body in appearance and is the most ladylike Yankee I ever saw.

The other is a Mrs. Wickliffe, wife of a Lootenant Wickliffe (as the Yankees always pronounce it.) and has only been married about 6 months. She is a short little body also, rather good looking and a most thorough noisy Yankee. She was dressed if you must know now, in a black silk dress, made with a very short waist, and a large buckle placed in front securing a ribbon round the waist, and this buckle seemed to me to be placed in a similar position to the top button of my waistcoat, and then all the rest was skirt. In fact things did not seem to me to be in proportion. The other lady was dressed in a red Merino dress with large sleeves turned over and displaying red silk lining. Whether this was done to convey the impression that the whole affair was lined with red silk or not, I do not know, but it certainly looked very much like it. However I thought to myself if all the lining was like that the best part of the dress would be in the inside, which is absurd and then I was lost in conjecturing what the probable lining really was. I forgot to say that the younger lady was about 22, and I should think that the united heights of the two ladies would not come up to 10 feet. Well, I am a long time getting to the principal thing and that was the dinner. It all passed off admirably. I had 3 men to wait at table, plenty to eat, and plenty to drink, and I should think they ought all to have been satisfied. The chief thing

81

that amused me was the younger lady of the two asking a gentleman
to take wine with her, and the unfortunate habit they all had of
piling all sorts of strange things on their plate at the same time.
After we all drank the health of the Queen and the President, not
that we do the latter everyday, far from it, about a dozen of our
singing men came and sang songs in an adjoining room. One of the
gentlemen had a guitar and one of the ladies sang whereupon the
men in the adjoining room applauded so loudly that she broke down
and could not be started again. I suppose the men kept on singing
for about 2 hours and then they sang God Save the Queen and went
off to bed. After that we had two or three dances in which the la-
dies joined, and after that Mr. Macdonald from the Fort favoured
us with a dance called the Gilli-callum or Sword Dance. Two swords
are placed on the ground, the blades crossing one another at right
angles and the dance consists in dancing in and out between the
blades of the swords without touching them, and Mr. Macdonald the
more than 40 seemed just as nimble about it as he could well be.
The ladies left the Mess Room about 11, and then the Gentlemen
played whist and (remainder of this letter missing.)

17. Part 2 of letter to Eb, Jan 26, 1861.

out of the sleigh and put to bed at once and nobody was
in the least surprised. It is a very common thing to see a man
walking along the road with a bottle in his pocket, and it is cer-
tain to be in the trousers pocket and every one that the man meets
is certain to be invited to partake of the bottle and I suppose
very few refuse. I have myself been twice challenged in this way

82

and they both seemed offended because I refused.

It has just occurred to me that as I have now got a map of
the country we have been surveying lately that you would like to
have some idea about it, so I have taken a rough tracing of it to
send you in this letter. Up to point A on the map all our supplies
were drawn from the west side up the Fraser River from Victoria,
and then we had to have 2 trails cut from points B and F to bring
supplies along to different portions of the Boundary Line. The
trails are shown by the dotted lines. We had only got as far as
point A in the beginning of last year, and when I was up the coun-
try last winter I was employed in cutting the Boundary Line between
E and H, the mountains prevented us going further east just there.
On account of the depth of snow on the mountains in the spring, we
were obliged to make a tremendous circuit in order to get at the
Boundary Line, and our route appears at the point K and we then
went up to the Boundary Line at Osayoos Lake and at point D I
wrote a letter to you. It was the place where 3 of our men were
drowned. From D I went straight off to A and at that point connec-
ted our survey with our previous one from the west side. All this
year I have been surveying all the rivers and trails that are East
of A. I made a reconnoitring trip from B to C when want of food
compelled me to retreat to B, and as I afterwards found out I was
within two miles of where Bob was mining without knowing it. Bet-
ween L and M, a distance of 70 miles, the Boundary Line is cut 20
feet wide throughout and all done last summer. So we have a very
fair amount of work to show for our last season's work. Another

83

2

party of the same strength of our men was only able to survey that portion which you see East of Colville, on account of the impracticable nature of the country. Nearly the whole of the map is one mass of mountains, and except along the trails it is impossible to get along anywhere. All the little streams are in deep ravines, but the larger ones flow thro' valleys shut in on both sides by mountains. I am afraid you won't be able to understand much about the rough sketch I have sent, but at all events you will be able to see the relative position of some of the places that I have been at.

You will find scarcely any of the places marked in an ordinary map, as ours is the first surveying party that was ever in this part of the country and any maps that have been made, were completed I should think principally at home, without any knowledge of the places themselves. We received some Victoria newspapers the other day, and I have cut out one paragraph about the Bishop of Columbia whom you wished to hear about, and another which speaks most favourably of the mines. I have no doubt the paper invariably tries to publish everything for the good of the country, but it neglects to say that where one miner makes his fortune, 50 get ruined. The place where Bob is, is called the South Fork or branch of the Similkamene; they speak of the place where he is in the enclosed article and speak of 60 men being there for the winter. I have written a short letter to Janet and told her nearly all the rest of the news, so if you like you can read it before you send it on. I have given her in it a short account of our American guests that is to say the female friends. The younger one had a great habit of exclaiming

84

"Good Gracious alive" and "pshaw" in different portions of the conversation. Our Colonel was talking to her about the severity of the weather and the firmness required for using icy cold water in the morning, saying that he always did it, tho' he found it very trying at times. Well what do you think was this young lady's answer to this? Why she said in these words, that when she got up in the morning she only gave herself a _lick_ and a _promise_ and then went down to breakfast with the intention of completing her toilette in the course of the day. I am glad to say her husband was not present at the time or else I should think this confession would have shamed him from appearing again. I must really now finish as it is already _to-morrow morning_, and Believe me, your most affe. brother,

Sam.

P.S.

b s d

I send you the enclosed Bill for 65 - 17 - 9 on the Paymaster General No. 105 - Jan 6th, 1861, the second of which shall be sent next time.

Please give my love and a kiss to dear little Ralph. I hope you enjoyed your trip to Ednb. tho' it was almost too late in the year. I hope the Rifle Corps. is progressing very fast and will be a recognized body. Please remember me to all my old friends at Maudlin also to Mr. and Mrs. Linis, and also to Gale when you see him.

18.

Boundary Commission Barracks, Colville, Wash. Terr.

U.S., Feb. 11th, 1861

My dearest Janet,

........ We were perfectly overwhelmed with newspa-

3

2

pers this time, ¼ of Punch, ¼ of the Illustrated London News, besides American papers. The whole of the United States is in a most extraordinary state of excitement. Some people in Kentucky talked of lynching the President, and some of the leading politicians prophesy that blood will be shed within 2 months. It is all on account of a President being elected who is against slavery.

All the Southern states are for slavery and all the Northern states are against it, so as the slavery candidate was not elected President the Southern states talk of seceding, and the principal one South Carolina had already done so according to the latest accounts.

Their secretary of war Floyd is reported to be implicated in most extensive swindlings, and in fact the whole country is in a terrible mess. I suppose you saw the picture of the new President in the Illustrated news. Did you ever see such a coarse looking man. We are going to cut out his likeness and stick it up at one end of our Mess Room, and put up at the other end a likeness of our most gracious Queen, so that our American friends when they come down to see us may be struck with the contrast. We are getting through the winter here very pleasantly and rapidly. Day after day the time seems to fly in a most unaccountable hour, principally I suppose because I have plenty to do. We here had several of the new books lent to us by the Americans tho' I have not been able to find much time to read them as of yet, and now the quantity of papers that have arrived for us by this mail will furnish ample employment for 10 or 12 evenings at least. I have been about very little since I last wrote to you. I drove over in a sleigh, or had

86

scene that ensued in the whole country around may be more easily imagined than described. The houses were scattered about in all directions, several miles apart, so the work of recovering the right babies must have been a work of some days. However in this particular ball that I speak of that took place the other day everything went off very well. They had two fiddlers, one playing at a time and relieving each other occasionally, so that there was incessant fiddling and incessant dancing.

On the following day you would have thought all these people about 100 altogether, would have dispersed quietly and gone to their homes; but no, they then came over in a body to the Hudson's Bay Co's Fort, and determined upon having another jolification there, which they did have too, and went off at daylight the next morning. I was up at the American garrison on these two nights, so I did not go to either, nor should I have cared about it very much, but some of our fellows went up on the second night at the Fort, having received the invitation after dinner the same evening, so when I came home on the following day I found them all as stupid and as stiff as could be, and they did not get over it for two days. One of the companies of the American soldiers is going to give a ball to the general public tomorrow Feb. 11th, to which we are all invited, and I suppose some of us will have to go. I dare say it will be fun enough to go to a thing of this sort once, but after that I should think it would be a nuisance.........

Sam

4

88

19.

Colville Barracks, Washington Territory,
United States, Feb. 11th, 1861

My dear Jack,

One of the members of our Commission called
Bauerman who is our Geologist is well acquainted with all the
country round about where you are and he is been interesting me
very much in his account of it all, about Töplitz and the Erzegebirge
and the Mileschauer etc. I have been at this place now since
the middle of December, having been driven in by the winter coming
on. Since then we have down to 17° below zero of Fahrenheit's
or 10 below zero of Reaumur. Luckily we had very little wind
when the Thermometer was so low, so we did not feel the cold so
much as we otherwise should have done. At this time it was im-
possible to keep anything thawed. The bread used to be like a
brick, milk and cream solid as ice itself, and bottles of wine
burst in a most deplorable way, on account of the freezing of the
water with which it is mixed. We have had a foot of snow on the
ground for the last month, and even when it does thaw, for a few
hours in the middle of the day, in the night it freezes and makes
all the surface of the snow one sheet of ice. All the roads are
beaten as hard as ice, and the horses have to be well roughed to
enable them to keep their footing. Everybody has sleighs out here
and they glide along over the snow as smoothly as carriages do over
level roads at home, and the horse has much less work to do than
if he were to draw an equal weight upon wheels. We have been having
some of our riding horses broken in, and they draw very well in

2

89