No. 12

I have the honor to forward a report from Mr O'Reilly,
Gold Commissioner of Cariboo East, respecting the affairs of
his district in 1864.

[2.] I shall hope shortly to have sufficient leisure to
report to you fully respecting the condition of the Gold
Mines during the last year, their present state, and future
prospects. The first will not show much cause for satisfaction.
The rigour of the Winter leaves but little to be said respecting
the Second, but as regards the future I may say that the
prospects are promising. Rich diggings, which seem capable
of furnishing occupation for many thousands of men, are being
discovered on several creeks between the Kootenay Mines in the
South and those of Cariboo in the North. It appears as if the
whole intervening country for four or five hundred miles will
prove richly auriferous. It is not uncommon at the Kootenay
and the North Bend of the Columbia for Miners to make from
fifteen to twenty pounds a head a day, not from the accidental
discoveries of nuggets but from the fair working of their claims.