No. 100

I have the honor to inform Your Grace that nothing much
of importance, beyond the usual course of events, has
transpired in 

British Columbia since the date of my last Report.

2. The Miners of Alexandria and Quesnel River dreading
the severity of the inland winter, have for some weeks past
been arriving in great numbers from those Districts, and
settling in the towns on the Lower Fraser, being attracted
thither by the genial climate and cheaper rate of living:
their labours, have, I understand,

not been unrewarded,
many of them having been eminently successful; while,
contrary to the general experience of mining countries, few
or none have been entirely disappointed: so much indeed is
this the case, that, as I am informed, they almost without
exception, propose returning to Alexandria as soon as the
snow disappears in Spring, and surface claims become accessible
to the Miner. The population of those remote

Districts will
probably for this winter be confined to persons who have
invested their means in the construction of sluices, and
especially such miners as are employed in tunnelling, whose
operations are little affected by the external temperature,
and may be carried on during the severest weather.

3. I have lately received a communication dated Alexandria,
17th of October, from Mr Philip H. Nind, Magistrate and
Gold Commissioner

for Alexandria from which it appears that
he had from various causes, encountered much detention on his
route to Alexandria. His arrival in the District was hailed
with a general feeling of satisfaction and his services were
immediately called into requisition by the complaints of the
inhabitants against a few notorious evil-doers who had taken
refuge there, and become

the terror of the place. The most
vigorous measures were at once set on foot to bring them to
justice, and one of the number was soon afterwards apprehended
and committed for trial; but the others could nowhere be
found, and are supposed to have fled over the frontier into Oregon. Mr Nind had temporarily established his head-quarters
at William's Lake, on account of its

central position from
whence diverge, as from a common focus, all the routes
leading to the upper and lower country.

4. The Extract from Mr Nind's valuable Report which I
here subjoin, contains some interesting statistical facts in
addition to his own views of the auriferous and physical
character of parts of the Alexandria District which he has
lately visited.

The rate of wages

to hired labourers is five and six
dollars ($5 & $6) a day and of provisions and other necessaries about
the same as at Alexandria, in some instances a little lower
from the greater amount of competition. I have the honor
to enclose a list of the prices of various articles at Alexandria.

Fergusons or Rich Bar when first discovered proved
highly auriferous, as much as Sixty dollars ($60) a day to the
hand having been made; but after the pay-streak near the
river became exhausted

the flat in the road had to be
pierced, and the gravel wheeled over plank roads for some
hundreds of yards to be rocked out at the river, the profits
consequently of the days labour considerably decreased, so
that when I was there the average receipts were from seven
to ten dollars ($7 to $10) a day to the hand: as soon however as water
can be brought on for sluicing there is no doubt but that
high wages will be made. Unlike the bars on the lower Fraser,
the ground

is here unobstructed by heavy timber or roots; and
the miner finds that not only does the pay-streak yield gold,
but also the sand overlying it in sufficient quantities to
pay for the washing. It is the general opinion that there
will be employment on this bar for more than a hundred men,
and that it will not be exhausted in less than two or three
years. The introduction of water is an operation requiring
considerable

capital and engineering skill; the ditch is
cut from a lake situated between four and five miles to the
N.E. and has to be brought on by means of a long tunnel: the expense
of completing it is calculated at Twelve Thousand dollars ($12,000).

Three miles below Ferguson's Bar is British Bar, where
a company of six Cornishmen are bringing in a ditch about
five miles in length for their own use: the Bar

is but of
small size. I did not notice any miners between here and
Alexandria, though there were signs of work done in the
spring. The Fraser between Alexandria and Quesnel River,
is a swift but not turbulent river, averaging from two to
three hundred yards across, it has a few small ripples,
but none of the dangerous whirlpools so common in its
lower course; the navigation does not appear difficult;

Ferguson's Bar being supplied with necessaries by boats from
Alexandria, which make the trip of Sixty miles in about two
days and a half. Between Alexandria and Fort George I hear
but of two impediments to Steamboat navigation which it
would be difficult to surmount, vizt two passes on Canons where the river narrows and rushes violently through precipitous rocks. The physical features on the Upper Fraser
that attract the attention of the

miner are three—

1st Its benches, bars and flats,

2nd Its earth-slides, and high banks displaying several
strata of wash gravel,

3rd The water in its vicinity that can be made available
for mining.

The first are very extensive, and some have been worked with
rockers; but rockers are really only an advanced kind of
prospecting apparatus, and stand in the same relation to
sluicing and the hydraulic

pipe as the Chilian Arastra does
to the California Quartz Mill; in both cases the deposit of
gold must be very large to yield remuneration to the employers
of so limited and primitive a method of obtaining it.

Respecting the second feature, the earth-slides and high banks
yield the "colour" to prospectors, and in many cases two or
three cents to the pan; were the hydraulic pipe brought to
bear upon them, ground that is now unemployed

would be highly
remunerative.

Respecting water, this great essential to
extensive mining operations, can be procured without much
difficulty, though not without labour and expense, for if
streams are less frequently met with descending from these
wooded hills than flow from the snow-topped mountains of the
Lower Fraser, yet the great number of Lakes situated within
accessible distances of either bank, would afford a supply
entirely independent of rain-fall or melting snow.

At present
the country is struggling against the high rate of provisions
and necessaries, the class of men that arrive in the spring
have but enough money to purchase a few weeks provisions,
they cannot afford to work for the future, but must make money
immediately or return, so that a thorough testing or development
of the auriferous resources of this particular section of
country, till very considerable reduction takes place in the
price of things, is not to be looked for.

I have conversed
with many men who have been prospecting from Alexandria to the
farthest point hitherto reached, and I find even amongst the
unsuccessful no disbelief in the richness of the mines but a
general impression to return next year, and try their luck
again. Amongst the geological phenomena of this portion of
Fraser River there is much to attract attention, more
particularly a dark brown substance which the people call
coal; on Ferguson's Bar

and the adjacent banks many detached
pieces lie scattered about, and I was informed by a person on
that Bar that he had used it for blacksmithing purposes and
found it to answer; some eight or nine miles above Alexandria
where the river, from a north and south course, makes an
almost rectangular bend to the East, a high bank displays a
complete stratum of this singular formation. I collected some
specimens of it, and found on examination

that its specific
gravity was much lighter than that of coal, that it did not
soil the fingers, and that the grain of the wood was distinctly
visible. I apprehend it to be lignite in a transition state,
but whether it could be utilized for commercial purposes I
am unable to judge. The banks of the river here are of
considerable altitude, and are composed of a kind of inundated
clay, called by the Miners, "soap-stone," they have been worn
by the action of the water into

cylindrical forms and assume
the appearance of buttresses and columns.

The trail between Alexandria and Ferguson's Bar passes through some exceedingly
rich open land consisting of heavy black loam with a subsoil
of clay apparently well adapted to the growth of wheat. The
land that Mr Davidson has pre-empted, has produced excellent
crops, a small patch of less than half an acre has returned
twenty bushels of wheat,

and the turnips and cabbages would
be considered fine in any country. Mr Davidson owns several
head of cattle, a yoke of oxen, waggons and other agricultural
implements. Finding his experiments so successful, he is
preparing to farm next year more extensively, and is anxious
to purchase land in addition to his pre-emption claim: several
white men and Indians are at present in his employ. A
substantial and commodious log-house has been built, and

farm
buildings are in process of erection. The price of vegetables
on the ground has ranged from twenty cents a lb. to twelve
and a half, onions excepted, which have never been sold for
less that fifty cents a lb. Several of the hills that enclose
the valley of Williams Lake are covered with pasture of the
finest description, and in the valley and on the slopes are
hundreds of acres of prairie that would repay the labor of
the agriculturalist.

The timber in these hills principally
consists of Douglas pine, Larch, Fir and Balsam; the larger
trees make useful lumber, free from knots. Since I have
resided in this District, the weather, during the early part
of September was unsettled, but from the middle of the month
'till the present time it has been exceedingly fine; sharp
at night, but the thermometer in my tent ranges between 60o
and 70o

during the middle of the day. I have been enabled
from the central position of this spot to transact a good deal
of business with miners and traders returning from the Upper Country.

The Indians around here seem well disposed: some
work well and readily, and are very intelligent, and would be,
I think, susceptible of the influences of civilization: others,
on the contrary, are extremely indolent, and neglect

providing
against the wants of tomorrow if supplied with food for today.
As there has been a dearth of Salmon this summer, I very much
fear they will suffer severely this winter: the greater
number talk of wintering on the Thompson River and at Cayoosh.

5. I have received intelligence from Hope and Yale up to
the 29th of November. The Gold Commissioners report

that
the weather had been so far most favorable for mining operations,
and that nearly all the miners in those Districts had built
comfortable houses where they intend to remain for the winter.

Some Miners from the Cariboeuf Country had lately arrived
at Hope with very fine specimens of lump gold worth from £1
to £8 a piece; their object being to remain at Hope until
the winter is over, when they propose

returning to their distant
mining claims.

6. The miners at Shimilkomeen were making fair wages varying
from 30 to 60 shillings a day to the man; and there was a
sufficient stock of food in that part of the country to last till spring.

7. In consequence of the number of new steam boats which
have been lately built here and commenced running on 

Fraser River,
the charge for freights from this place to Hope has fallen to
20s/- a ton, being a reduction of 300 per cent on the former
rates of transport.

The Reports from British Columbia contain nothing further
deserving of special notice.