No. 42

I have the honor to inform your Grace that the winter has
passed away without the occurrence of any extraordinary event
in British Columbia.

2. The season has been comparatively mild, and the miners
residing in the various inland districts, have been abundantly
provided with food and with home grown vegetables in small
quantities

which have had the effect of checking the ravages
of scurvy by which the health of many of those laborious men
was seriously impaired in the winter of 1858.

3. Very satisfactory reports have been lately received
from all the mining districts of the Country; on these however
strict reliance cannot always be placed, though, in the present
instance, they are corroborated by heavy arrivals of gold dust
both in the hands of miners and of the exporting companies.

4. The roads leading into the country from Hope and Yale,
have, in consequence

of the great depth of snow in the mountain
passes, been impassable since the beginning of winter to any
other mode of transport than by Indian packers, who with singular
force and power of endurance, toil through the mountain trails
at that trying season with loads of one hundred pounds each;
but that mode of transport is not even attempted in winter by
the Hope trail, which is hermetically sealed to travel from the
interior, between the months of October

and June, yet these two
trails may, I believe be made available for winter travel, by
evading the precipitous hills over which they pass, and carrying
the line of road by easy grades, through the deep valleys. The
transport might then be carried on during the winter by means of
sleighs drawn by horses, as it is evident that the depth of snow
would not form in itself an insuperable obstacle provided the
precipitous ascents which constitute

real difficulty of the
road could be avoided.

5. Much attention has been directed to the exploration of
those difficult routes, and we have ascertained the feasibility
of running an easy graded line of road from Yale to Lytton, and
I am daily expecting a report from a surveying party employed
at Hope, in examining, with a similar object in view, the passes
leading from that place to the Shimilkameen Valley. These
routes may without exaggeration be severally compared to the
passage of the Alps.

It is however a great satisfaction to
known that the country beyond the mountains is generally level
and of easy access.

6. The great outlet of British Columbia continues to be by the Harrison River Trail, and that fortunately has been
uninterruptedly open during the whole winter, and large stocks
of food have been accumulated at its further terminus near
Cayoosh, in anticipation of the influx of miners for the Upper Fraser. The price of food is in consequence of the abundance comparatively low, the last

quotations being 8d per lb. for
flour and beans at Lytton, and 11d at Cayoosh, and at both
places bacon is quoted at 14d per lb. The improvement in
the condition of the miner is very great, as he can live
substantially for 1 1/2 dollars per diem, instead of 3 or
4 dollars, and many claims are now workable at a profit which
could not afford the miner any support last year.

7. A detachment of 80 Royal Engineers under the command
of Captain Grant has been

employed since the beginning of March
embanking the shoals near the mouth of the Harrison River, for
the purpose of deepening the channel, which is now impassable
in winter for the lightest Steamer, and there is every reason
to believe that the work will be brought to a successful termination.

8. The same detachment of Royal Engineers will shortly
proceed to resume work on the wagon road from Douglas, which
it is expected they will complete in a few weeks as far as the

Ten Mile house, from that point a party of civilian labourers
have undertaken a section of 6 miles of the road, for which
they are to receive the sum of £550 per mile. This will carry
the road to the 16 mile house, where the Royal Engineers will
recommence operations, and probably complete the next twelve
miles, that is to the 28 mile house situated on the smaller
Lillooet Lake, before the end of summer.

9. We propose to use that and the larger Lillooet Lake as
a water communication, connecting them by means of a

good wagon
road 1 1/4 miles in length, which is already made and in use.

The application of some enterprising settlers to run a
Steamer without any special privilege on the larger Lillooet Lake has been granted, which will greatly facilitate transport.
An excellent mule trail 30 miles in length with substantial
bridges over all the rivers, connected the larger Lillooet Lake with Lake Anderson, beyond which the route to Cayoosh
offers no very serious difficulties to engineering enterprise.

10. Two stern wheel Steamers intended to ply on Lakes
Anderson and Seaton are nearly completed, by an association
of settlers who at much labour and expense packed the engines
and boilers from Douglas over the Harrison Road. To give an
idea of the difficulty of the undertaking I may mention that
the boilers being too heavy to carry on mules, were rolled
over the trail, as far as the 28 mile house, in five sections.
Serious difficulties of that kind will not be felt when the
wagon road is made, and the facility of

communication will,
I have no doubt, give a prodigious impulse to industry and
to the rapid development of the resources of the country,
as all kinds of machinery required to assist the operations
of the gold miner may then be imported.

11. I have received advices from Lytton up to the 6th
of this month (April). Commissioner Ball reports that the
mining season had commenced, and that the miners who had
migrated to the lower country for the winter, were fast
returning to their old claims on the

Benches of Fraser River,
but the great majority of those hardy wanderers were making
their way towards Quesnels River, where it is confidently
expected rich hill diggings will be found.

12. A great number of Chinese Miners were also arriving
and taking up mining claims on the River Bars, in the Lytton
district, who are reputed to be remarkably quiet and orderly.
Mr Ball's report refers to no other subject of general interest.

13. The prevailing impression respecting the great
auriferous wealth of the district about 

Alexandria and the
Quesnel River will have the effect of attracting a large
population to that distant quarter, and I shall consequently
be under the necessity of appointing a Magistrate and a small
body of Police to remain there, for the purpose of maintaining
the peace, of the Country, and preventing conflicts among the
miners, and with the Indian Tribes.

14. The last intelligence from the Shimilkameen River
is not so favorable as before reported. I

perceive by the
Oregon papers that many persons who had gone there for the
purpose of mining had been unsuccessful. It is stated in
those papers that 20 or 30 miners only were making from 8 to
10 dollars per day while the others engaged in the same
occupation were not paying expenses. That is, I conceive,
but the usual and silly outcry of the idler and the visionary,
and does not in the least shake my opinion in regard to the
auriferous nature of the country, founded on its geological
character,

and further strengthened by the report of Lieut
Park, a highly scientific member of the American Boundary
Commission, who entertains a similar belief in the auriferous
character of that district and in the existence of extensive
Placer diggings. Should a large population assemble there,
the attention of Government will have to be directed towards
it and a police force employed to maintain the peace. I shall
use every exertion to connect the Shimilkameen with Fort Hope

by means of a convenient road with the important object in view of
making Frasers River, instead of the Columbia, the outlet of its trade.

15. British Columbia is becoming highly attractive to the
Chinese, who are arriving in great numbers—about 2000 having
entered Frasers River since the beginning of the year and many
more are expected from California and China. They are certainly
not a desirable class of people, as a permanent population, but
are for the present useful * as

labourers and as consumers, of a revenue paying character. I have therefore protected them from the payment of
differential duties not equally borne by other classes of the population.

16. I have received advices from Commissioner Sanders of
Yale District up to the 14th Instant (April). He describes
the migration of miners for the Upper Country as being very
general and expresses a fear that the feeling in favour of
Quesnels River may lead to the depopulation of the Yale District.

17. In a previous passage

of this report I stated that we
had ascertained the feasibility of running a line of road by
easy grades the whole way from Yale to Lytton, which would
avoid the lofty passes and be accessible in winter for pack
mules, and not like the present trail, rendered valueless for
five months in the year, by an impassable depth of snow.

With reference to that enterprise which I proposed to
undertake, Mr Sanders complains of the character of the
population. His remarks on the subject are as follows:

There is very little probability of any person in Yale or
its neighbourhood

tendering for the construction of the
projected mule trail; the proposed part payment in land
is very far from being an inducement, in fact it is generally
objected to: an arrangement of that nature might possibly
be acceptable to British subjects, but would naturally and
unfortunately be objectionable to aliens and unfortunately
the population of this Colony is almost without exception foreign.

We shall nevertheless commence that undertaking as soon
as a small body of the Royal Engineers can be spared without
detriment to other important work.