William’s Creek takes its name from one of its discoverers, William Dietz, a Prussian, who, with his companion, a Scotchman, named Rose, were amongst the most adventurous of the pioneers of the Cariboo country. Neither of them ever reaped any reward from the discovery of perhaps the richest creek in the world. When a crowd of miners rushed to the place, they left in search of fresh diggings. The Scotchman disappeared for months, and his body was found at length by a party of miners in a journey of discovery, far out in the Wilds. On the branch of a tree hard by hung his tin cup, and scratched upon it with the point of a knife was his name, and the words, “Dying of starvation.” William Dietz returned unsuccessful to Victoria, and, struck down by rheumatic fever, was dependent on charity at the time of our visit.
The broken-up and irregular western flank of the Rocky Mountains appears to be the true gold-bearing region of British Columbia. Gold has indeed been found in nearly every part of the colony where it has been looked for, but never in large quantities, except on the streams issuing from this district, as the Eraser and Columbia with their tributaries. It has been found also on the eastern slope, on the North Saskatchewan and Peace Rivers. But the amount obtained on the Saskatchewan has been inconsiderable; and it is worthy of remark that, while this river takes its rise just to the west of the middle line of the main ridge, Peace River, on which rich prospects have been discovered, has its origin fairly on the western side, flows through the auriferous tract for a considerable distance, and then turning east, passes through a wide rent in the Rocky Mountains. In crossing by the Yellow Head Pass, we met with carboniferous limestone, then Devonian, and near Robson’s Peak, on the western slope, saw for the first time the dark slates and schistose rocks, with veins of quartz—probably of the upper Silurian strata—which mark the auriferous tract. West of this, an extensive region of what appears to be eruptive trap commences, and probably continues up to the Cascade, or coast range, to the westward; while to the south-east it stretches across the valleys of the Fraser and Thompson to that of the Columbia. The Cascade Range consists of granitic and plutonic rocks, and in places clay-slate and semi-crystalline limestones occur.
The district of Cariboo is the richest portion of the British Columbian gold field, and here the geologic disturbance has been the greatest. Cariboo is a sea of mountains and pine-clad hills, the former rising to a height of 7,000 or 8,000 feet, surrounded by a confused congeries of the latter. Everywhere the surface has been disturbed, so that hardly a foot of level ground can be found, except at the bottom of the narrow gullies running between these hills. Strata are tilted on end, and beds of streams heaved up to the tops of hills. Round this centre of wealth poured up from the depths below, the main branch of the Fraser wraps itself in its semi-circular course, and has received from thence, by numerous tributaries, the gold found in its sands.
Gold was first discovered on the sand-bars of the Lower Fraser, in the state of the finest dust. The old miners of California traced it up the river, and followed it as it became of coarser and coarser grain 400 miles along the Fraser, and then up the small affluents from Cariboo. Here were found nuggets, and lumps of auriferous quartz. The hunted metal was almost run to earth. But the exciting pursuit is not yet quite over. The veins of auriferous quartz have not, so far, been discovered, although conjecture points to their probable position. Lightning, Antler, Keighley’s, William’s Creek, and many others, all take their rise in a range known as the Bald Mountains, and most of them radiate from one of them, the Snow-Shoe Mountain. Here the matrix is presumed to lie, and although it may have been denuded of its richest portion, carried down as the drift gold of the creeks, fortunes still lie hid in the solid rock; and when the quartz-leads are discovered, British Columbia may emulate California in wealth and stability. The hundreds of mills in that country, crushing thousands of tons of gold and silver quartz per day, have proved that this branch of mining is far more paying and reliable than the uncertain and evanescent surface diggings, which formerly there, as now in Cariboo, furnished all the gold obtained. Several different qualities of gold are found in Cariboo. In William’s Creek alone, two distinct “leads” are found; one where the gold is alloyed with a considerable proportion of silver, the other higher coloured and much purer. All the gold of this creek is battered and water-worn, as if it had been carried some distance from the original bed. At Lowhee, only three miles distant, it is found in larger nuggets, less altered by the action of water, and almost pure. On Lightning Creek the gold is smaller, much more water-worn, but of the first quality.
The great drawbacks to the mining in this district are, the nature of the country, the mountains and dense forest forming great obstacles to proper investigation, and rendering the transport of provisions and other necessaries exceedingly costly; the long and severe winter, which prevents the working of the mines from October until June; and the great geological disturbances which have taken place, although they doubtless are one cause of its exceeding richness, render the following of the “leads” very difficult and uncertain. The two former disadvantages will be removed ere long by the clearing of the country, the formation of roads, and the employment of steam power to drain the shafts. The difficulties encountered in tracing the course of the gold are more serious; but more accurate knowledge of the geological formation will give greater certainty to the search. At present the changes which have taken place in the face of the country continually upset the most acute calculations. The drift gold carried down the streams settled on the solid “bed rock,” or in the blue clay immediately above it, and has been covered by the gravel accumulated in after times. Now, if the streams ran in exactly the same channels as they did when the gold came down, the matter would be simple enough. But great changes have taken place since then. At one point an enormous slide has occurred, covering in the channel, and forcing the stream to find a new course. At another, some convulsion appears to have upheaved a portion of the old bed high and dry. In the first case the “lead” is found to run into the mountain side; in the other it scales the hill. But these eccentricities are only discovered by experiment, and many a miner works for weeks to sink his shaft of thirty or forty feet, to find nothing at the end of his labour. His neighbour above or below may perhaps be making £1,000 a day, but the creek ran not through his claim in these past ages when it washed down the auriferous débris. More fortunate men, however, who, in mining phrase, “hit a streak,” often make large fortunes in Cariboo in an incredibly short space of time.
The extraordinary yield of the Cariboo mines may be inferred from the fact that in 1861 the whole of the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were almost entirely supported by the gold obtained from Antler Creek alone; and from that time to the present year, or for four years in succession, William’s Creek has also alone sustained more than 16,000 people, some of whom have left the country with large fortunes. And yet William’s Creek is a mere narrow ravine, worked for little more than two miles of its length, and that in the roughest manner. The miners are destitute of steam power, and many requisites for efficient mining; and all that has been done hitherto has been mere scratching in the dark.
Out of many instances of the wonderful richness of these diggings it may be mentioned that Cunningham’s Claim yielded, on an average, nearly 2,000 dollars, or £400 a day, during the whole season; and another, Dillon’s Claim, gave the enormous amount of 102 lbs. of gold, or nearly £4,000 in one day. One hundred feet of the Cameron Claim, held in the name of another man, produced 120,000 dollars.
The wealth thus rapidly obtained is generally dissipated almost as quickly. The lucky miner hastens down to Victoria or San Francisco, and sows his gold broadcast. No luxury is too costly for him, no extravagance too great for the magnitude of his ideas. His love of display leads him into a thousand follies, and he proclaims his disregard for money by numberless eccentricities. One man who, at the end of the season found himself possessed of 30,000 or 40,000 dollars, having filled his pockets with twenty-dollar gold pieces, on his arrival in Victoria proceeded to a “bar-room,” and treated “the crowd” to champagne. The company present being unable to consume all the bar-keeper’s stock, assistance was obtained from without, and the passers-by compelled to come in. Still the supply held out, and not another “drink” could any one swallow. In this emergency the ingenious giver of the treat ordered every glass belonging to the establishment to be brought out and filled. Then raising his stick, with one fell swoop he knocked the army of glasses off the counter. One hamper of champagne, however, yet remained, and, determined not to be beaten, he ordered it to be opened and placed upon the floor, and jumping in, stamped the bottles to pieces beneath his heavy boots, severely cutting his shins, it is said, in the operation. But although the champagne was at last finished, he had a handful of gold pieces to dispose of, and walking up to a large mirror, worth several hundred dollars, which adorned one end of the room, dashed a shower of heavy coins against it, and shivered it to pieces. The hero of this story returned to the mines in the following spring without a cent, and was working as a common labourer at the time of our visit. A freak of one of the most successful Californians may be appended as a companion to the story just related. When in the height of his glory he was in the habit of substituting champagne bottles—full ones, too—for the wooden pins in the bowling alley, smashing batch after batch with infinite satisfaction to himself, amid the applause of his companions and the “bar-keep.”
Our quarters at Cusheon’s Hotel were vile. A blanket spread on the floor of a loft was our bedroom, but the swarms of lice which infested the place rendered sleep almost impossible, and made us think with regret on the soft turf of the prairie, or a mossy couch in the woods. The fare, limited to beefsteaks, bread, and dried apples, was wretchedly cooked and frightfully expensive. Beef was worth fifty cents or two shillings a pound, flour the same, a “drink” of anything except water was half a dollar, nor could the smallest article, even a box of matches, be bought for less than a “quarter”—one shilling. Before we reached William’s Creek we paid a dollar and a quarter, or five shillings, for a single bottle of stout.
Coin of any kind is rarely seen, gold-dust being the circulating medium, and each person carries a small bag of it, from which the requisite quantity is weighed out for each payment.