In two or three days the express arrived, and we started for Yale once more. When we reached the bottom of the ascent to the high table-land, we found the road covered with a thick sheet of ice, and all hands had to get out and push behind the wagon. The horses fell frequently, and had to be unharnessed and put on their legs again; but, after many delays, we got to the top, where the snow was deeper, and the horses travelled better.
We carried 170 pounds’ weight of gold with us in the express wagon, and the fact that this, worth about £8,000, could be thus forwarded without any escort, is the strongest possible testimony to the orderly state of the country. In addition to the driver, there was one other passenger and ourselves, yet the former was the only one armed. He told us that he frequently travelled in charge of the treasure quite alone, and had made up his mind that he should be attacked some time. The temptation would be too great, and the opportunities plentiful enough along the lonely 400 miles, where the houses were ten or twenty miles apart, and passengers rare except at certain seasons. He looked upon “The Chasm” as the most suitable and probable place of attack; its yawning gulf, hidden from the road by bushes, and its bottom covered by débris and underwood, offering every convenience for the disposal of his body. He was by no means nervous, or in any way unhappy, but laughed and talked about his anticipated fate with careless indifference.
Five days’ driving brought us to the terrific road between Lytton and Yale, and as we sat in the wagon, within a few inches of the unguarded edge of the precipice of 700 or 800 feet, running up and down the steeps, and along the narrow portions, winding round the face of the bluffs, we could not help an uneasy consciousness that a very trifling accident might eject us from our lofty position into the depths below. And what made matters look worse was, that our carriage was gradually coming to pieces. First one spring broke, and then another, and we bumped about on the axles. Next the splinter-bar gave way, and had to be tied up with a piece of rope. All these would have been trifling accidents had the road been of a different character, but when, to crown all, the pole snapped in its socket, and the wagon ran into the horses, we had good cause to be thankful that this had happened in the middle of a flat, just after crossing the suspension bridge. Had it occurred a few minutes sooner, we should doubtless have been precipitated headlong into the Roaring Cañons. The pole was past mending, so the driver took the horses out and led them back to a house about half a mile distant, the rest of us remaining behind to guard the treasure by the light of a large bonfire, for it was already quite dark. In about an hour the driver re-appeared, accompanied by a friend, bringing a large covered wagon, drawn by two fine Californian horses. The fresh horses were put in as leaders, and we soon started with our four-in-hand, rattling along at a headlong gallop, for we had now two drivers, one who managed the reins, while the other vigorously plied the whip. The express-man had brought a bottle of whisky back with him, and he and his friend devoted themselves assiduously to it in the calmer intervals of their joint occupation. After a time it was discovered that the reins of the leaders were not crossed, and consequently useless for guiding purposes; but the two Californians led the way admirably, sweeping round every curve with great precision. Much of the road was as dangerous as any we had passed before, but the men shouted and whipped up, the horses galloped furiously, the wagon whisked round the precipitous bluffs, and tore down the steep descents in mad career. We reached Yale before midnight, having been little more than an hour doing the last fifteen miles of this fearful road.
Leaving this picturesque little town for the second and last time the following morning, we took steamer down the Fraser once more, and landed in Victoria again on the 25th of November.
CHAPTER XX.
Nanaimo and San Juan—Resources of British Columbia and Vancouver Island—Minerals—Timber—Abundance of Fish—Different Kinds of Salmon—The Hoolicans, and the Indian Method of Taking them—Pasturage—The Bunch-grass—Its Peculiarities and Drawbacks—Scarcity of Farming Land—Different Localities—Land in Vancouver Island—Contrast between California and British Columbia—Gross Misrepresentations of the Latter—Necessity for the Saskatchewan as an Agricultural Supplement—Advantages of a Route across the Continent—The Americans before us—The Difficulties less by the British Route—Communication with China and Japan by this Line—The Shorter Distance—The Time now come for the Fall of the Last Great Monopoly—The North-West Passage by Sea, and that by Land—The Last News of Mr. O’B.—Conclusion.
After our return to Victoria we received a kind invitation from Captain Lascelles to accompany him in H.M. gunboat Forward on a cruise to San Juan and Nanaimo. The cruise was most enjoyable; we inspected the coal-mines of the future Newcastle of the Pacific, and enjoyed most thoroughly the hospitality of Captain Bazalgette and his officers on the noted island of San Juan.
We had now seen a great portion of British Columbia and Vancouver. We had travelled through the former from Tête Jaune Cache by the Thompson to the mouth of the Fraser, and again through the heart of the country to Cariboo. We found the country abounding in mineral wealth. The extent and richness of the gold fields, added to every month by fresh discoveries, would alone be sufficient to render the colony one of our most valuable possessions. But the indications that many other of the most valuable minerals will be found in British Columbia, as in the neighbouring state of California, are strong. At present, however, every other pursuit is put aside for that of gold, and the real mineral wealth of the country is little known. Coal, however, crops out at Alexandria, Similkameen, and Burrard’s Inlet. In the sister colony of Vancouver are the magnificent beds of coal, which have been already extensively and most successfully worked at Nanaimo for the last four or five years.
The timber of British Columbia is, of its kind, unequalled. The Douglas pine, with its straight uniform trunk, exceedingly tough and flexible, furnishes the finest masts and spars for the largest vessels. These trees often attain a height of upwards of 300 feet, with a diameter of ten feet. The white pine and the gigantic cypress, the latter exceeding even the Douglas pine in size, grow together with it in vast forests, yielding an almost inexhaustible supply. But perhaps the most striking feature in the resources of British Columbia and Vancouver Island is the extraordinary number and variety of the fish, which frequent the shores and swarm in all the rivers. In the spring two kinds of salmon ascend the Fraser, millions of “hoolicans” crowd into its mouth, and shoals of herrings enter every inlet. The hoolican is like a sprat, but a little larger, and is a very delicious fish, rich in oil. Flocks of gulls hovering over the shoals announce the arrival of these fish; and their extraordinary numbers may be imagined from the way in which the Indians take them. The river is literally alive with fish, and the native fisherman carries a long piece of wood, armed with sharp-pointed wires on each side, like the teeth of a rake. This he sweeps through the water as he sits in his canoe, after the fashion of a paddle, and at each stroke brings up a row of hoolicans impaled upon the spikes. Three fresh species of salmon continue to ascend the river in succession during the summer and autumn, and in the winter a fifth variety makes its appearance in the harbours and inlets along the coast. We saw some of fifteen to twenty pounds each caught in the harbour of St. Juan in the month of December. Salmon of some kind is thus in season all the year round. Trout abound in the mountain streams and lakes, and the sturgeon frequents the deeps of the Fraser. In Burrard’s Inlet oysters are found in great abundance; and, in fact, everything good in the way of fish seems to be collected in this, so far, highly favoured country.
From the richness and extent of its pasturage, and the dryness of its soil and climate, British Columbia offers great advantages to the breeder of stock. But there are certain drawbacks, the principal of which is that an immense extent of country would be required by each stock farmer. The only grass is the “bunch-grass.” It covers the terraces of the Fraser, and the rolling swells and mountain-sides of the central region. Growing in the separate “tufts” from which it has taken its name, it fixes but a slight hold upon the light, powdery soil with its slender roots. Horses and cattle pull much of it up in grazing, and sheep, which thrive equally upon it, crop the delicate plant so closely that it frequently does not recover. In this way the Lilloet flats, which were once celebrated as rich feeding grounds, have now become bare, dusty plains, on which a few scattered plants of wild sage and absinthe still remain, where the bunch-grass has been destroyed. The facts, too, that the bunch-grass requires three years to come to perfection, and fully recover after being eaten down, and that, from its mode of growth in distinct tufts, the ground is really but scantily covered with herbage, confirm the belief that, for a stock farm to be successful, its range of pasturage must be very extensive. But there is room enough now, and any who may devote themselves to the raising of sheep and cattle will certainly reap a rich harvest of profit. Strange to say, from some cause—either want of capital, or the prospect of more rapid profit from other pursuits—it has been little followed hitherto, and the land lies open to the first-comer.