The extent of agricultural land in British Columbia is very limited indeed. With the exception of a small district between the south end of the Okanagan Lake and the Grand Prairie, on the road from thence to the Thompson River; a few other patches of good land in the interior; and the delta of the Fraser, which is covered almost entirely with dense forest, and exposed to the summer floods, it is a country of rocks, gravel, and shingle. The surface of the country east of the coast range of mountains consists, principally, of a high table-land, from which rise up mountains and hills, and indented by the valleys of the Thompson and Fraser, and their countless tributaries. These valleys are deep and narrow, and their sides generally steep. On the table-land the night-frosts, prevalent throughout the summer, preclude the cultivation of almost every description of produce. In the valleys the land is generally very dry and sandy, or stony, and unless some very perfect system of irrigation and manuring is adopted, would yield a wretched return.
In all the instances we saw where attempts had been made to raise crops of cereals on the terraces of the Thompson and Fraser, or, indeed, anywhere in the region of shingle and gravel, they had failed. Cabbages, and vegetables of similar kind, if well watered, seemed to flourish very well; but the oats and barley were short in the ear, and the straw weak, stunted, and miserable. Water is sufficiently abundant, but the soil of the irrigated tracts is so extremely light, and in most parts underlaid by such a depth of gravel and shingle, that the water percolates through as through a sieve, and the streams disappear without spreading over the surface. The decay of the sparsely-growing bunch-grass cannot have rendered the land rich in vegetable mould. Occasional fertile spots, of a few acres in extent, occur on the margin of the rivers, as along the north and south branches of the Thompson above Kamloops. There are also patches of good land in the vicinity of William’s Lake, Beaver Lake, and Alexandria, which have proved very productive. But these rich bottoms and alluvial lowlands are striking exceptions to the general character of the country. British Columbia, rich beyond conception in many ways, is not an agricultural country. Vancouver Island, too, is merely a huge rock, in the hollows of which vegetable mould has collected. But this is often too shallow to be worked with the plough, and these fertile oases are generally of small extent—fit for gardens rather than farms.
In consequence, therefore, of the deficiency of the two colonies in this respect, their population is still supplied with provisions from California, and their gold goes into the pockets of Americans. California is probably the richest country in the world. Possessing every valuable mineral in inexhaustible abundance—except coal, which has not been yet found in any quantity—she has also a soil of extraordinary fertility. Her mountains are of gold and silver, and her valleys as the land of Goshen. Wheat grows so luxuriantly that “volunteer crops”—the produce of the second and even third year from the seed shaken out in the gathering of the previous harvest—spring up without the labour of man. Fruits of every kind, from the apples, pears, and grapes of temperate climes, to the pine-apples and bananas of the tropics, come to perfection within her limits. Oats grow wild on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada; and in the alluvial plains, besides the ordinary cereals, flourish maize, tobacco, and cotton.
It is far otherwise with British Columbia. She probably equals California in mineral wealth, but, being as it were a mere continuation of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, a sea of hills, a land of mountains and forests, or shingly swells and terraces covered with bunch-grass, the former looks in vain for rich alluvial valleys. No colony has been more misrepresented than this.
In former times, when a preserve for fur-bearing animals under the sway of the Hudson’s Bay Company, it was reputed to be “little better than a waste and howling wilderness, wherein half-famished beasts of prey waged eternal war with a sparse population of half-starved savages; where the cold was more than Arctic, and the drought more than Saharan;” and that—to quote the words of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons a few years ago—“these territories were bound by frost and banked by fog, and woe betide any unfortunate individual who might be so far diverted from the path of prudence as to endeavour to settle in those parts.”[20]
But the accounts sent to this country soon after the first rush of emigrants to the land of gold, differed widely from the old story. It was now as much the interest of speculators and property-holders to attract emigration by exaggerated praise of the colony, as it had formerly been that of the Hudson’s Bay Company to repel it, and keep their possession intact by representing it as a barren wilderness. The most glowing reports were sent home, and were published in the leading newspapers. The new colony was represented as a very paradise for the farmer, and many men went out believing this, to find bitter disappointment in the reality. Neither of the two accounts is correct; the truth lies, as is usually the case in like matters, between the two extremes, and we have been induced to set forth the truth somewhat fully, from a desire to do away with the injurious misconception which has prevailed on this subject.
Although there is little land fit for agricultural purposes within the boundaries of British Columbia, the fertile belt of the Saskatchewan is separated from it only by the barrier of the Rocky Mountains. Of the beauties and resources of this pleasant land, we have already made mention in these pages. The rich prairies, with from three to five feet of alluvial soil, are ready for the plough, or offer the luxuriant grasses, which, in the old time, fattened countless herds of buffalo, to domesticated herds. Woods, lakes, and streams diversify the scene, and offer timber, fish, and myriads of wild fowl. Yet this glorious country, estimated at 65,000 square miles, and forty million of acres of the richest soil, capable of supporting twenty millions of people, is, from its isolated position, and the difficulties put in the way of settlement by the governing power, hitherto left utterly neglected and useless, except for the support of a few Indians and the employés of the Hudson’s Bay Company. And this rich agricultural country lies but a step as it were from the gold fields. It is the very supplement required to British Columbia. That communication could be easily established has been already demonstrated. Why, then, should not the miners be supplied with provisions from British territory, instead of from California, and the gold of British Columbia enrich British subjects rather than Americans?
We would not, however, stop here. The advantages of a route across the continent of America, which passes entirely through British territory, seem palpable enough. The Americans, ever in advance of us in like enterprises—not from individual superiority perhaps, but having a more liberal and less lethargic government—have constructed a road, and laid a telegraph line across the continent to California, and have commenced a Pacific Railway. Greater difficulties had to be encountered in carrying a road over more barren prairies, where wood and water are scarce, and which are infested by hostile Indians. The pass through the mountains in American territory is abrupt and high, unlike the easier gradients of the Vermilion and Jasper House passes. But all these obstacles were overcome, and San Francisco is now in daily communication with the Atlantic States by both post and telegraph; the latter having paid the cost of its construction in a single year. The principal obstacle to be overcome in carrying a road across the continent which shall pass entirely through British territory, appears to be in the district between Lake Superior and Fort Garry. This region consists in great measure of swamp and forest, and considerable outlay and labour would be required to render it passable. But Professor Hind[21] has satisfactorily proved that the difficulties are far from insuperable, and not worthy of consideration in view of the magnificent results which would follow its successful accomplishment. In California and British Columbia, where far greater obstacles have been successfully overcome, such objections would be considered light indeed.
Nearly 200 years have elapsed since Cavalier de la Sale conceived the project of opening a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific by a route across the continent, and in pursuit of this scheme, in 1731, the French Canadians were the first to reach the Rocky Mountains. Since then the subject has been repeatedly brought before the notice of the Government and the public.
The dream of the old enthusiasts, of thus reaching China and Japan, is on the point of being realised—not by Frenchmen or Englishmen, but by Americans. They have already made the road across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and as we write, the intelligence has arrived that a bill has passed the United States Congress, granting a subsidy for the establishment of a line of steamers between San Francisco and Hongkong.