Mountain and Prairie; a journey from Victoria to Winnipeg ... with maps and illustrations

Preface

. In May, .879, the Canadian Parliament, havingdecided that additional information should be obtained regarding certain proposed routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway, resolved that a party be sent to examine the country from Port Simjjson, on the Pacific, across northern British Columbia and through the Rocky7 Mountains by way of Peace River and Pine River Passes to the prairies. Copious information had already been procured regard ing several other routes connecting the Prairie Region with the Pacific, but the final selection of a Pacific ter minus was reserved until this northern route to Port Simpson had been examined and fuller information had been obtained regarding the general character, the resources, and the engineering features of the country-.

PREFACE.

. The party appointed to make this examination consisted of Messrs. H. J. Cambie and H. A. F. Macleod, of the Canadian Pacific Railway engineering staff, and Dr. G. M. Dawson, of the Geological Survey of Canada. The writer accompanied them. Theytravelled together from Victoria, V. I., to the mouth of the Skeena thence across the northern part of the Province to Fort McLeod, where the party was divided, — Dr. Dawson proceeding by Pine River Pass, the others by Peace River Pass, to meet at Dunvegan. From Dunvegan the writer came eastward in advance of the others. The following chapters, consisting chiefly of notes taken by7 the way7, record his impressions of the country traversed from the Pacific to Winnipeg, across the " sea of mountains " and the more inviting sea of prairies. The illustrations are from photographs by Dr. G. M. Dawson, Mr. Selwyn, and Mr. Horetzky — the frontis piece being taken, by permission, from the Geological Survey Report for 1878-79. The maps are from the most recent and most authentic in the Departments of the Canadian Pacific 'Railway and of the Interior.

PREFACE.

. V Carlyle says that " some books are suited for imme diate use and immediate oblivion." It is the writer's hope that ere the accompanying record of his journey across mountain and prairie passes into oblivion it may be of use in acquainting some of his fellow-countrymen, in a slight degree, with the character and the resources of that half of the Dominion that lies between Winnipeg and the Western Sea. DANIEL M. GORDON. The Manse, Ottawa, May 1880. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Vancouver Island And The Lower Fraser

Page Ottawa to San Francisco. — Victoria.— Indian and Chinese Labourers.— Resources of British Columbia. — San Juan. — The Lower Fraser. — New Westminster.— Burrard Inlet.— Yale to Boston Bar 1

Chapter II

victoria to the skeena. Along the Coast.— The Chain of Channels.— Nanaimo.— Bute Inlet and the Route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. — Port Essington and the Mouth of the Skeena.— Metlahkatlah. — Mission to the Indians. — Port Simpson.— Work Inlet 32

Chapter III. Up The Skeena

Leave Port Essington.— Canoes, Crews, and Stores.— No Trout.— Tracking and Poling.— Indian Watch-tower.— Catching and Curing Salmon.— Carved Posts.— Burial Customs.— The Sweating-booth.— Height of Steam Navigation.— Division of Coast a.nd Cascade Range.— Indian Villages. — Gold-washing.— Medicine Man.— The Fjrks of Skeena,— Lip-ornaments and Nose-rings .—Mosquitoes CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Forks Of Skeena To Lake Babine

Our Packers.— The Trail— Up the Susqua — Coal.— Women Packing and Nursing.— Skilokiss Suspension Bridge.— The Ooatzanli.— The Natal tsul.— Cascade Range compared with Swiss Alps.— Indian Legends.— Taim-Shin.— Scene on the Summit.— Approach Lake Babine.— Engage Crews— Offended Chief.— Babine Indians.— Neighbourhood of Lake 8T

Chapter V. Babine To Fort M'leod

Up Lake Babine.— Fort Babine.— Indian Farming.— Indian Reserves in British Columbia.— Reluctance in telling names.— Lake Stewart.— K. C. Missions.— Fort St. James.— Home-sick Indian.— Mule Train.— Following Trail.— Fort McLeod.— Attractions of the H. B. Service.. ■ ■ 113

Chapter VI. Through The Mountains By Boat

Explorers of Peace River. — Division of Party.— Leave Fort McLeod. — The Parsnip.— Fur Traders and Gold Hunters.— Mining. — The Nation River.— Pete Toy and Nigger Dan.— Finlay River and Ripids. — The Unchagah. — Peace River Pass. — Parle-pas Rapid.— Moose Hunting. — Buffalo Tracks.— Terraces.— The Canon Coal.— Navigable Extent of River.— Indian Huntecs.— Charlie's Yams IS) frHAPTER VII. HUDSON'S HOPE TO DUNVEGAN. The Prairie Region. — H. B. Company and the North-West Company. — Hudson's Hope.— Moose.— The Climate.— Fertile Flats.— The Plateau. —On the Raft.— Appearance of Country.— Fort St. John.— Massacre at the Old Fort.— Bear Hunting.— Dunvegan. — Highlanders Abroad. Moostoos and his Fight with a Grizzly.— Missions to the Indians CONTENTS. IX

Chapter VIII. Peace River Country

Province of Unchagah.— Outfits of Exploring Parties.— Old Journals at Dunvegan.— Records of Climate.— Beaver Indians.— Cree Music- Expedition to Battle River.— Character of Country.— Bear Hunting.— Size and Character of Peace River Country.— The Climate.— Danger of Summer Frosts.— Increased Sunlight— Temperature.— Coal-beds.— Facilities of Communication 198

Chapter IX. Dunvegan To Edmonton

Leave Dunvegan.— Farewell View of Peace stiver.— Cooking.— Lesser Slave Lake. — Another Stage.— Postal Arrangements.— Indian Hospitality.— Athabasca River and Landing.— Gambling.— Road to Fort Edmonton. — Telegraph Office. — Cree Camp. — Our Indian Policy. — Farm Instructors . — Treaties. — Sioux. — Edmonton District. — Canadian Pacific Railway 221

Chapter X. Edmonton To Battleford

Steamers on Saskatchewan. — Prepare to cross the Prairie. — Trails. — Prairie Travel. — Pemmican. — Victoria. — Half-breed Farmers. —Christian Missions in North-West.— Victoria to Fort Pitt.— Royal Mail.— Dog-driving. — Fort Pitt. — The Trail again. — Treeless Prairies. — Tree Culture. — Battleford.— Government of North-West.— Climate.— Character of Country.— Great Plain.— Homestead and Pre-emption Law.— Prospect of Settlement 253

Chapter XI. Battleford To Winnipeg

Battleford to Carlton.— Duck Lake.— A Blizzard.— Fellow-travellers.— Cross South Saskatchewan. — Delayed by Snow. — Humboldt. — Alkaline Lakes.— Touchwood Hills.— Indian Farming.— Break-downs.— Prairie X CONTENTS. fires.— Qu'Appelle.— Fort Ellice.— Township Surveys.— Colonisation Companies.— Prohibitory Liquor Law.— Shoal Lake. — Salt Lake.— Little Saskatchewan.— Enter Manitoba.— Joe's Temptations.— Heavy Roads.— Portage La Prairie— Winnipeg.— Prospects of Immigrants — Loyalty to the Empire 231 MAPS. Map shewing part of tho North-West Territories and British Columbia To faoe page 1 Map shewing the Canadian Pacific Coast " " 32 Map shewing part of Northern British Columbia and of Peace River District, — with author's route from Port Essington to Fort Edmonton " " 56 Map shewing Southern portion of the North-West Terri tories,— with author's route from Fort Edmonton to Winnipeg " " 252 ILLUSTRATIONS.

Indian Village Queen Charlotte Islands Frontispiece. Fraser River (18 miles above Yale) To face page 28 Metlahkatlah ■■ " 46 Junction of Nation and Parsnip " " 147 Mount Selwyn " " 153 Peace River (20 miles abovo the Canon) " " 161 Fort Edmonton «« " 239 Prairie Carts en route " " 255 PHOTO UTH BT THE • UfiU.HO UTH CO MONTREAL

Chapter I. Vancouver Island And The Lower Fraser

Ottawa to San Francisco. — Victoria — Indian and Chinese Labourers. — Resources of British Columbia. — San Juan. — The Lower Fraser. — New Westminster. — Burrard Inlet. — Yale to Boston Bar. Prom Ottawa to San Francisco by rail, thence by steamer to Victoria, V. I., a journey in all of about four thousand miles, was a requisite preliminary to our more interesting journey from Victoria across Northern British Columbia, through the Rocky Mountains, by the Peace RiveV Pass, and over the prairies to Winnipeg. The railway route across the Continent is so often traversed, so familiarly known, and has been so frequently described, that we need not linger long upon it. Ontario was just bursting into leaf, for the season had been somewhat late, as we passed through on the 13th May, 1879. At Chicago we entered on the prairies of Illinois ; prairies which to one who had not yet seen the Valley of the Saskatchewan or the farm lands of Manitoba, seemed rich beyond all rivals.

The country is asfertile as it is flat, but it suffers from the biting north wind that sweeps down from Lake Michigan ; therefore almost every homestead is guarded by a grove of Lombardy poplars, or other quickly grown trees. At Burlington we crossed the Mississippi and passed into Iowa, which seems like a continuation of Illinois, save that the soil is scarcely so rich, and occasional stretches of rolling country vary the monotony of the dead-level prairie. At Council Bluff's we crossed the Missouri and entered upon the plains of .Nebraska, that look like a sea of grass, sometimes rimmed by low hills on the distant horizon, sometimes stretching away an unbroken level as far as the eye can reach, occasionally dotted with the bleached bones of cattle, or the herds of the ranchers, or the caravans of new immigrants.

One of its towns, Sidney, the outlet of the Black Hills mining country, is a centre for those incidents and anecdotes that seem to British and New England ears characteristic of Western life. Here, and at almost any point between this and Ogden, you may hear stories of atrocities by Indians, and of worse atrocities by white men; of train robberies, murders, etc., by the ruffians who frequently gravitate towards gold and silver mines. Three days before we passed through, a murderer had been lynched, hung to the telegraph post nearest to the station, and the hid den, caused little comment and no enquiry. The mining VANCOUVER ISLAND AXD THE LOWEIt FRASER. districts, however, are gradually coming under law and order; vigilance committees have already done good work, as they did in the early days of San Francisco ; and as capital is being largely invested, business and society are becoming more settled, so that life and property may soon be as safe here as they have long been in California and Montana.

We crossed the Eocky Mountains at a height of 8,000 feet above sea-level, more than 6,000 feethigher than where we expect to re-cross them at the Peace Eiver Pass, and with no sign that we had reached such an altitude, save the stunted vegetation around us, the snowy peaks shimmering in the distance, and the more exact indications of railway-map and aneroid. "We rattled along through the Echo and "Weber Canons, where the frowning and precipitous rocks alternate with snatches of scenery that remind one of some parts of Scotland, especially of the uplands of Galloway, though here the grass is not so rich and no sheep are seen grazing on the hill-sides. Then came the plains of Utah, part of the Great American Desert that lies between the Eocky Mountains and the Sierras of Nevada, where nothing grows without irrigation, but where, with this assistance, many dreary sevels have been changed into smiling fields.

"Wearisome, at times, even to the traveller by rail, what must those alkali plains have been to the traveller by stage in the old coaching days ? or, still worse, to the earlier Mormons, many of whom traversed them on foot ? It was a relief to pass from the Desert, over the snowy range of the Sierras, by many an abandoned gold claim — abandoned by whites, though now worked by Chinese — down to the smiling valley of the Sacramento. They had been ploughing in Ontario when we left a week ago ; here in California they were reaping. Touching the sea at Oakland, we crossed, by a ferry of four miles, to San Francisco, arriving at the very hour we had hoped to do when leaving home seven days ago. 'Frisco — for life is too short, and business too pressing, to allow Californians to use, in common conversation, the full name San Francisco — was agitated about the new constitution which the State of California had recently adopted.

Newspapers and people alike were full of it. How far it might conflict with the Federal authority, and how far it might fulfil the hopes of its advocates, still remained to be seen, for though passed it had not yet come into force. Its chief points are : the taxation of all manner of property, stocks, bonds, mining shares, etc., as well as real estate ; the restraint of some huge monopolies, especially the Central Pacific Railroad; and the fulfilment of the maxim, " the Chinese must go." It was the boast of an American poet regarding his country, that " Her free latch-strin; never was drawn in Against the poorest child of Adam's kin " but apparently California is prepared to repudiate this honourable claim. Time did not t.dmit 01 our seeing tne city to aavan tage, though even a hurried visit to its chief business streets, its markets, its Chinese quarter and its wharves, give sufficient evidence that, though inferior to a number of cities in the East, San Francisco has many attractions.

Its chief attraction, however, is its harbour. It is small praise to call this the finest harbour on the Pacific, for the North American Pacific is singularly destitute of good harbours. The next best are those of British Columbia, but they are scarcely worthy of mention in comparison. This is one of the finest harbours in tho world. At mid-day on Tuesday, the 20tn May, we ..eft it, and steamed out through the Golden Gate on to the blue waters of the Pacific. The City of Chester, 'on which we took passage for Victoria, was lightly laden, and seemed capable of more motion in the wrong direction than any other steamer afloat. The effect of this on the writer is seen from the following extracts from a brief journal. They are somewhat monotonous : " Tuesday evening, sea-sick; Wednesday, 21st, do.; Thursday, 22nd, do."

To examine the life preservers, or the slats in the upper berth ; to hear the gong call others to dinner ; to listen day and night for the bell that each half hour marks off the time ; to wonder if it would be well to take the medicine now that should have been taken last night; to hear the grinding of the shaft, varied by an occasional whirr as the screw rose out of the water ; to leave un opened the books that were brought for reading by the way; to abandon all desire for a trip around the world; to feel thankful that the steamer is not bound for Yoko hama or Honolulu; to question the boasted progress of medical science that has not found any remedy for sea sickness; and to long for the fulfilment of the prophecy: "There shall be no more sea;" these were some of the lighter occupations that engaged attention when not engrossed with the more serious and painful duties of the situation ; nor did it greatly lessen one's discomfort to know that others were similarly engaged.

It is about 150 miles from San Francisco to Victoria. On Friday, the 23rd, we rounded Cape Flattery and entered the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. We had some sixty-five miles more to run, and when we awoke on Saturday morning we sound that we were safely moored at the wharf in Victoria. Before starting for the Skeena, where we purposed leaving the coast on our journey eastward, we required to spend a few days in the southern part of the Province, which is, even yet, a comparative stranger to the sister Provinces east of the Rocky Mountains. Although Vancouver Island was constituted into a Crown colony in 1849, it really was little known outside of the ledgers of the Hudson's Bay Company and the official documents of Downing Street, until 1858, when the discovery of gold on the Fraser attracted thousands to Victoria, and when the mainland portion of what is now the Province of British Columbia was first erected into a colony.

The two colonies were united in 1866, the one giving the name to the united colony — British Columbia, the other giving the capital — Victoria. The old rivalry, however, between the two capitals still exists, as New West minster has not yet abandoned her claim to present and prospective superiority to Victoria. On the 20th July, 1871, the colony was united to the other Provinces of the Dominion, and Canada was thus extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Victoria is British Columbia in much the same way as Paris is France. Originally an Indian village gathered around a post of the Hudson's Bay Company, then a small settlement of traders, etc., it sprang forward rapidly under successive waves of excitement : first, on the discovery of gold on the lower Fraser; again, in 1800, when new and most profitable gold fields were opened in Cariboo; and, subsequently, on the discovery of gold in Cassiar in 1873.

Its population like its prosperity has fluctuated, at one time swelling to 12,000, but now shrunk to less than half that number. Although some parts of it, especially those occupied by the Chinese and the Indians, have a wornout look, yet it is upon the whole a pretty little city, with delightful drives, tasteful gardens, comfortable homes, a charming public park, and views of the snow capped Olympian range, the sight of which on a warm day is as refreshing as a breeze from the hill tops. The surroundings of the city are very attractive, the foliage being rich and varied, the shrubs including species seldom seen in the eastern Provinces, and not grown there as here in the open air, such as holly, ivy, arbutus, etc., while the yew and the scrub oak give additional attraction to the scenery.

It is somewhat inconveniently situated for the capital of the Province, as the harbour is only a small bay with very limited accommodation, the true harbour being at Esquimault, some four miles distant. Esquimault, which was for a time supposed to be a suitable terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, is beautifully land-locked, and easy of access, but the harbour is very small — too small to allow a large vessel to enter under canvas and come to anchor, unless she had most of the harbour to herself. The road-stead outside of the harbour, however, known as the Royal Roads, is safe and commodious, and the value set upon Esquimault by the Imperial and Do minion authorities is seen in the fact that it is the site of a Government graving-dock now in course of completion. Victoria is a focus for people from every land.

Men of almost all nationalities rub shoulders here. There are Indians, the old possessors of the soil, whose contact with city life has not yet greatly improved them ; Spaniards, whose former influence along this coast is notched in many of the names of British Columbia, such as Quadra (the old name of Vancouver Island), Texada, Valdes, etc. ; Chinese, who are rapidly becoming ubiquitous along the Pacific ; Frenchmen ; Russians ; Americans ; Jews ; and Britons from almost every quarter of the Empire. Yet, though its population is thus mixed, there is a strong English tone in Victoria, and a deep attachment to the Empire. Unfortunately there is not yet the same strong attachment to the Dominion. The people hardly regard their Province as a« integral portion of Canada, and still speak of Canadians as of a distant people, severed from them in life and purpose.

Yet the same was the case in Nova Scotia for some years after •Con federation. Along the Atlantic coast, as here, the communication was more frequent with the old country than with the interior Provinces ; many doubted the wisdom of Confederation ; some, even of its friends, con sidered it to be premature ; some vehemently opposed it ; but none would now undo it, or bring back the isolated life in which each of the Provinces formerly dwelt; and, naturally, as the intercourse of British Columbia with other parts of the Dominion becomes closer and more frequent, and as the construction of our Pacific Railway proceeds, loyalty to the Empire will develop loyalty to the commonweal of the Dominion, of which this Province forms a part. The people, however, thought that they had a grievance against the Dominion.

When they entered Confederation, in 1871, it was agreed upon, as one of the articles of the union, that the Government of the Dominion should " undertake to secure the com mencement, simultaneously, within two years of the date of union — of the construction of a railway from the Pacific to the Rocky Mountains, and from such point as may be selected, east of the Rocky Mountains, towards the Pacific, to connect the seaboard of British Columbia with the railway system of Canada — and, further, to secure the completion of such railway within ten years of the date of union." Nearly nine years have passed and con struction is only now commencing. True, there was far more work involved than was at first anticipated, in the location of the line. Nearly four millions of dollars have been exjiended in the surveys, of which a large portion has been disbursed in British Columbia.

Many routes had to be examined, amounting in the aggregate to 46,000 miles, of which one-fourth was measured, yard by yard, through forest, mountain and prairie ; but these are facts of which an impatient people take little notice. Since, however, construction has been commenced, it may reasonably be expected that adverse criticism towards the Canadian Government, on the part of the people of British Columbia, will cease, and that they will recognise the earnestness of the Dominion authorities in fulfilling, as far as possible, the pledges given when British Columbia entered Confederation. Certainly, the people can hardly regard themselves as identified in interest with their fellow-Canadians until greater facilities for intercourse have been provided, and these can be most fully secured by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Many causes have been at work to retard the progress of Victoria — causes that have similarly affected the welfare of the whole Province. It suffers, and has suffered, largely, from the fact that many of its temporary citizens have been only birds of passage, coming with the intention of leaving as soon as they had made their " pile," and therefore taking no interest in the settlement or development of the country. For this reason many, even of the better educated British Columbians, take no active part in the political or other public interests of the Province, and some are confirmed in this course by the condition of the franchise, which, being virtually that of manhood suffrage, places a large amount of power in the hands of the floating population. The mining excitement, too, has slackened.

Men do not now come in from the gold-fields as they once did, so flush with money that they could throw a handful of $20 gold pieces at a saloon-keeper's mirror, and ask the proprietor to take the price of the shattered glass from the coins on the floor. More capital and cheaper labour are now required to work the gold-fields to advantage. , The extensive iron deposits of the Province are lying undisturbed. The great coal-fields are worked only in a very small degree, and mines that may yet give employment to many thousands now employ only a few hundreds. The agricultural capacity of many districts is but imperfectly known, and even the recognized officials can hardly tell the new immigrant where to go for the best unoccupied farm lands, for much fertile soil is still covered, or hemmed in, by forests of large timber.

Although forty millions of dollars have been taken out of the gold mines of British Columbia, there is very little in the Province to-day to represent that amount. Many have carried their money away ; many others have left the country "dead broke"; and while in Ontario, and other Provinces, the fortunate remained on account of their success, and the disappointed also remained, because unable to get away; aud while all thus settled, worked, and developed the resources of those Provinces, many who had been disappointed in British Columbia could easily move elsewhere, and they left the Province rather the worse for their having lived in it. It must be confessed, too, that Victoria suffers from saloons more perhaps than most of our cities, there being some sixty saloons for a population of about 5,000, — " an intolerable deal of sack to one half-penny worth of bread."

Copper currency is unknown, the smallest coin being a " bit " — that is, the English sixpence, whose nearest equivalent is the ten-cent piece. The hotel clerk smiles when you offer him three Canadian cents in payment of a three cent stamp, and suggests that he does not keep a museum of curiosities, while it is said that the presence in church of Canadians from the older Provinces can be sometimes detected by the discovery of copper coins in the collection. Labour is still dear, notwithstanding the presence of a large Chinese element, against which the chief accusation laid by the anti-Chinese agitators is that it keeps down the price of labour, and so impoverishes white men. Labourers receive from $2 to $2.50 per day; mechanics, $4 to $5. Household servants receive from $15 to $30 per month, and farm servants $20 to $40 per month, with board and lodging, while other labour is paid in pro portion, so that the country is a most expensive one for those on salaries, whose incomes are measured by the figures that prevail in other parts of Canada, or in Eng land, — an attractive one for labourers who are willing to work, and for capitalists who have brains to guide their investments in mining, lumbering and fishing, — and a very paradise for domestic servants.

The two great classes of labourers, however, in Southern British Columbia, are the Indians and the Chinese. Many of the Indians work admirably on steamers, in saw-mills, in salmoncanneries, &c. They are active, strong, good tempered, with very little self-restraint if liquor is within reach, and with a great contempt for Chinamen ; some of them are excellent farmers, with very comfortable cottages ; and a number of the Lillooet Indians along the Lower Fraser, who bear a specially good name, raise cattle and hay for market. White settlers find no trouble from them. One white settler reports regarding those in his neighbourhood: "The Indians go into farming; quite quiet ; keep cats." The keeping of cats is a new test of civilization, although perhaps not much more reliable for that purpose than the use of suspenders.

It is not easy to map out, with accuracy, the different Indian tribes, or dialects, to be met with in the Province. The generic name is Siwash, a corruption, no doubt, of "sauvage," but when you try to define all the species of Siwash you are sure to run across some of the lines laid down by one or other of the writers on this subject. On Vancouver Island there are the Ahts, the Cowichans, the Comox and others. On the mainland, we have the Koot anies, the Lillooets, the Shuswaps, the Chilcotins, the Bellacoulas, the Tsimpseans, the Babines, the Sicanies, and others; and on Queen Charlotte Islands, the Haidahs. Their languages differ in much the same degree as the dialects of English from Cornwall to Caithness, although some times one might be tempted to include the varieties of Gaelic as well as of English in this comparison.

A common medium of communication with most of them, however — at least, with those near the coast — is found in the Chinook jargon, which was originally the language of the Chinook Indians, near the mouth of the Columbia River, but which has been enriched and altered by the addition of words from the Spanish, French and other languages. It is easily acquired; it cannot be said to have any grammar ; but it forms a most convenient means of intercourse with the Indians, from the Fraser to Alaska, being more profitable to the traveller in those regions than all other modern languages. The other chief labourer of British Columbia is tho Chinaman. It is not merely within recent years that men have come from the land of the Celestials, across the Pacific, to our own western coast. There is ample evidence that at some past period the blood of tho Chinese, or of the Japanese, was blended with the blood of our Indians, for many of the Pacific Indians are of such a marked Mongolian type of face that you can scarcely tell them from the Chinamen except by the difference of dress, or of language, or by the absence of the pig-tail, which, however, the Chinaman often wears coiled up under his cap.

As lately, indeed, as 1834, Japanese junks were found stranded on our western coast. Whether the coming of the Asiatics was the result of accident, or of set purpose, one consequence has been an infusion of Asiatic blood amongst some of our Indian tribes. The immigration, however, of Chinamen for trade and labour, is a thing of recent date. As yet their presence can hardly be said to have had any serious effect on the labour market of the Province, or to provoke much hos tility ; but as those who have already arrived may be only the advanced guard of a large army of workmen, it is possible that British Columbia may yet witness a strife between white and Chinese labour similar to that which has seriously disturbed the peace of California. The Chinamen, as a class, are sober, diligent, frugal and trustworthy.

They are objected to by the saloon keeper, who gets no custom from them, — by the indolent, whom they prevent from exacting exorbitant wages for a minimum of work, — by agitators, who try to win the favour of the white working-man, and by others who are more or less influenced by those objectors. And yet remove the Chinamen and you disturb every industry in British Columbia ; exclude their future immigration and you increase the cost of working your future factories. It is, of course, only fair that all citizens should contribute a due share to the good of the commonwealth. If, therefore, the Chinaman does not consume enough of our produce, preferring his rice to our wheat, if his work is not enough to entitle him to live among us, and if his labour precludes the employment of those who seem to have a prior claim upon the country, then regulations may be framed to lay upon him a more equitable share of the general burdens.