390 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY 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 popula- 

 tion is still supplied with provisions from California, 

 and their gold goes into the pockets of Ameri- 

 cans. California is probably the richest country 

 in the world. Possessing every valuable mineral 

 in inexhaustible abundance — except coal, w^hich 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 Groshen. 

 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 pre- 

 vious 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. 



