98 SETTLING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. [June 



sently, however, we noticed a faint cloud of smoke hanging over the 

 land at some little distance from the coast, and as we slowly drew 

 nearer and nearer, this still remained the only sign of the town that 

 we could see. Then we passed the fine spacious harbour of 

 Esquimalt, where the largest ships can enter at all times, and then 

 the low rocky promontory that separates it from the Victoria Inlet. 

 The Victoria harbour is not easily accessible, for it is entered 

 through a narrow winding channel half a mile or more in length, 

 but its bare rocky shores were preferred by the early settlers to the 

 thickly-wooded land that surrounds Esquimalt. 



During the past year or two a great many young Englishmen 

 have arrived in the province. Those of them who have been trained 

 in business habits, and command some capital, do well. The young 

 men of good family, for whom no fitting career presents itself at 

 home, and who come out w^ith a few hundred pounds in their 

 pockets, and with vague ideas of farming or cattle-raising, are often 

 much disappointed with the realities that meet them. British 

 Columbia is not an agricultural country. It will always be cheaper 

 to import wheat and other grain from the great prairies of the 

 North-West territory than to grow them here. It has been 

 described as " a sea of mountains." In these mountains are hidden 

 vast treasures of coal and iron, which will prove a backbone of 

 strength in the future. But at present the " You know what I 

 mean, don't you know ? " young man hopelessly confronts them. 

 Among these mountains, and closely shut in by them, are high 

 valleys, or tablelands, of park-like character, which are admirably 

 adapted for cattle ranches. But these are 10 or 12 days' journey 

 from the railway line, and the traveller along the Frazer knows 

 nothing of them. The cultivation of fruit, at a point as near the 

 Rocky Mountains as is practicable, probably offers the most promising 

 chance to the man of small capital. Victoria is well and cheaply 

 supplied with fruit from California ; but fruit-growers on the main- 

 land will have the whole of the North-West territories as far as 

 Winnipeg thrown open to them as a market by the Central Pacific 

 Eailway. But, alas ! the working man, whose family in the busy 

 season will rise with the dawn and help all day with the tedious 

 work of gathering in the fruit, has again the pull over the 

 gentleman. 



The timber lands of British Columbia are valuable and extensive, 

 and the lumber trade is already of large dimensions. Besides the 

 various sawmills supplying the local demand, which have lately 

 been greatly increased by the construction of the Nanaimo and 

 Esquimalt Eailway, there are two mills on the mainland coast 

 which carry on a large shipping business. 



