No. 3. J ANDERSON — NORTH-WESTERN AMERICA. 147 



the general mildness of the climate upon the Peace River. On 

 the lower Columbia, and through Oregon to California, the 

 country is too well known for its fertility and resources to 

 require comment. 



British Columbia. — In British Columbia proper, the gene- 

 ral features may be thus briefly summed up. Westward of the 

 North-West Coast Range the whole tract is excessively moun- 

 tainous, and penetrated by numerous inlets of the ocean. East- 

 ward of the Coast Range (besides the intervening portion of the 

 Cascade Mountains in the southern part), numerous ridges of 

 moderate elevation appear, between which are broad valleys of 

 great fertility, abounding with rich pasture, and partaking gene- 

 rally of the prairie character. The upper portion is more densely 

 wooded, with fertile openings at intervals. The lower portions, 

 along the line of the Fraser, with a generally dense growth of 

 gigantic timber, present openings in parts of great fertility. The 

 whole of the north-west coast, with a portion of Vancouver 

 Island, is richly clothed with valuable timber of stupendous 

 growth. In minerals the whole province is extremely rich. 

 Nearly all the eastern coast of Vancouver Island abounds with 

 coal ; the most southern portion yet discovered being at Saanich 

 near Victoria, where there is an apparently rich seam. The 

 coal is esteemed of excellent quality, the chief export at present 

 being from Nanaimo and its vicinity ; and though some mines 

 are wrought upon the neighbouring mainland, bordering on 

 Puget Sound, the product does not command an equal price in 

 San Francisco, nor is it apparently in demand. Iron ore, of the 

 finest quality and easily accessible, with limestone for smelting 

 purposes in the vicinity, exists in inexhaustible quantity on 

 Texada Island near Nanaimo. Gold is found at the well known 

 " Caribou Mines" ; at the " Omineca"(i.e. " Mountain Whortle- 

 berry") diggings at the head of Peace River ; at the head of 

 the Dease tributary of the Riviere aux Liards, called " Cassiare" 

 from the name of the reputed discoverer ; on the upper waters 

 of the Columbia near the Big Bend ; on the Koutanais and 

 elsewhere both on the mainland and Vancouver Island* Silver, 

 not yet productively worked, exists in various parts of the Pro- 



* The total yield of gold, however, from British Columbia in 1875 

 did not probably exceed three millions of dollars, of which about 

 five-sixths only passed directly through the Banks. 



