534 Our North Land. 



I cannot now find space to speak of the forest wealth and future 

 great lumber interests of British Columbia, but these, with the 

 mineral wealth, the immense fisheries, and advantages for fruit 

 growing are sure to attract a large population. The salmon fishery 

 is the most important industry in the fish line, and already British 

 Columbia contains large and prosperous salmon canneries doing an 

 immense export trade. There are five species of salmon in all ; 

 those of the Frazer are the most famous. They make their way up 

 the river for one thousand miles. The silver salmon begins to arrive 

 in March, or early in April, and lasts till the end of June. The 

 average weight is from four to twenty-five pounds, but they have 

 been caught weighing over seventy. The second kind are caught 

 from June to August, and are considered the finest. Their average 

 size is only five or six pounds. The third, coming in August, average 

 seven pounds, and are an excellent fish. The noan or humpback 

 salmon, comes every second year, lasting from August till winter, 

 weighing from six to fourteen pounds. The hookbill arrives in 

 September, and remains till winter, weighing from twelve to fifteen 

 pounds, and even forty-five pounds. Salmon is sold at Victoria at 

 five cents per pound, and there appears to be no limit to the 

 catch. 



As British Columbia contains the Pacific terminus of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, and must also contain the termini of all 

 other lines of communication from the prairie region to the Pacific, 

 it must necessarily become one of the most important sections of the 

 Dominion. The whole extent of the Province is not suitable for 

 settlement, yet it possesses very great agricultural resources. There 

 are vast tracts of arable land, although some of these require arti- 

 ficial irrigation. This, however, is easily obtained, and not at all 

 expensive, and lands so irrigated are of very great fertility. Land 

 one thousand seven hundred feet above the level of the sea, thus 

 irrigated, yielded last year as high as forty bushels of wheat per 

 acre. The tracts of land suitable for grazing purposes are of almost 

 endless extent, and the climate very favburable, shelter being only 

 required for sheep, and even this not in ordinary seasons. On the 

 Cariboo road there is a plain one hundred and fifty miles long, and 



