524 REPORT — 1887. 



occur in the district. Silver occurs in tliese veins, sometimes in greater 

 proportion by weight than gold.' 



British Columbia. — Gold is chiefly found in the alluvial beds of the 

 Rocky Mountains, in the Purcell, Selkirk, Gold, and Cariboo ranges, which 

 run parallel to, but west of, the main ridge. The discovery of alluvial 

 gold in the Eraser river drew away many miners from California in 

 1857-9. In 1860 the Cariboo district was discovered, and this has been 

 the most continuously productive. Up to the end of 1885 about 

 10,000,OOOZ. of gold were produced, three-fifths of which came from the 

 Cariboo district. Good alluvial ground has been found on the Wild Horse 

 creek (Skirmish river of Palliser), derived from the waste of quartzites, 

 schistose rocks, and argillites, with some compact greenstones probably 

 interbedded; the gold is worth 31. 16s. per oz. Rich placers have 

 recently been discovered on Granite creek. 



Practically the whole of the gold yet produced in British Columbia is 

 alluvial. No doubt some productive gold-bearing veins will be discovered, 

 but it seems unlikely that they will yield a large supply. 



The gold statistics of British Columbia are very untrustworthy, as no 

 official records have been kept.^ The maximum yield was, probably, in 

 1864 (778,0001.) ; it fell, with various oscillations, to 280,000Z. in 1881, and 

 then gradually declined to 140,OOOZ. in 1885. The fluctuations in yield 

 are partly due to the seasons, heavy floods in the spring being disastrous 

 to placer mining; but the fall is due to the exhaustion of the placers with 

 no compensation in the development of vein-raining. Some revival may 

 be looked for from the systematic adoption of hydraulic mining, as in 

 some places only the sides of the valleys have yet been worked. 



British Columbia is placed at a great disadvantage for gold-mining as 

 compared with California. In California the sheets of volcanic rock have 

 preserved large areas of rich placer gravel from denudation ; the modern 

 streams have cut their way through these old gravels, enabling them to 

 be mined without great trouble from water, and aS'ording every facility 

 for drift-mining, and, where otherwise convenient, for hydraulic mining. 

 The waste of the old placers has rendered the modern alluvial gravels very 

 rich in gold. 



In the Cariboo district of British Columbia the streams have not cut 

 their way through the older placers into the bed rock. From 50 to 150 

 feet of the richest auriferous gravel lies beneath the stream beds. All 

 the rich placers of the Cariboo have been mined by underground drifting 

 with all the difficulties of water and ' slum ' to contend with overhead. 

 At Omineca and Cassiar, lat. 55° to 57°, the auriferous gravel is in per- 

 petually frozen ground ; the working season lasts only two months in the 

 year.^ 



Nova Scotia. — It was formerly supposed that the auriferous quartz of 

 Nova Scotia was interstratified with the Lower Silurian (Cambrian) rocks, 

 and that the gold had been derived from the underlying Laurentian 

 rocks. It is now known that this was a mistake; the quartz-veins run in 

 a general way along the lines of bedding, but they cut across the beds, 

 and are certainly of later date. 



' A. C. LawsoD, ' Lake of the Woods Region,' Geol. Survey of Canada, Ann. Eep., 

 N.S. i. 1885. 



" It is believed that a small part of the placer gold from Alaska is carried over 

 the frontier, and is returned as produced in British Columbia. 



» A. Bowman, Trajts. Amer. Inst. M. E., 1887, p. 716. 



