1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 29 



present there are few stores on Canadian territory, and settlers 

 on the other side of the boundary go to and from the American 

 side without hindrance. The stage-route does just as the rail- 

 way will do — zig-zags from one country to the other, and there 

 is never any trouble. Not much is heard now of the mines of 

 the boundary country, and one unacquainted with the region 

 might naturally imagine that very little was being done there, 

 whereas, the truth is that in copper especially there has been a 

 great increase in production every year since 1900. In that year 

 the Boundary mines shipped less than 100,000 tons of copper ores, 

 the annual shipments increasing until in 1905 the total had reached 

 928,000 tons. In 1900, 62,000 tons of ore were smelted at the 

 boundary smelters, in 1905, 942,000 tons. The ore body at the 

 Granby mine is so rich in gold and silver that experts say that 

 no matter how low copper may go it can be produced from this mine 

 at a profit. The shares of this mine and of many others in the 

 Boundary country are held by capitalists, resident for the most 

 part in the United States, and as these shares are all paid up, 

 and are seldom offered for sale, the general public knows little 

 of the value of the Boundary mines. The Granby mines alone 

 are capitahzed at S15,000,000, all of which is paid up. The 

 possibilities of the Cobalt region are suggested by these figures, 

 the probabilities, only the wisdom or foolishness of investors 

 may guess at. As regards the timber of the region under con- 

 sideration it may be said that there is everywhere an abundance 

 for the needs of settlers, miners and railway construction, while 

 the building of a railway that will tap the Skagit and Chilliwack 

 valleys, will bring within reach forests that are only equalled by 

 those in the immediate vicinity of the coast and on Vancouver 

 Island. Fire is a constant menace to these forests, but here as 

 elsewhere in Canada, the posting of the notices prepared by the 

 Superintendent of Forestry has been the means of increased care 

 being taken by all travellers, and the vigilance of the provincial 

 fire-wardens and the prompt prosecutions of offenders is another 

 great restraining influence. The recent establishment of forest 

 reserves in the dry belt will insure both the wood and water 

 supply of the future. 



I cannot close without some reference to the work that has 

 been done during the last six years by the surveyors and others 

 working under the direction of Dr. King, the chief of the Boundary 

 Surveys. These men have overcome what appeared to be in- 



