268 Settlement in British North America. 
In the rugged country that lies between the Rocky Moun- 
tains and the Pacific coast, I have no doubt that all the val- 
leys are filled with rich auriferous deposits, and every few 
months accounts arrive of “diggings” discovered in fresh 
localities. The most recent of them was in a letter from Lieut. 
Wilson, who is attached to the Commission at present en- 
gaged in surveying the boundary line from the Pacific coast 
to the mountains, and who mentions that a rush has taken 
place to a point on the Kootani River. 
In carrying a line of railway through this region of British 
Columbia, the difficulties to be overcome by the engineer are 
very great. The surface of the country is broken by low 
mountain chains that run parallel with the coast, and the nar- 
row valleys by which the rivers break through these are rugged 
in the extreme, but to develope the mineral wealth of this 
country will in any case require the construction of roads, and 
would afford more inducement to the laying out ies nagh 
this than on any other part of the route. | 
The rush of diggers into the new country will ensure for it 
an active though temporary settlement; but those mineral 
products which it possesses, and which can only be reached by 
steady energy and the employment of capital, will retain a 
considerable permanent population, and give that solidity of 
wealth which alone would warrant the construction of a line of 
railway through a difficult and otherwise unproductive country- 
Throughout the Saskatchewan country there are deposits of 
coal, which, although not to be compared in quality with that 
we are familiar with in this country, yet are of considerable 
value. Coal of a similar geological formation, but of some- 
what better quality, also occurs on Vancouver’s Island and 
the opposite mainland, near the mouth of Fraser River; and 
at the former locality it is worked, and finds a market as 
ordinary fuel, for the manufacture of gas, and, above all in im- 
portance to us, for the supply of our steam navy. It answers 
well for the generation of steam; and the occurrence of this coal 
on Vancouver’s Island, which possesses magnificent harbour- 
age, renders that colony a valuable link in a chain of com- 
munication with China and the East Indies, by way of a 
route across the North American continent. | 
