Sept. 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 
BRITISH COLUMBIA. 63 
and 7,000 feet above the sea. At these high elevations forest- vegetation 
becomes dwarfed and scanty. Their summits and the upper parts of 
their slopes may be described as steep downs, clothed with tolerable 
grass, and dotted with small pine-plantations, an asj^ect presenting so 
marked a contrast to the dense forests of the valleys and lower slopes 
as to have earned for them amongst the miners the not inappropriate 
title of " the Bald Hills of Cariboo." Of these the best known are 
Mounts Agnes and Snowshoe — the former commonly called the Bald 
Mountain of William's Creek — which rises to altitudes of about 6,200 
feet, and are fair types of the great hill-features of the district. Each, 
from its comparative isolation, is the nucleus of its own miniature hill- 
system, consisting of long subordinate ranges, shooting out in every 
direction from the central mass, and becoming in their turn the parent 
stems of innumerable still smaller spurs and ridges. Thus Cariboo, in 
its physical configuration, presents a confused maze of peaks and ranges, 
spurs, ravines, and valleys, preserving no distinct arrangement and 
bewildering alike to the topographer and the traveller. 
Numberless streams of all sizes, from tiny rivulets to moderate rivers, 
drain the hill-system. The smallest are the " gulches," as miners call 
them — mere rivulets at ordinary times — which pour down narrow gul- 
lies and ravines on the mountain sides, and any of which may be jumped 
over. The next are the " creeks," rapid streamlets about the size of an 
ordinary English brook, which drain the smaller valleys and are at 
present the scenes of the most active mining. The largest are the 
"rivers," into which the others fall, and which, from the peculiar posi- 
tion and drainage of the district, although flowing towards every quarter 
of the compass, eventually conduct the whole of the Cariboo waters to 
the Fraser. 
The forests of the region, which, though very dense and extensive, bear 
no comparison in point of splendour or luxuriant growth with those of 
the Cascade range, nevertheless contain many excellent varieties of pine 
and fir-trees. They abound with martens, marmots, black bears, and 
some other varieties of furred animals, and the " Caribou " deer is found 
at the higher elevations. In winter, bands of Carriers — a scattered, 
intelligent Indian tribe, who occupy a large district north of the parallel 
52° 30' — resort to Cariboo from their summer abodes on the large lakes 
and rivers, and hunt and trap in the mountains, following there game 
on snowshoes. 
While presenting, as will be hereafter described, many phenomena 
that enlist the interest of the geographer and the geologist, Cariboo is 
not without features to attract the artist and the lover of wild scenery. 
Pages might easily be filled with descriptions of the magnificent views 
to be had in clear summer weather from the summits of any of the 
loftier hills. In the foreground, a tumbled sea of mountains ; narrow 
gloomy valleys ; forest-clad slopes ; and here and there the bleak, un- 
wieldly masses of the bald hills patched with snow ; far off to the south 
