Sept. I, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 
BRITISH COLUMBIA. 65 
being brought to the surface and heaped in readiness for " washing " 
in the spring. Towards the end of March the streams begin to melt 
and by May the thaw is at its height. Then Cariboo is by no means an 
enviable locality. Steaming mists envelope the forests in gloom/and the 
trees drip perpetual rain ; trails and mountain-slopes become swampy 
and abominable to the last degree ; creeks overflow their bounds, dig- 
gings become flooded, and the miners embarrassed by surplus water ; 
and travelling is a toilsome operation for both man and beast. At this 
season hundreds of animals, carrying in the first convoys of provisions 
to the miner, succumb to want of food and exhausting journies over 
wretched mountain-paths ; and to this day the most loathsome, if not 
the saddest sights that greet the traveller in Cariboo are the numberless 
carcases of horses that have thus been literally tired to death, 
and generally left to rot on the wayside where they fall. On the 1st of 
June miners are compelled by law to be present, and at work on their 
" claims." Then succeed two months or more of mild weather and 
drenching rains, notwithstanding which digging goes briskly on. In 
August and the early part of September a few weeks bright sunny 
weather may be expected ; the region now wears its most favourable 
aspect, the creek falls rapidly, and the miners' harvest is at its height. 
The radiation ol groups of streams from within small areas on the 
upper slopes of the bald hills, is one of the most peculiar features of the 
topography of Cariboo. From within a circle of not more than three 
miles in diameter, on ' the summit of Mount Agnes, issue the head- 
waters of five of the most notorious creeks in the district, their directions 
being towards every quarter of the compass. Similarly the sources of 
no fewer than six others are contained within a small area on the 
summit of Snowshoe Mountain. The ancient and existing channels of 
these streams, are the great depositories of the alluvial gold of the 
region, the richest accumulations being found immediately over the 
bed-rocks, or rocks in situ, which lie at all depths down to 150 feet 
below the surface of the soil. In Cariboo these bed-rocks are meta- 
morphic clay-slates, traversed by broad bands of quartz. 
It is probable that all the particles of gold now found in the water- 
channels have, in the course of ages, been loosened, by water action and 
other natural processes of disintegration, from their position in matrix 
in the native rocks of the region, and been eventually transported by 
the torrents to the localities where they are now found accumulated. 
As yet, the alluvial deposits in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
two great bald hills above mentioned, have proved to be so extensive 
and remunerative, and, withal, so comparatively easy of access, as to 
have almost wholly engrossed the miners' attention. Indeed, it is 
confidently asserted by the most experienced diggers from California 
and Australia that, on three miles of William's Creek — the present focus 
of Cariboo mining — more gold has already been extracted from the earth 
than from any corresponding stretch of mining ground in those countries. 
VOL. VI. G 
