Handbook to the new Gold-fields | Page 5

next day cleaned up ten and a-half ounces from two
rockers, which I saw myself weighed. This bar is acknowledged to be
one of the richest ever seen, and well it may be, for here is a product of
fifteen and a-half ounces of gold, worth 247 and a half dollars, or 50
pounds sterling, from it in a day and a-half to the labour of two rockers.

Old Californian miners say they never saw such rich diggings. The
average result per day to the man was fully 20 dollars, some much
more. The gold is very fine; so much so, that it was impossible to save
more than two-thirds of what went through the rockers. This defect in
the rocker must be remedied by the use of quicksilver to `amalgamate'
the finer particles of gold. This remedy is at hand, for California
produces quicksilver sufficient for the consumption of the `whole'
world in her mountains of Cinnabar. Supplies are going on by every
vessel. At Sailor Diggings, above Fort Yale, they are doing very well,
averaging from 8 to 25 dollars per day to the man. I am told that the
gold is much coarser on Thompson River than it is in Fraser River. I
saw yesterday about 250 dollars of coarse gold from Thompson River,
in pieces averaging 5 dollars each. Some of the pieces had quartz
among them. Hill, who was the first miner on the bar bearing his name,
just above spoken of, with his partner, has made some 600 dollars on it
in almost sixteen days' work. Three men just arrived from Sailor
Diggings have brought down 670 dollars in dust, the result of twelve
days' work. Gold very fine. Rising of the river driving the miners off
for a time."
Correspondents from several places on the Sound, both on the British
and American territories, men of various nationalities, have since
written that the country on the Fraser River is rich in gold, and "equal
to any discoveries ever made in California." The Times' correspondent,
writing from Vancouver's Island on 10th June, says, "The gold exists
from the mouth of Fraser River for at least 200 miles up, and most
likely much further, but it has not been explored; hitherto any one
working on its banks has been able to obtain gold in abundance and
without extraordinary labour; the gold at present obtained has been
within a foot of the surface, and is supposed to have averaged about ten
dollars per diem to each man engaged in mining. Of course, some
obtain more, some less, but all get gold. Thompson River is quite as
rich in gold as Fraser River. The land about Thompson River consists
of extensive sandy prairies, which are loaded with gold also; in fact, the
whole country about Fraser and Thompson Rivers are mere beds of
gold, so abundant as to make it quite disgusting. I have already seen
pounds and pounds of it, and hope before long to feast my eyes upon

tons of the precious metal." And the same high authority writes on 17th
June,--"There is no longer room to doubt that all the country bordering
on Fraser River is one continuous gold bed. Miners abandoning the
partially exhausted placers of California, are thronging to this new
Dorado, and the heretofore tranquil precincts of Victoria are now the
scene of an excitement such as was witnessed at San Francisco in 1849,
or since in Melbourne. Land has run up to prices fabulously high; and
patches that six months ago were, perhaps, grudgingly purchased at the
colonial price of 20 shillings the acre, are re-selling daily at a hundred
times that amount. The small number of steam ships hitherto found
sufficient for the commerce between San Francisco and these vicinities
no longer suffices to convey a tithe of the eager applicants for passage.
An opening for the enterprise of British capitalists such as was not
anticipated has thus suddenly arisen, and the opportunity will, of course,
be seized with alacrity.
"Lest I should appear too sanguine in my representations, I will cite one
instance to illustrate the richness of these newly discovered diggings.
Three men returned for provisions lately, after an absence of seven
days; they had during this interval extracted 179 ounces of gold. I state
this fact on the authority of Governor Douglas, who has just returned
from the mining regions, whither he went with the view of establishing
certain regulations for the maintenance of order. In short, all who have
visited the mines are impressed with the conviction that their richness
far excels that of California in its palmiest days."
And, again, the correspondent of the New York Times, in a letter dated
21st June, gives the following corroborative testimony:--"The gold is
found everywhere, and even during the extreme