eS Ra ere ee:

BARKERVILLE— (Continued)

Barkerville, like many of the world’s famous mining camps, steeped in
romance and traditions now but a ghost of their former greatness, followed
in the wake of her sister camps that rose to world pre-eminence over night
past their zenith and faded again into comparative obscurity. This seems a
process of evolution common to placer mining camps the world over. Some-
times old mining camps drop into eternal oblivion, while many of them rise
again and even surpass their former prominence. Out of a few creeks in the
vicinity of Barkerville there was recovered approximately $60,000,000 of
placer gold. Unlike the Klondike, where the ground was frozen to bed-
rock, hence sinking made easy, the Cariboo miners met many difficulties.
The deep water bed creeks made sinking by the individual miner impossible,
and as a consequence only the shallow creeks were worked and the country
finally abandoned, and like the proverbial Rip Van Winkle, the country slept
for over twenty years.

Previous to the advent of the P. G. E. Railway, miners refused to return
to the country because the nearest railway station was 280 miles distant.
With modern transportation, mining men are confident that Barkerville can
stage a come-back. The mother lode that fed these great placers has yet to
disgorge her golden treasures. Placer, the gold that is eroded out of the
rocks during the centuries and concentrated into the stream beds, according
to geologists, constitute but an infinitesimal amount in proportion with the
gold rock that still remains in place. In view of recent discoveries in the
district, Barkervillites are confident that they are now on their second rise
to fame. There seems a sentiment attached to famous old mining camps
that appeal to the tourist or globe-trotter in search of places, of historic
interest. Several motor roads radiate out of Barkerville. An hour’s ride
will bring the sportsman to lakes that constitute a fisherman’s paradise, while
denizens of the forest have few antipathies for the motor car. The Bowron
Lake country, perhaps the greatest sportsman’s paradise now in existence,
and fast becoming the mecca of a pilgrimage of sportsmen from all corners
of the world, lies 20 miles to the north-east, and is connected with Barker-
ville by a good motor road. (See Bear Lake article.)

THIRTY-EIGHT