"rahe a OE Ayer ae

49 Vic. Mr. Bowman’s REporT ON CaArrBoo DISTRICT. 379

Ree Orn 1

The want of any trustworthy map of the Cariboo District has, so far, pre- Geological survey of
vented the detailed geological examination which its prominent position in pani
respect to gold production has long called for. So much geographical infor-
mation was necessary, as a first step toward its geological mapping on such a
scale as to be useful to those engaged in the development of its placers and
auriferous lodes, that the Geological Survey was not in a position to under-
take this otherwise desirable work.

In consequence, however, of an arrangement entered into last spring, Joint artion of Provin.
between the Government of British Columbia and the Geological Survey, by ernments. Za
which, on account of the extent of the geographical work, that Government
agreed to furnish one-half of the amount necessary to prosecute the survey,
this long-desired work was entered on in the season of 1885. The conduct
of the survey was placed in the hands of the Director of the Geological
Survey, and I was instructed to carry it out.

The present report is intended merely as an interim one, in which the
operations of the season of 1885 are detailed, and the method of completing
the survey is indicated.

Accompanied from Ottawa by Mr. James McEvoy as general assistant, Assistants.
Victoria was reached by us July 3rd; and as soon as possible thereafter the
necessary arrangements were made, and we proceeded to Oariboo District.

While in Victoria I engaged Mr. S. P. Tuck as surveyor ; and at New West-
minster, Mr. L. R. Valigny as draughtsman and surveyor. Mr. E. B.
Adams was engaged at Sumas as teamster, packer, and general assistant.
Having arranged a rendezvous at Yale, Mr. McEvoy was, on Saturday, July Equipment and start.
the 18th, dispatched in charge of the waggon party, with equipments and
supplies, northwards by the Oariboo Waggon Road. On Sunday, July the
19th, Mr. Tuck and myself proceeded more expeditiously by rail and stage.

At Quesnelle, situated on the Fraser, in latitude 53° N., Mr. Tuck, on the
24th of July, began the measurement of a wheel traverse of the waggon road
from that point into the mining region, which reached Barkerville, distant
56 miles, on the 4th of August, simultaneously with the waggon party. The
latter had travelled for seventeen days at the rate of twenty-seven miles a day.

Cariboo District, famous for its yield of twenty-eight to thirty million
dollars of placer gold between the years 1859 and 1886, or fifty-five to sixty
per cent. of the entire product of British Columbia, may be defined as the
area enclosed by the great bend of the Fraser, and lying north of latitude
52°. In its narrower sense, as referred to in connection with actual mining Limits of field.
operations, it lies within the parallels of latitude 52° and 54° N., and the
meridians 120° and 123° W.; and it comprises, thus limited, an area of about
6,000 square miles. Judicially, and politically, Cariboo District covers the
entire plateau between the coast and Rocky Mountains. It is the plateau
of the cordillera lying north of the Canadian Pacific Railway and within the
drainage basin of the Fraser. But this region is bisected in a north and
south line by Fraser River, and it is only the eastern half, or the Rocky
Mountain slope, that can be embraced, in virtue of its economical hearing, as
within our field of investigation.

Its position and orographic relationships are shown upon the accom- Map.
panying outline map.

The pre-eminence of Cariboo among the gold-producing regions of British Jopertance of the
Columbia is shown by the diagram, in which the lgokoe the peccenta ia
annual gold product of Cariboo, and the firm line that of all the other
districts, including Cariboo, in the corresponding years, from 1858 to 1885.

Cariboo, indeed, was the first rich gold field found in the entire region
of the Central North American cordillera, but ten years after the great dis-
covery in the Sierra Nevada of California. As the coast was first taken

Progress,

Road Traverse.

Geographical position.