8 THE CARIBOO TRAIL

men returned to Victoria. And with them
came a mad rabble of gold-crazy prospectors.
A city of tents sprang up overnight round
Victoria. The smithy was besieged for picks,
for shovels, for iron ladles. Men stood in long
lines for their turn at the trading-store. By
canoe, by dugout, by pack-horse, and on foot,
they planned to ascend the Fraser, and they
mobbed the company for passage to Langley
: by the first steamer out from Victoria. Goods
| were paid for incash. Before Finlayson could
_ believe his own eyes, he had two million dollars
| in his safe, some of it for purchases, some of it
| i on deposit for safe keeping. Though the com-
I pany gave no guarantee to the depositors and
| simply sealed each man’s leather pouch as
it was placed in the safe, no complaint was
ever made against it of dishonesty or unfair
treatment. :

Without waiting instructions from England
and with poignant memory of Oregon, Governor
Douglas at once clapped on a licence of twenty-
one shillings a month for mining privileges
under the British crown. Thus he obtained
a rough registration of the men going to the
up-country ; but thousands passed Victoria
altogether and went in by pack-train from
Okanagan or rafted across from Puget Sound.