44

usual size was 10 feet (cap) by 6 feet by 34 feet, or a volume of very
nearly 8 cubic yards. The cheapest drifting on a fairly large scale was
probably at La Fontaine mine, where the underground costs, omitting
pumping and overhead charges, were about $1.65 a cubic yard. This was
about 1905, when labour costs were much less than they are now. Wood
for fuel was then laid down at the mines for $2.50 to $3.50 a cord, whereas
at the present time it costs $6.50 to $7.50 a cord. Labour costs now are
about $5 a day, as compared with $3.50 a day twenty years ago. The
cost of supplies in general has not been materially reduced, except that
the freight rate on heavy machinery from Vancouver to Barkerville is
now only 3% cents a pound as the result of the construction of the Pacific
Great Eastern railway to Quesnel. At one time freight rates from: Ash-
croft to Barkerville were as low as 43 cents a pound, but for a few years
previous to the construction of the railway they averaged about 8 cents
a pound. Mine timbers formerly cost 6 to 8 cents a foot and lagging
6 to 7 cents a piece. In recent years most of the companies have installed
sawmills and cut their own lumber for flumes, as well as blocks for the
sluice boxes and mine timbers. There are several sawmills in the district,
and spruce lumber can be readily obtained at about $60 a thousand.
Pumping and hoisting costs for fuel alone at the former drift mines, such
as La Fontaine and Slough Creek, averaged from $20 to $25 a day. The
amount of water pumped averaged nearly 1,000,000 gallons a day. A
great saving was effected at some of the mines—for example at Willow
river—by installing a 25-foot water wheel, which pumped nearly as much
water at a nominal cost. There are no large drift mines in operation in
the district at the present time, but, if in the future much pumping is
necessary, the cost will be prohibitive unless waterpower be available or
the ground exceptionally rich.

Hydraulicking in Barkerville area began at the Black Jack cut on
Williams creek and was carried on there and at the Forest Rose lower
down on the creek, for over forty years. Hydraulicking is responsible
for most of the gold production of the past twenty years. Possibly the
cheapest hydraulicking in the areas was done in 1920 by C. W. Moore
on the Waverly property, on Grouse creek, when nearly 200,000 cubie
yards of ground were mined at a cost of about 4 cents a cubic yard. The
costs vary up to 15 cents a cubic yard, the average probably being about
8 cents. In hydraulicking most of the operators strongly favour using
part of the water as a ground-sluice or by-wash, especially where, as at
Lowhee mine (Plate VII B), a vertical fall, for the water, of considerable
height, can be maintained at the head of the pit. The use of a single large
monitor instead of two smaller ones is also preferred. Hydraulic elevators
have been used at several places in the area and have proved fairly effect-
ive where the lift was small, but an attempted lift of 100 feet by the Gold
Fields Company, in the lower part of Williams creek, about 1900, resulted
in failure because of the excessive wear and tear on the machinery and
the low efficiency of this method of mining. An hydraulic bucket-elevator
was tried by the same company, but also proved a failure. In hydraulick-
ing, the minimum grade for sluice-boxes is 4 inches to the 12-foot box, and
grades of 5 or 6 inches are most commonly used in the district.