10 THE CARIBOO TRAIL

Klondike stampede, American cities at the
coast benefited most. Victoria was a ten-
hour trip from the mainland. Whatcom and
Townsend, on the American side, advertised
the advantages of the Washington route to the
Fraser river gold-mines. A mushroom boom
in town lots had sprung up at these points _
before Victoria was well awake. By the time
speculators reached Victoria the best lots in
that place had already been bought by the
company’s men; and some of the substantial
fortunes of Victoria date from this period.
Though the river was so high that the richest
bars could not be worked till late in August,
five hundred thousand dollars in gold was
taken from the bed of the Fraser during the
first six months of ’58. This amount, divided
among the ten thousand men who were on the
bars around Yale, would not average as much
as they could have earned as junior clerks
with the fur company, or as peanut pedlars in
san Francisco; but not so does the mind of
the miner work. Here was gold to be scooped
up for nothing by the first comer; and more
vessels ploughed their way up the Fraser,
though Governor Douglas sought to catch
those who came by Puget Sound and evaded
licence by charging six dollars toll each for all