163 George Shaw. The deep channel of the creek has long been considered as mined out and a great deal of work has been done on the benches with no very favourable results. Considerable information regarding the history of mining on the creek is given by Bancroft! in the Annual Reports of the Minister of Mines, British Columbia, and by G. M. Dawson,? who examined the creek at a time when mining was being actively carried on. The following brief account of mining on upper Lightning creek is based mainly on the above-mentioned reports, and on information obtained from Harry Jones, George Murdock, J. F. Tregillus, J. F. Williams, and other mining men in the district. Gold was discovered on Lightning creek in July, 1861—the same year in which Williams creek was discovered—by Ned Campbell and his com- panions, who opened a rich claim in the lower part of Spruce canyon, from which they took out 1,700 ounces in three days’ washing. The discovery was on what was later the Spruce Company’s ground, covering Ned Camp- bell’s claim and the Whitehall claim adjoining, which together yielded $200,000. The opening of Campbell’s claim cost $25,000, but it yielded $100,000 in three months. A great rush followed this discovery, particul- arly to Van Winkle creek, where 2,000 feet at the lower end yielded from $100 to $250 a day to the man, through the season. Up the creek the lead disappeared. The diggings on Last Chance creek, another tributary on the south side just below Stanley, were likewise opened in 1861. The Discovery Company, consisting of four men, took out 40 pounds of gold in one day, and the yield that season, from half a mile of the creek, was at least $250,000. Chisholm (Oregon), Davis, and Anderson tributaries also yielded quite a quantity of gold from their shallow parts. The second season’s work on Lightning creek yielded comparatively little, for the gravel being loose and porous was difficult to work, though the pay-streak was only from 8 to 30 feet below the surface. From Houseman creek to the Water Lily claim at the mouth of Davis creek, every foot of ground was occupied and shafts were sunk in many places; but they all (below the old town of Van Winkle opposite the mouth of Van Winkle creek) proved unsuccessful, owing to the inefficiency of the draining machinery. After two more seasons of disastrous trial, they were all abandoned in the autumn of 1864, from the upper end of the Ross claim, downstream. The discovery of gold on the famous Butcher bench was not made until one or two years after the original discovery. Mr. Murdock states that the discovery was made by Joe Gilmour on November 4, 1863, and that the claim was so-named because the actual discovery of gold was made with abutcher knife. It is said to have produced the largest nugget from Cariboo— 3675 ounces. In 1870 the Spruce, then called the Davis, as well as the Ross, Light- ning, Van Winkle, Victoria, and Vancouver Companies, resumed work by sinking shafts into the deep channel, and with the aid of improved machinery and methods the water was controlled. The last three com- panies, situated below the old town of Van Winkle, effected their object by sinking in the bedrock at the side of the creek, and thence drifting into the channel. At the same time a costly bedrock drain 1,700 feet long was run 1Bancroft, H. H.: ‘‘History of British Columbia.’’ 2Geol. Surv., Canada, Rept. of Prog. 1876-77, pp. 108-111.