6

were the first to be worked, and the return of gold began to assume import-
ant dimensions.

“Before the close of the working season in 1858, some of the adven-
turers who had come overland from the south had pushed onward in face
of extraordinary difficulties—resulting not alone from the roughness of
the country itself but combined with the want of supplies and occasional
overt hostility of the Indians—as far as Fountain, a short distance above
Lillooet on the Fraser, and by the line of the Thompson to Tranquille river
on Kamloops lake. In the following year a renewed advance brought a
number of miners to Quesnel river, and in 1860 rich diggings were found
at the forks of the river and over 600 whites were at work on its length,
while Antler creek was discovered and some work done upon it by a few
score men—thus fairly entered on the extremely rich central region of ©
Cariboo.

“The theory formed by the miners who first worked the fine ‘flour’
gold of the Fraser below Yale was that this gold had its origin in richer
deposits toward the sources of the great river, and though this theory was
only partly correct as regards the origin of these particular deposits, it
none the less served as the impelling force which led to the opening up of
Cariboo district.

“In 1861, Williams and Lightning creeks, Cariboo, the two most
celebrated in the annals of British Columbia placer-mining, were dis-
covered, and in this and the following year most of the other rich creeks
in Cariboo became known. The first gleanings from the old Cariboo
stream-courses were notable. It is estimated that gold to the value of
$2,000,000 had been got out by a population not exceeding fifteen hundred
before the end of 1861. In consequence of those finds a second important
migration of miners and others towards the province commenced before
the close of 1861, which continued in greater or less volume until about
1864. <A series of letters from a correspondent of the “Times’ contributed
largely to this result, and extended the area of interest to very wide limits,
bringing adventurers from England, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
A party of men even set out for Cariboo from eastern Canada overland,
in 1862. Of this party several members lost their lives in the mountains,
but some eventually reached their destination.”

An interesting account of the ‘‘rush” up the Fraser in 1858 is given by
Kinahan Cornwallis in his book ‘‘The New Eldorado, or British Columbia,”’
published in 1858. The book is accompanied by a remarkable map on
which the words “Supposed gold regions” are printed nearly all over that
part of Cariboo region where the really important discoveries were made
two years later. This illustrated the belief of the prospectors that the
trail of fine gold on Fraser and Thompson rivers would lead to rich deposits
of coarse gold in the mountains near the headwaters of the stream. The
theory of the miners, as pointed out by Dawson, was only partly correct,
for the greater part of the gold on the Fraser was derived by concentration
due to stream erosion of the glacial drift, and a part was locally derived.
A considerable part, however, may have originally’ come from Cariboo
region, in pre-Glacial time, or have been transported in the glacial drift
from that region. The trail of fine gold was not followed directly to the