minster, they are nothing more than groups of half a dozen loghouses, most of which are "restaurants," started to supply bacon and flour to the miners. The upset price of land in the towns has been fixed at 20%. for a lot measuring 64 feet by 120 feet. At Langley, however, the first town-site surveyed, seven times that sum was given at the first sale for some of the lots; and 342 lots, the whole number sold, fetched 13,000l., or nearly 40%. apiece. It must be said, however, that at the time of the sale it was generally believed that Langley would be chosen for the capital, and all purchasers were afterwards allowed the option of exchanging their lots for others at New Westminster. Langley is very well situated for a commercial town: the river is deep in-shore, and affords good anchorage, while the land is elevated, with a dry soil, and free from wood. But its position on the American side of the Fraser, and only a few miles distant from the frontier, was justly considered by the military authorities as forming an insuperable objection to its selection as a capital. A site has accordingly been chosen for New Westminster on the north bank of the river, about ten miles from its mouth. It is raised above the level of the floods to which the marshy banks of the stream lower down are periodically subject; there is an ample supply of low-lying land, available for docks, quays, and warehouses. The military advantages of the position are described by Colonel Moody, the Lieutenant-Governor, as very remarkable. In front is the river Fraser, which is here broader and deeper than the Thames at London Bridge. The opposite bank is high, and slopes towards the south, so that an intrenched camp on the summit would command the frontier line. On the right flank there is the North Channel, a branch of the Fraser, and beyond that lie marshes, which, when dyked, might be flooded at pleasure. The left flank is protected by the Pitt River, while a range of high ground stretches across the rear of the town; and behind this again lies an inlet of the sea, with an island stretching right across it which would admit of being easily fortified.

The commercial advantages of New Westminster are unfortunately not quite so conspicuous. It can, it is true, be reached without much difficulty by vessels under sail, as the river has, by the strength of its own stream, forced a passage through the extensive sandbanks which lie for five miles beyond its mouth, in the shoalest part of which there is always twelve feet of water at low tide, and from eighteen to twenty at high. A more formidable difficulty is to be found in the intricate navigation of the St. Juan Archipelago. "Although," says Captain Richards, commanding H. M. Surveying Ship Plumper, "the Gulf of Georgia and the channels leading into it have been navigated

by sailing vessels, yet the disadvantages are obvious and very great, and the loss of time incalculable. The general absence of steady winds among these channels, the great strength and uncertainty of the tides, and the existence of many hidden dangers, could not fail to be productive of constant accidents, and in a commercial point of view such a class of vessels could never answer." Mr. Pemberton argues from these facts that the capital of British Columbia should be either Victoria or Esquimault, the latter being the only really good harbour on the coast. If British Columbia and Vancouver's Island were united, this would have been at least a feasible course, though even then the inhabitants of the mainland would probably have been jealous of the preference given to the island. But so long as they remain distinct colonies, such a step is obviously impossible. Nor do we see why the capital should of necessity be also the principal seaport. Natural advantages point out Esquimault as the port of entry for sea-going ships, and no reasons of policy will prevent its becoming so. But the extraordinary number of islands and deep salt-water inlets which are found along the inner coast of Vancouver's Island and the whole western shore of the continent at once demand and give facilities for a system of internal navigation, both by steamers and coasting sailing vessels, extensive enough to supply all the demands of New Westminster and the other towns along the coast of the mainland.

With the view of encouraging an immigration of farmers from England, Australia, and the Canadas, whose object will be not merely to try their luck at the gold-diggings, but to create a home for themselves and their children, and who may form the nucleus of a settled agricultural population, the upset price of country lands was fixed at 10s. per acre. This inducement, however, was not found sufficient. At the first sale of surveyed lands, which took place at New Westminster in Oct. 1859, only four lots found a purchaser, and even these fetched no more than the upset price. At Douglas and Hope, owing, perhaps, to the neighbourhood of rising towns, persons were found anxious to have the right of purchasing, at a fixed price, any unsurveyed land they might improve, guaranteed them, and Governor Douglas has accordingly made this permission the basis of a "preemption law," conceived in a very liberal spirit. By this law any British subject, or any person intending to become a British subject, may acquire 160 acres of unoccupied and unsurveyed land, not being a town-site, auriferous land, or Indian reserve, on simply taking possession and recording his claim with the nearest magistrate, to whom he must also give a description and rough plan of the ground taken. Whenever the land shall be surveyed by the Government, the claimant or his heirs, if they have been in con

tinuous occupation of the same land from the date of the record, will be entitled to purchase it at a price, not exceeding 10s. per acre, to be hereafter fixed by the Government. So soon as a person in possession has made permanent improvements in his land to the value of 10s. per acre, and obtained a certificate to that effect from the nearest magistrate, he will be able to pass a good title to a purchaser, who will then have the same right of purchase upon survey as the original claimant. The holder of 160 acres may also purchase at any time any additional quantity of unsurveyed land at the same price, 5s. of which is to be paid down, and the rest at the time of survey. Lands abandoned by a claimant may be taken up, with any improvements which may have been effected on them, by any person on the original terms. Whether this system will be found successful in attracting settlers remains to be seen.

And yet, so far as the agricultural capabilities of the country have been investigated, the reports have been highly favourable. Every where the mountains enclose valleys of singular beauty and fertility; along the rivers inaccessible cliffs alternate with levels covered with natural pasture; and barren rocks give place to park-like expanses of rich verdure, shaded by majestic trees; while on the coast the numerous islands are green throughout the winter. On the upper waters of the Fraser there is a good deal of land which is well suited either for stock or dairy farming. Even at Fort Alexandria crops are not injured by the frost more than once in every four or five years; and still farther to the north, almost at the frontier of the colony, along the banks of the Skeena River, Lake Babine, and Lake Stuart, Mr. Downie found large tracts of fine land, as well adapted for farming as any he had seen in the south. On the Thompson River the land is even better than on the Fraser, and increases in promise as you ascend the stream. In the neighbourhood of the Nicola River and Lake there is good grazing-ground, and the slopes of the mountains are covered with natural grasses. The only drawback to agriculture is a deposit of nitrate of soda, which, when present in large quantities, is injurious to wheat, though it does not affect vegetables. Towards the south the advantages of soil and climate are greater still. From Fort Kamloops, where the north and south forks of the Thompson unite to the Okanagan Lakes, there is a very large tract of pasture, if not farming-land; while in the Sinulkameen valley bunchgrass-"probably the best-known grazing food for cattle and horses"-is plentiful, and the soil admirably adapted for cultivation. "The soil, where it is richest," says Mr. Pemberton, "in the river deltas, the valleys, and the plains, usually consists of black vegetable mould, six inches to three feet in depth, over

lying a deep substratum of clay, gravel, or sand; it is generally covered with a luxuriant crop of fern, which is very difficult to kill and tedious to eradicate. The native grasses of the country" (with the exception, it is to be supposed, of the bunch-grass before mentioned) "are of a poor Alpine character, springing up early in April, and dying away early in September. This deficiency is, however, to a great extent counterbalanced by native tares, clover, and vetches, which are, in most localities, abundant." As the colony has not as yet been surveyed, it is "impossible to state with accuracy the proportion that the open or available land bears to the waste: generally speaking, the tracts of land which are condemned as waste and unprofitable are such as have not been surveyed; and exploration and settlement have invariably led to the discovery of open land where least expected. Every addition to our knowledge of the country tells favourably on the ratio in question."

Wheat yields from twenty to forty bushels to the acre; but the fertility of the soil is even more shown by the production, from ordinary seed, of gigantic roots, fruits, and vegetables. Orchards would pay well, from the great demand for apples in the south-western states of the Pacific. Hops grow freely; and the fibre of the native hemp has been tested, and pronounced equal to Russian. Timber is every where abundant, though it rarely approaches those enormous dimensions which are common in California. The Douglas fir possesses immense strength, and has a bark resembling cork, which is often eight or nine inches thick, and makes excellent fuel. Large forests of the Menzies pine occur, of a size suitable for first-class spars; and the Kemlock spruce and the Weymouth pine, with many other lessknown firs, are common throughout the colony. Two kinds of oak are found, but the timber is generally weak. Curled maple is abundant, as well as arbutus of a very large size, together with cypress, juniper, yew, birch, and poplar. Neither ash, beech, nor elm have as yet been noticed. Cattle may easily be procured from California, and the best breeds of sheep are abundant in Vancouver's Island. The native horses make good hacks, and have great powers of endurance. They have a singular repugnance to draught; but this is of less importance, as the carriage-horse is constantly met with. California also possesses a very fine breed of race-horses of English origin. The country is rich in game of all kinds. The elk is found on the coast, and deer on the numerous islands; while of nobler prey bears are common, and wolves larger than a Newfoundland dog; but the latter are, happily for the more peaceful settlers, "excessively shy." Swans, geese, and ducks abound on the coast and on the lakes, and grouse, snipe, and cranes in the interior. In the

spring and summer many kinds of salmon and salmon-trout ascend the rivers in numbers which realise the golden age of which we have recently heard so much in England. They are caught in all ways. In shallow water the Indians spear or stone them; in deep water they decoy them to the surface, or float their canoes down the stream, and lift them in with a landing net, or a strong hook tied to a stick; while from the banks the bear can take as many as he wants with his paws. Sturgeon of enormous size are found at the mouths of the rivers. Herrings are plentiful beyond all measure. The Indians scoop them in along shore with nets and boats. Even those thus caught are often as large as those at Yarmouth, while if they went farther out they would get finer ones. "One gentleman has turned to curing them, and makes four hundred per cent of his outlay."

Still, notwithstanding all these advantages, emigration, as we have seen, is almost at a stand; and although the average miner's earnings in British Columbia are double what they are in California, yet the expense of living in the former country is so much greater, amounting at the very lowest estimate to 60%. a year, that miners for the most part prefer remaining in the latter. The cause of this is alleged, apparently with great reason, to be the want of any available means of communication with the interior. We need only look at a map to discover why this want is so long in being supplied. British Columbia is a land of mountains. It has the central chain of the Rocky Mounfor its eastern boundary, and two other ranges of great elevation are included within its limits. One of these, the Selkirk Mountains, runs parallel with, and at no great distance from, the central chain, while the other follows the line of the sea-coast, from which it rises by a short and precipitous slope. The latter is called indifferently the Coast and the Cascade Range. Between the two there are numerous lower ranges, with connecting tablelands. The valley of the Fraser opens a passage into the heart of the country; but, as may easily be imagined from the physical characteristics of the country, the river itself affords the traveller little assistance. For the first hundred miles from its mouth it is navigable for steamers, but above Yale it is little better than a foaming torrent, which rushes between inaccessible cliffs, along whose sides run paths often less than an inch in breadth, over which the Indians contrive to travel with heavy loads on their backs. This portion of the route has, we believe, been somewhat improved by blasting, and a more practicable line of communication has been opened, after great exertions on the part of the Governor, Mr. Douglas, by which it may be altogether avoided. Within the angle which the Fraser makes at Hope lie four lakes, the northernmost of which is only four miles distant from "the