THE MINES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 18

THE MINES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

By an Old Otagan. Bribish Columbia came into prominence a3 a ' mining region in the early sixties, when the Califoruian diggers pushed their way north in j ' the face ol awful difficulties. No roa<ip, no railways traversed thab inhospitable region, which more than one Canadian statesman has I described as a "sea of mountains." It's sur. ' face, covered for the moit part with snow and ice for half the year, the opportunities of mining were very limited. Yet from the ravines of | these snow-chid mountains the early miners won i gold to the value of £10.000,000. Tha country practically abandoned for a tima by the I digger, and it was not uutil the ope.iing of the i Canadian-Pacific railway that the industry revived. This great work opened to civilisation the pcn l -up wealth of the mountains of British Columbia, and the iniuing history of bhe past two years rends like a chapter from the Spanish invasion of Peru, when bit oks of the precious metal were hewn out of the mountain sides. The visitor to British Columbia is staggered with amazement as he now stands in a mine of the Slocan district and gazes on the masses of pure silver and lead surrounding him, th°. cubes glistening in the light of the miner's Irmp. Nor is the area limited to anything of small dimensions. For scores of miles claim follows claim— some well-developed and pajinp handsomely, others bonded to capitalist's who are about to open their wondrous wealth ; while hundreds ara held by men who are too poor to operate their claims, and are q aietly putting in the work necessary to enable them to hold the ground, waiting for capital to come along and help their development. THE SILVER BELT. In modern mining it in almost »n unheard-of thing that silver and lead mine? should be operated en by men of no means whatever ; yet in this Slocan district there are mines thnt have paid their owners, as the saying is, "right from the grass roots," or from the day the ore was first tipped by the pick of the miner. This is done by getting out the ore, packiDg it on I mules or in a raw hide, and hauling ih over the | snow to the railway or point of shipment on the ' river or lake. Thence it is taken to the 1 smellers, the ownes of which pay the miners 95 per cent, of the wsay value. Within the past year these mines have more j than doubled their output, till now the ' work of development is so far advanced that j the miners expect to go on doubling ifc vcar after ! year. In the Slocan district durint: 1896 there j were 42 mines that shipped 17,975 tons of ore jto the smelcer. Tha 1 . ore produced 2,316, 561cz of silver and 17.778,3841b of lead, of a total . value of £719,977. That is an average return i of £23 tier ton. The Nelson district south of ,' Slocan ha 1 ? turoed out one of even higher value. •! Tho cutout for 1896 was 2248 ton*, which ' yielded 586,1430z of silver aud 2,010,2941b of ; lead For this there was paid by the smelters i £120,033, an average of £35 per ton. ( THK GOLD BELT i west of Nelson is the Rossland district, where thu ores are gold-bearing — a massive finej grained pyrrohotine with copper pyrites. Here ! such has been the activity that the cifcv of Ross- • land has grown within a rear from 400 to 6000 lin population. From 27,085 tons that went through the smelter the ai'erage net value per ! ton was £7 10s, the metalliferous yieldi per • ton averaging : gold 1 67 z, silver 2 soz, copper 2"3 per cent. The two great mines en this field are the Te Koi p.nd the War Eagle. Thn former has paid £37,400 and the latter £60,000 in dividends to date. The latter mine has just I been sold to Borne eastern capitaliest* for . £160.000, and the director* of the War Eagle ! have put a selling value of £200,000 on their • property. Alrr-ady they have had, and refused, lan offer of £180,000. Many other mines are being developed, and will shortly become dividend-payers. West of Rossland is the Camp M'Kinnev mine, which is a. free milliDg propssitiou (ordinary quirtz), "and this mine has already paid £20 000 in dividends. This J mineral belt is in the centre of southern British Columbia, extending on both sidei of the Columbia River, as it flows siuth into United States territory. So vast is this mineral bell; that mines are now operated over a territory 400 miles in length by 200 miles in width. The country is very rough, many of the mines being at an altitude of 5000 ft to 6000 ft. and while the steep mountain tops enable the , ores to be operated on in the cheapest msthod — that of tunneling — yet the frequency of avalanches, or " snow slides," as they are called here, are a great source of danger in the winter ■ months, and many miners have thus lost their lives. In such a country, too, the winter ! climate is very severe, so that whils the dis- ; coveries are rich the hardships of the prospec- . tor=i are indescribable. For instance, a party of men who recently came into Revelsfcoke had L been travelling for four days and nights over ■ the snow, and dared not go to sleep foi fear of , being froznn to death. With railwayß and roads, and with steamboats on the rivers and lakes, communication is now fairly good m far L j as the centres of population are concerned, but , further out the country is still a trackless waste. ' OTHEtt PHASES OF MINING. t Although some Chinese and Indians still follow up the old digging*, great changes are • coming over the scene. Tho Fraaer River, 1> which flows through the hearb of the western [ mining country, may be described as a g'gantic ground sluice. 600 mile 3 in length, and dredges are baing put on this as well as other rivers. * Hydraulicing is also active. The Cariboo Hydraulic Company nroducsd last season gold { to the v&luc of £25,558, and the yield of the ' | Horsefly Company's proposition was £8,534 A ■' great deal of work is being done in the direct ion of sinking on the deep levels, and some goodiresults have been obtained. ' | In connection with the mines o? British fc Columbia I rake tho opportunity of drawing l attention to the great prospects tha ! ; exist in I New Zealand for the treatment of low-grade ores. On Douglas IsUnd, oft' the north-west ■' co*&t of British Columbia, is one o£ the most

profituble mine* ever operated upon. It is owned by a United States syndicate, and the value of the gold in the ore is not more than 6s a ton.

A strange spectacle of mining in British Columbia is the work of tho miner in the far north. Ho is practically entering the Atclic regions. The Yukon River i< tho scene of an annual •' rush "of diggers. You will see from the m»p that tho Yukon riee3 in the extreme north-west, and flows out to Bebring's Sea. Ifc has a volume of water three times that of the Mississippi. Iv the winter months — from October to April — ifc is froziu, as are all the rivers and lakes in that inhospitable region. The miner has got there, however, and the fiuds of gold are described by Dr Dawson, head of the Geological Department of Canada, as unprecedented. The present scene of mining activity in that country is Forty-mile Crpek, which flows from the north and joins the Yukon River near tho boundary line between Canada and Alaska. The 3 dista:ice from the nearest port 13 750 miles, and the mode of access is by tramping ib over the Chilkoofc Mountains, h ilistinca of 18 miles. Thin is a terrible jouruey, over suownelds rising to 6000 ft above sen-level. Then the lakes are reached, and these, with their connecting outlets, join the Yukon River. The digger has to take his camp and food and clothes supply to last him for t-oma months. This outfib weighs about 4501b*, and the method of transportation is by dividing the paok into loads, which can be drawn on a small sleigh over the snosv. The length of « day's journey depends on ths weather, and whether the snow is hard or soft ; bub the miner's object is to go on only so far a 9 will enable him, by a saries of trips with his hand sleigh, to get the whole of his pack transported a cerbain distance in one day. This is slow and wearisome work, with the probability that some of the pick will be lost by being buried in onow-slidee. Over the summit of the range every foot of lbs way his to bo cut in the ice. On reaching Ihe lakes the jasmey is easier. In spring, before the ice thaws, the way lies over the ice, and sleighing is comparatively easy here. After April the water is sufficiently open for a boat, and the digger builds his iron boat or raft, liven then he can run at only 40 miles, when he has to pack his load on his hack round a canyon which is too dangerous to navigate. After passing the cmyon another boat or raft has to bs built, only, perhaps, to be again abandoned as some ice-fl jafc stops further navigation. The sleigh has to be again reaumsd till the open water of the river is reached, when another boat is constructed, and after a weary journey of 510 miles in this fashion the first trading post of (he Yukon in reached. The remainder of the journey down the river to the goldflelds is easy. Thousands of miners annually undergo these hardships in search of the yellow metal. Tho richuess of the fields is shown by the fact that lasb season the returns were as much as 40oz of gold to tho dish. While many make fortunes, many come back ruined in health and purse. Many again are never heard of in a climate where food is difficult to obtain, and where the snowstorms may bury them for ever; or the intense cold may freeze a portion of the body, resulting in mortifi cation and death. However rich the iiuds, the bierh cost ofi provisions and the hardships and difficulties of life make every ounce of gold most dearly earned. The long winters impose a period of enforced idleness, for which, the only recompense is the long summer day. Although this runs as much as 22 hours, still men cannot even take full advantage of that, for they must have sleep. Ifc is now known that the gold-bear-ing area of the Yukon is unlimited, and a proposal is before the Parliament of British Columbia te build a railway inlo the country, and to put steamships on the lake* and rivers, so that ere long ths miner will be able to travel amid all the luxury and comfort of civilisation into these arcbic regions. When the pre*e.nt proposals are matured, though the hardships will still be great, scores of thousands of people will find their wey into the Yukon territory, and explorers who have visited it declare that here will yet b3 opaned the greatest alluvial goldfields the world has yeb seen.