38 THE RECORDS OF GOLD-WASHING.
discovered
in 1858 on the Frazer River, above New Westminster, causing a great
excitement and a " rush " of prospectors. San Francisco was nearly
depopulated by the exodus, and it is estimated that one-sixth of the
voters of California moved to the new placers. Gold was traced three
hundred miles up the river to Cariboo. On the Peace River, two hundred
and fifty miles still further north, gold was found. In 1872
discoveries in Cassiar district, eight hundred miles north of Victoria,
caused the " Stickeen River rush." The Frazer River deposits were
remunerative only to a limited extent and were soon worked out. In all
the localities in this country the workings have been principally
confined to shallow placers and river-bars, which are soon exhausted;
but at Cariboo there are channels beneath the beds of the present
water-courses. Shafts are sunk from the surface to the auriferous
channels through a covering of clay and gravel. The bed of the ancient
stream, when reached, is followed by drifts. While handsome returns
have been occasionally made (in 1861 nearly a million of dollars were
extracted), the expenses of working, there being much water to contend
with, are so large that the operations have almost entirely ceased. In
the more northerly districts the climate presents great obstacles and
work can be carried on only during a few months of the year.
In Vancouver Island, in the Leech River district, gold has been found in' a small area some twenty miles from Victoria.
Lock
* estimates that from 1858 to 1880 (twenty-two and a half years) gold
of the value of $45,140,889 has been extracted from (principally) the
alluvions of British Columbia.
United States of America.—Outside
of California (which will be treated in the following chapter), up to
the present time, the alluvial deposits worked have been prin-
* " Gold," p. 38.
