ty years, the curtain
rises again on the stormy period of the Ashburton Treaty, when the
`patriots' were bent upon `whipping the Britishers' out of every acre of
land on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. And now, for the third
time, we are recalled to the same territory, no longer as the goal of
the adventurous trader or the battle ground of the political agitator,
but as a land of promise--a new El Dorado, to which men are rushing with
all the avidity that the presence of the one, thing which all men, in
all times and in all places, insatiably desire is sure to create."

This El Dorado lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific; it is
bounded on the south by the American frontier line, 49 degrees of
latitude, and may be considered to extend to the sources of Fraser
River, in latitude 55 degrees. It is, therefore, about 420 miles long
in a straight line, its average breadth from 250 to 300 miles. Taken
from corner to corner, its greatest length would be, however, 805
miles,--and its greatest breadth 400 miles, Mr Arrowsmith computes its
area of square miles, including Queen Charlotte's Island, at somewhat
more than 200,000 miles. Of its two gold-bearing rivers, one, the
Fraser, rises in the northern boundary, and flowing south, falls into
the sea at the south-western extremity of the territory, opposite the
southern end of Vancouver's Island, and within a few miles of the
American boundary; the other, the Thompson River, which rises in the
Rocky Mountains, and flowing westward, joins the Fraser about 150 miles
from the coast. It is on these two rivers, and chiefly at their
confluence, that the gold discoveries have been made.

Fraser River is about as famous a point as there is today on the earth's
surface--as famous as were the Californian diggings in 1848, or the
Australian gold mines in 1853. It is now the centre of attraction for
the adventurous of all countries. The excitement throughout the Canadas
and Northern States of America is universal. In fact, the whole
interior of North America is quite in a ferment--the entire floating
population being either "on the move," or preparing to start; while
traders, cattle-dealers, contractors, and all the enterprising persons
in business who can manage to leave, are maturing arrangements to join
the general exodus. Persons travelling in the mining regions reckon
that, in three months, 50,000 souls will have left the State of
California alone. The rapi