y that further up the "big chunks" were in
abundance. After resting a while, therefore, the party went ahead. Two
miles from Fort Yale they entered upon the commencement of the real
difficulties and dangers of navigation on Fraser River, the water for a
distance of thirty-five or forty miles passing through deep gloomy
canons, and over high masses of rock. At this time the river had
attained only a few feet above its usual height, so that by perseverance
and the skill of the native boatman they were enabled to make slow
progress. Numerous portages were made--one of them, the last, being
four miles long. These portages could not be avoided, the cliffs rising
perpendicularly on either side of the river, sometimes to a height of
fifty or sixty feet, affording not the slightest footpath on which to
tow. At other places the whirls, and rocks partly submerged, rendered a
water passage utterly impracticable. At every bar and shallow spot
prospected in these wild localities gold was obtained in paying
quantities, all of very fine quality--rather difficult to save without
the use of quicksilver. From the head of the canons to the forks of
Thompson's River, thirty-five miles more, the current and general
appearance of the river seemed about the same as from Fort Hope to Fort
Yale, gold also being found where there was an opportunity for a fair
"prospect". At the Forks the party were told by Travill, a French
trader, whom they met by accident, that the richest and best diggings
were up Thompson's; but that river being navigable but a few miles up,
it was thought best to keep on up Fraser, which they did for a distance
of forty miles, encountering no serious obstacles beyond a few rapids,
and they were passed by towing. Five miles above the Forks some twenty
white men were at work, making with common rockers from ten to sixteen
dollars per day. Arriving at a bar about ten miles below, where white
men were congregating in numbers considered sufficient for mutual
protection, they took up a claim and commenced digging. They worked
here steady twenty-four days, averaging fifteen dollars per day to each
man. The greatest day's work of one man was thirty-one dollars. These
figures, it is thought, would apply to all the miners.

Our latest news from the new mines reach to the beginning of July. At
that time there were immense numbers of miners on the banks of Fraser
River, waiting for the stream to fall and enable them to go