For some time to come, the great line of route to the new El Dorado will
likely be by water from the different settlements along the coast of the
Pacific. Steam communication has long been established between Panama
and San Francisco, and a line of vessels is now regularly plying between
the latter port and Vancouver's Island, from whence easy access is had
to the diggings, by means of small steamers. The steamers at present
running on the coast make the voyage from Panama to Vancouver's Island
in fourteen or fifteen days. The following statistics of fares and
freights are supplied by the _Times'_ correspondent:--
"The rates of passage at present from San Francisco to New York are--
Steerage, 150 dollars; second cabin, 250 dollars; first cabin, 300
dollars per berth for each passenger. An entire state-room is the price
of two passengers--600 dollars. From New York to San Francisco the
fares are the same. San Francisco to Panama, sometimes the same as to
New York, and sometimes one-third less. Freight on specie, 1 per cent,
to New York; and three quarters per cent to Panama with a slight
discount to shippers of large amounts. Freight on merchandise from
Panama, 2 dollars 10 cents per foot. The quantity of freight is
considerable in French silks, cloths, and light goods, but the bulk is
in Havannah cigars, nearly all the supply for this market coming _via_
Panama. The fares up by the steamers from San Francisco to Victoria
are--Steerage, 30 dollars; cabin, 60 dollars."
This route, besides being at present the most direct and expeditious,
presents another great advantage. Passing along the coast of
California, it gives passengers an opportunity of either settling there,
or continuing their journey to British Columbia. That this is no
unimportant advantage, will be at once conceded when it is borne in mind
that it is not the gold-producing country on the Fraser River alone that
offers strong inducements to emigrants.
In a letter published on 4th August, the _Times'_ correspondent
remarks:--"In a few weeks, with a continuance of the present drain upon
our mining, mechanical, and labouring population generally, as good a
field for labour of every kind will again be open in California as there
was from 1849 to 1851, when the country became flooded with immigrants.
In fact, the openings now being made in the mines and in labour of all
sorts, and the rise of wages in consequence of the exodus hence, offer
greater inducements to emigrants than existed in the first years of our
organisation. Then there was little besides mining that a man could
turn his hand to. Now the gradual development of the resources of the
country has opened many avenues for labour of various kinds, and mining
claims, which pay well, and in which a competency would be realised in a
moderate space of time, are abandoned because they do not produce gold
in bushels, as their owners hope to find the new mines to yield." And
in another letter, the same authority says:--"The excitement in the
interior is universal. I was up the country this week, and returned
only last night; so that I had an opportunity of judging for myself.
From every point of the compass squads of miners were to be seen making
for San Francisco to ship themselves off; and I heard of arrangements
having been completed for driving stock overland to meet the demands of
the new population congregating in the Puget Sound country. One man had
purchased a drove of mules, and another had speculated in 200
Californian horses, to supply the demand for `packing.' These two
`ventures' were to proceed overland in two days hence. The speculator
in horses had been at Fraser River, and returned convinced of the
judiciousness of his `spec.' He spoke of the overland trip with
enthusiasm; plenty of game and of grass, a fine climate, and no
molestation from Indians. As a natural result of all this emigration,
business in the interior is becoming much deranged. The operations of
the country merchants are checked; rents and the value of property in
the interior towns are diminishing. Some of the merchants are
`liquidating,' and some have already moved their business to San
Francisco, to take advantage of the business which must spring up
between that port and the north-west. All the movements made in
consequence of the new gold discovery have tended to benefit San
Francisco, and she will, no doubt, continue to derive great advantages
from the change. The increase of business will bring an increase of
immigration to the city, for there is every reason to believe, judging
from past experience, that a considerable proportion of the emigration
from Europe, the Atlantic States, and Australia, will rest here; that
the city will increase rapidly, and that an advance in the value of
property must ensue in consequence. The fact is, that there is now in
California so extensive an association of capital and labour engaged in
mining successfully, that, happen what may in other countries, the
`yield' here most continue to be very great. Companies of men who have
large amounts of money invested in mining of a variety of sorts, such as
`tunnelling,' `sluicing,' and `quartz crushing,' on a large scale, are
not going to abandon well-developed properties which produce profitable
returns. We have no fear of having to suffer any inconvenience from a
scarcity of gold in California in consequence of the removal from the
country of so many miners. I make these statements for the information
of parties abroad engaged in business with this country."
The following is the journal of a traveller who lately proceeded on this
route:--
"Left San Francisco on Thursday, the 24th of June, at 4 and a half p.m.,
and arrived in Esquimault Harbour, near Victoria, on the following
Tuesday, at six in the morning--distance, 800 miles. The steamer was so
crowded with gold-hunters, speculators, merchants, tradesmen, and
adventurers of all sorts, that exercise even on the quarterdeck could
only be coaxed by the general forbearance and good-humour of the crowd.
Before starting there were stories to the prejudice of the steamer, the
Oregon, belonging to the Pacific Mail Company, rife enough to damp the
courage of the timid; but she behaved well, and beat another boat that
had five hours' start of her. The fact is we had a model captain, a
well-educated, gentlemanly man, formerly a lieutenant in the United
States navy, whose intelligence, vigour, and conduct inspired full
confidence in all. With Captain Patterson I would have gone to sea in a
tub. Whatever may be the sins of the company as monopolists of the
carrying trade on this coast, justice must award them the merit of
having selected a staff of commanders who atone for many shortcomings.
"The voyage from San Francisco to Vancouver's Island, which in a steamer
is made all the way within sight of the coast, is one of the most
agreeable when the voyager is favoured with fine weather. I know none
other so picturesque out of the Mediterranean. The navigation is so
simple that a schoolboy could sail a steamer, for a series of eighteen
headlands, which jut out into the ocean all along the coasts of
California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, served as landmarks to
direct the mariner in his course. All he has to do is to steer from one
to another; from Point Reyes outside the Golden Gate to Point Arena, the
next in succession, and so on till he comes to Cape Flattery, upon
rounding which he enters the Straits of Fuca, towards the end of his
voyage.
"The northern portion of the coast of California and the whole length of
the coasts of Oregon and Washington are thickly wooded. In fact, this
vast stretch of country is one continuous pine forest. From the shore,
where the trees dip into the sea, back to the verge of the distant
horizon, over hills, down valleys, across ravines, and on and around the
sides and tops of mountains, it is one great waving panorama of forest
scenery. Timber--enough to supply the wants of the world for ages, one
would think. Yet the broken character of the country relieves the scene
from monotony, and it fully realises the idea of the grand and the
beautiful combined. One spot in particular made an impression upon me
which I wish I had the power to convey by words. Between Cape Mendocina
and Humboldt Bay, on the northern limits of California, a grand
collection of hills and mountains of every variety of size, shape, and
form occurs. This grand group recedes in a gentle sweep from the coast
far inland, where it terminates in a high conical mountain, overtopping
the entire mass of pinnacles which cluster around it. The whole is well
clothed with trees of that feathery and graceful foliage peculiar to the
spruce and larch, and interspersed with huge round clumps of evergreens,
with alternations of long glades and great open patches of lawn covered
with rich grass of that bright emerald green peculiar to California.
This woodland scene, viewed of an early morning, sparkling with
dew-drops under the rising sun which slowly lifted the veil of mist
hanging over it, surpassed in beauty anything I have seen on this
continent. Here everything in nature is on a grand scale. All her
works are magnificent to a degree unknown in Europe. A trip to these
regions will pay the migratory Englishman in search of novelty to his
heart's content, and I will bear the blame if he is not well pleased
with his journey. California alone should satisfy a traveller of
moderate desires. Here he will find combined the beauty and loveliness
of English landscape with the bolder and grander features of the scenery
of the Western continent--a combination, perhaps, unequalled in any
other country. On this, the northern coast, the bold and the
picturesque predominate over the tamer park-like scenery of the interior
valleys, which so nearly resemble the `fine old places' of England."
Another route, which it is proposed to open on the other side of the
country, from Minnesota to the Fraser River gold mines, would appear to
be very feasible. From Saint Anthony the Mississippi is navigable for
large steamers as far as the Sauk Rapids. Thence to Breckenridge, at
the head of the navigation of the Red River of the North, is a distance
of 125 miles. This part of the journey must be made overland; but
already this district is being fast occupied by settlers, and a good
road may easily be constructed. At Breckenridge a settlement has also
been established. Here commences the fertile valley of the Red River,
and from this point, as appears from Captain Pope's survey, the river,
which runs due north, is navigable for steamers all the way to its
mouth, at the southern extremity of Lake Winnepeg. It begins with four
feet of water, and gradually deepens to fifteen feet Lake Winnepeg,
which is long, narrow, and deep, receives near its northern end the
Saskatchewan, flowing from the west, and having its sources in the Rocky
Mountains. The river, and the country on its banks, have recently
attracted attention as well fitted for colonisation. Taking the climate
of the eastern portion of the continent, and of the region round
Hudson's Bay, as a standard, it was long supposed that all the interior
of North America, beyond the 48th or 49th degree of north latitude, was
too cold to produce grain crops; and unfit, therefore, for the
habitation of civilised men. Recent investigations, however, have fully
established the curious and very important fact, that west of the
western end of Lake Superior, at about the 100th degree of west
longitude, a remarkable change begins to take place in the climate; to
such an extent, that as we proceed westward the limit of vegetable
growth, and of the production of grain, is extended far to the north, so
as to include the whole valley of the Saskatchewan, which is represented
as in other respects well fitted for settlement. The Saskatchewan is a
river larger and longer than the Red River of the North; and, according
to Governor Simpson, of the Hudson's Bay Company's Service, in his notes
on its exploration, it is navigable by its northern branch, with only
one rapid to obstruct navigation, for seven hundred miles in a direct
line to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. How serious an obstruction
this may be does not clearly appear. It can hardly be a perpendicular
fall, since, according to Governor Simpson, canoes and flat-boats pass
over it in safety. From the head of navigation it is only about two
hundred miles across the Rocky Mountains, of which the elevation here is
much less than in Oregon and California, to the Thompson and Fraser
Rivers.
The distance from Breckenridge to the mouth of the Red River is
estimated at 450 miles. Thence through lake Winnepeg to the mouth of
Saskatchewan is 200 miles. Allowing for windings, the navigation by
that river may be set down at 1000 miles. Add 125 miles of land
carriage at one end of the route, and 200 at the other, making in the
whole a distance of about 2000 miles, from the starting point on the
Mississippi.
So fully impressed are some enterprising people of Minnesota with the
practicability and advantage of this route, that measures have been
already taken for building a steamer at Breckenridge, designed to
navigate the waters of the Red River, Lake Winnepeg, and Saskatchewan,
and to be ready for that purpose by the opening of next spring.
Meantime as the greater part of the route is within the territories of
the Hudson's Bay Company, steps have been taken to open a communication
with the Governor of that Company, and with other persons likely to
assist in putting a line of steamers on these waters.
At present various measures are being taken by the Canadians to shorten
this last route, and apparently with much success. They are making
arrangements for passing around the headwaters of Lake Superior, and
thus saving the detour in Minnesota. In a very short time it is said
that an easy and inexpensive means of communication will be formed
between Canada and the gold-fields; but, for the present, the Panama
route is _decidedly_ the preferable one for British emigrants.