Colonial Despatches

I have the honor to forward the "Blue Book" of the Mainland portion of the Colony for the year 1866.

2. I passed nearly the whole of that periodin in England. The Colonial Secretary is absent on leave, and so I have called on Mr Charles Good, the Assistant Colonial Secretary, for a report on the volume I now transmit.

2. [sic] I had intended to report on the "Blue Book" myself, but I found the summer months so fully occupied that I was glad to devolve on others all that could be entrusted to them. I had totake take over the affairs of Vancouver Island at a time of particular difficulty and to make myself acquainted with this addition to British Columbia. Then political changes rendered my presence in the far North desirable. I had but just returned at the end of June from the then nightless regions of our extreme boundary and the magnificent scenery of Queen Charlotte's Island, when I received a telegramfrom from Cariboo stating that the Law was utterly powerless at the mines against some five or six hundred men banded together. I proceeded to the spot and have already reported that tranquillity has been restored, but the having to travel about 3,000 miles during the summer months in addition to the usual work, has occupied a considerable portion of my time.

4. I will only now state that I found, on my way to the mines, the farms in the Upper Country greatly improved. Barkerville, the central town of Cariboo, has acquired a look of solidity and permanency which it had not before.

5. The Roads are in excellent order and we drove six in hand from Yale, the head of navigation on the Fraser into Cariboo, about400 400 miles. The journey is full of variety. From Yale to Lytton, for 56 miles, one passes through the fearful gorges, or "canons," of the Fraser, where it rushes between the perpendicular sides of the Cascade Mountains. The Road is sometimes cut through the solid and over arching rock, at others, built up by scaffolding against a mountain side, hanging some 600 or 700 feet sheer overthe the River. From Lytton the road follows the less terrible "canons" of the Thompson for some 35 miles and then rises to the high country of vast prairies, plains and cornfields. The road side Inns, mostly kept by Frenchmen and Italians furnish comfortable accommodation and excellent food. The prices are all greatly reduced and I had no longer, as on my first visit to the mines,to to pay thirty pounds (£30) a night for the feed of my horses. We posted through in excellent time. The leaders were generally in a hard gallop. The second pair or "swing horses" were left pretty nearly to choose their own paces, but the wheelers were steady and the break was cleverly worked by the driver with his right foot.