Gold was first discovered on the sand-bars of the Lower Fraser, in the state of the finest dust. The old miners of California traced it up the river, and followed it as it became of coarser and coarser grain 400 miles along the Fraser, and then up the small affluents from Cariboo. Here were found nuggets, and lumps of auriferous quartz. The hunted metal was almost run to earth. But the exciting pursuit is not yet quite over. The veins of auriferous quartz have not, so far, been discovered, although conjecture points to their probable position. Lightning, Antler, Keighley’s, William’s Creek, and many others, all take their rise in a range known as the Bald Mountains, and most of them radiate from one of them, the Snow-Shoe Mountain. Here the matrix is presumed to lie, and although it may have been denuded of its richest portion, carried down as the drift gold of the creeks, fortunes still lie hid in the solid rock; and when the quartz-leads are discovered, British Columbia may emulate California in wealth and stability. The hundreds of mills in that country, crushing thousands of tons of gold and silver quartz per day, have proved that this branch of mining is far more paying and reliable than the uncertain and evanescent surface diggings, which formerly there, as now in Cariboo, furnished all the gold obtained. Several different qualities of gold are found in Cariboo. In William’s Creek alone, two distinct “leads” are found; one where the gold is alloyed with a considerable proportion of silver, the other higher coloured and much purer. All the gold of this creek is battered and water-worn, as if it had been carried some distance from the original bed. At Lowhee, only three miles distant, it is found in larger nuggets, less altered by the action of water, and almost pure. On Lightning Creek the gold is smaller, much more water-worn, but of the first quality.