The timber of British Columbia is, of its kind, unequalled. The Douglas pine, with its straight uniform trunk, exceedingly tough and flexible, furnishes the finest masts and spars for the largest vessels. These trees often attain a height of upwards of 300 feet, with a diameter of ten feet. The white pine and the gigantic cypress, the latter exceeding even the Douglas pine in size, grow together with it in vast forests, yielding an almost inexhaustible supply. But perhaps the most striking feature in the resources of British Columbia and Vancouver Island is the extraordinary number and variety of the fish, which frequent the shores and swarm in all the rivers. In the spring two kinds of salmon ascend the Fraser, millions of “hoolicans” crowd into its mouth, and shoals of herrings enter every inlet. The hoolican is like a sprat, but a little larger, and is a very delicious fish, rich in oil. Flocks of gulls hovering over the shoals announce the arrival of these fish; and their extraordinary numbers may be imagined from the way in which the Indians take them. The river is literally alive with fish, and the native fisherman carries a long piece of wood, armed with sharp-pointed wires on each side, like the teeth of a rake. This he sweeps through the water as he sits in his canoe, after the fashion of a paddle, and at each stroke brings up a row of hoolicans impaled upon the spikes. Three fresh species of salmon continue to ascend the river in succession during the summer and autumn, and in the winter a fifth variety makes its appearance in the harbours and inlets along the coast. We saw some of fifteen to twenty pounds each caught in the harbour of St. Juan in the month of December. Salmon of some kind is thus in season all the year round. Trout abound in the mountain streams and lakes, and the sturgeon frequents the deeps of the Fraser. In Burrard’s Inlet oysters are found in great abundance; and, in fact, everything good in the way of fish seems to be collected in this, so far, highly favoured country.