Mining, generally.^*

A large proportion of the population is engaged in mining for gold, coal, and silver. Iron, copper, lead, and almost every other mineral, including rare minerals, such as molybdenum, &c., are found; also lime, marble, freestone, slate, &c. The whole country, in fact, is full of minerals and building material of a high character. Gold-mining is, at present, the largest wage-affording industry; coal comes next; silver promises well. The best known gold and silver fields are on the mainland; the largest known good coalfield is in Vancouver island.

The laws relating to mining generally are designed to be liberal and encouraging.

The country is difficult to traverse, and the search for minerals has been conducted hitherto by extraordinary efforts on the part of individuals and small companies. The Dominion Geological Survey, now in progress, will furnish information that will enable "prospectors" to search with better judgment and happier results. Everyone believes that fresh discoveries will follow the beginning of the works of construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which will run through the province.

The intending settler will know how to estimate the importance of settling in a mineral country. The interests of all classes are common, and whatever adds to the number of consumers specially benefits the farming settler, whether these settlers are engaged in mining, trading, or any other occupation.

In a great undeveloped mining country, or a country in which extensive railway works are about to be undertaken, the farming interest should always be in advance of actual needs, otherwise any additional demand created by new mines, or by vigorous prosecution of wage-paying work of any sort, could not be met, and, as a consequence, the benefit would go out of the country to help any other country that could supply the demand.