The New International Encyclopædia/British Columbia
BRITISH COLUM′BIA. One of the largest of the provinces of the Dominion of Canada (Map: Canada. E 5). situated on the Pacific Coast, between the United States and the Yukon District, latitudes 49° and 60° N. The southern extension of Alaska forms a narrow strip between its northern half and the sea, as far south as Portland Canal, below which the coast is bordered by the Queen Charlotte and other lesser islands and by the great island of Vancouver (q.v.). The eastern boundary of the province follows the watershed ridge of the Rocky Mountains to Athabasca Pass, and then conforms with the 120th meridian of west longitude to its intersection with the 60th parallel, southwest of the outlet of Great Slave Lake. This gives an area of about 340,000 square miles.
Topography. Except the remote, almost uninhabitable northeastern corner, British Columbia is, as it is popularly called, a 'sea of mountains.' Their general trend is northwest-southeast, in conformity with that of the American Cordillera, of which they are a part: but historically they have much local individuality. Orographically, the mountains fall into three systems—the Rocky Mountains, in the eastern half of the province, the Cascade Range in the western half, and the Coast Range, whose summits constitute the large islands. But one must be more minute, in order to understand the geography of this region. The Rocky Mountains, along the eastern border of the province, continue northwestward until they fade out in the hills about Dease Lake. In the southern part of the province. where they are crossed by the transcontinental railroad, they, with their subordinate ranges, are about 150 miles wide, and consist of lines and groups of upturned Carboniferous and Devonian strata, presenting vast cliff faces toward the northeast, and thinly wooded slopes toward the southeast. They are broken by cross-valleys, giving exit to streams to flow cast as the sources of the North and South Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and Peace rivers, and to the west as tributaries of the Fraser and the Columbia; geologically they may be regarded as the equivalent of the foothills that border the front of the Rocky Mountains farther south. These mountains rise from an area of depression, the general level of the plains about their base being not above 3000 feet, and consequently their heights above the sea do not often exceed 10,000 feet (Leroy, Goodsir, and Victoria, and Dawson and Sir Donald among the Selkirks. are among the loftiest summits in the south, 10,000 to 11,000 feet in height);but farther north, near latitude 53°, a much greater elevation is attained, a group of peaks lying near the headwaters of the Saskatchewan rising seemingly to 13,000 and 14,000 feet, Mounts Brown and Hooker are near this region, but their elevations are much less than they were at one time supposed to be. The passes are correspondingly low, those used by the railroads or for wagon-roads varying from 0200 to 5500 feet at their summits. West of these mountains, and divided from them by a line of distant though narrow gorges, occupied by Kootenay Lake and by the bead-streams, successively northward, of the Columbia. Canoe, and Fraser rivers, there rises the Columbia or Gold Range, which is composed of Archtean rocks and represents the geological backbone of the cordillera. A part of it, or closely bound in with it, south of the 52d parallel is the magnificent glacier-crowned Selkirk Range, around which the Columbia makes its way in a loop of continuous canons, and west of which it flows southward, through the long and narrow Arrowhead Lake, into the United States. The small and comparatively open region at the southern end of the Selkirk Range, in the central depression of which lie Kootenay Lake and the tortuous Kootenay River, is 'the Kootenay country,' which during the last decade of the Nineteenth Century became prominent and populous as a mining and stock-raising region. West of the Columbia gorges lies the comparatively low, rounded, and forested Gold Range proper, which is traceable north to the 54th parallel, where the head-stream of the Fraser forms a loop about its terminus, just as the Columbia does about the Selkirks. It is in the Selkirks that is situated the group of great glaciers, so easily acwssible and constantly visited by tourists from the Canadian Pacific Railway (which crosses the range through Roger's Pass, 4300 feet), among a cluster of summits—Sir Donald, Mount Bonney, etc.—exceeding 10,000 feet in altitude and perpetually covered with snow and ice. The Gold Range takes its name from being the place where profitable gold-mines were first found in the interior.
West of this system there lies a plateau valley about 100 miles broad, continued from the United States northward 700 miles through British Columbia. Its northern portion holds the Parsnip and Kindlay rivers, which, meeting on the 56th parallel. form the Peace River and break through to the east. South of a dividing east and west line of hills, on the 54th parallel, the waters gather in the large Fraser and Thompson rivers. These flow south through deep cuts in the Carboniferous and later surface rocks, and having united, cut their way to the Pacific, near the international boundary, in a series of remarkable canons, followed by the transcontinental railway. This interior plateau. whose valleys have a general level of about 1200 feet above the sea. is deeply cut by its many streams, diversified by hills, and contains many lakes confined in elongated valleys, of which the largest are Babine and Stewart lakes, in the far north; Quesnel Lake, in the centre; the Sicamous lakes, near the Canadian Pacific Railway; and the long and important Okanagan Lake, in the south.
The mountains which lie between this interior valley region and the Pacific Coast are locally known as the Cascades, because they seem continuous with the Cascade Mountains of Oregon; but they are an immense local uplift, some 100 miles in width, reaching from the Fraser Delta, which river in reality passes around their southern end rather than across the uplift, northward to the break in the coast marked by Chatham Sound, the Skeena River, Portland Canal, etc. They consist of a huge mass of Paleozoic rocks, which have been so compressed, broken, and heated by intrusions of granite and other vicissitudes as to be largely converted into crystalline rocks and greatly displaced;so much so as to be turned completely upside down over large areas. Hence the scenery is extremely rugged and picturesque. The parallel range on Vancouver Island, though similarly ancient, seems to have been less violently disturbed in its elevation. Little exploration has been made of these ranges, whose crowded peaks rise 8000 to 10,000 feet above the sea. and are loaded with snowfields and glaciers. Their seaward side is deeply indented by long, narrow inlets (fine harbors), which make the coast closely resemble that of Norway. Some of these inlets penetrate the mountains for many miles as Howe Sound, Jervis and Bruce inlets, the latter connected with the large interior Chilco Lake. Dean Inlet and Douglas Channel wind inland for more than 50 miles each, and the Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound are only similar arms of the sea, meeting behind Vancouver Island in the narrow water passage of Johnstone Strait.
Climate and Soil. The climate of British Columbia exhibits various constant phases, due to topography and situation. It is, as a whole, far warmer than that of the eastern coast at a similar latitude, as will be recognized by reminding the reader that between 49° and 60° on the Atlantic Coast lie the ice-bound and desolate regions of Labrador. This warmth is due to the fact that the prevailing winds come steadily from the west, and reach the land warm with their passage over the vast breadth of the Pacific, whose waters on this coast have a temperature of 52° F. (about the same as on the Irish Coast), or 20 degrees warmer than those of the northwestern Atlantic. These warm winds are loaded with moisture. They are chilled by their first contact with the high coast mountains, causing rapid condensation of the moisture and a heavy rainfall, accompanied by liberation of heat. This is more marked at the northern end of the province than in the south. The consequence is an equable rainy climate on the coast, very similar to that of the south of England, the rainfall usually amounting to about 86 inches at Vancouver. It is least copious in the early autumn. At Victoria the mean temperature for January is 37.2° F.; for July, 59.6° F.; and flowers bloom all the year round in the gardens. At Agassiz, in the lower Fraser Valley, the figures are 33° and 63.9°. Relieved of much of their moisture and warmth, lifted up to 8000 or 9000 feet, and cooled and rarefied by crossing the coast mountains, the west winds are kept at that height by the buoying currents of warm air rising from the heated valleys, and blow across the great interior plain without interruption: hence over this wide area rain is very infrequent in summer, the snowfall is light in winter, and there results the conditions of drouth, treelessness, and extremes of beat and cold, which are characteristic of interior plains everywhere. At Kamloops, about 200 miles from the coast, the annual rainfall hardly amounts to 12 inches, and the thermometer varies from 100° above zero in midsummer to 40° or 50° below zero in midwinter. Agriculture depends upon irrigation, the tablelands are covered with bunch-grass, and the climate is like that of Idaho or Alberta. East of these interior valleys, however, stand the Rocky Mountains, whose summits catch the wind and collect from it almost all its remaining moisture. Hence the Gold Range and Selkirks are crossed in all their lower slopes with heavy forests, their crests bear hundreds of glaciers, and the snowfall in the passes amounts to 30 feet in depth; and hence, also, the powerful rivers they sustain. Little moisture is left for the easternmost parts of the Rockies, whose climate is comparatively dry, very cold and clear in winter, and whose forests are thin. Similar conditions in the north, with the favorable addition of the Chinook, make the Peace River Valley not only pleasantly habitable, but clothed with a vegetation much like that of Ontario, and possessed of climatic and agricultural possibilities similar to those of Scotland.
Soils vary, of course, over so wide and diversified a region, but fertility is general. The rich delta of the Fraser is a perennial garden, and vegetables and fruits there reach an extraordinary perfection. In the interior, light, dry soils prevail, which prove highly productive under irrigation, and seem particularly rich in the Okanagan and Nicola districts. Arable regions are limited, however, and form a small part of the total area of the province. On the interior plateau the rainfall is insufficient for the growth of crops, and the rivers so generally flow through deep, narrow channels that the irrigable area is very limited. On the coast and elsewhere, where the rainfall is greater, the forest growth is usually so heavy that it requires great expense to clear and maintain land for cultivation. Wheat grows luxuriantly, but the kernel is too soft for milling purposes. Nevertheless, the southern portion of the province contains scattered districts admirably adapted to ranching and agricultural pursuits, and progress has been made in the delta and lower valley of the Fraser River, and in the Okanagan district. In the latter region, especially, fruit-farming and hop-raising are attaining much importance, and the southern plateau and part of the interior are remarkably well adapted to the cultivation of these products, where labor necessary for picking the hops is supplied by the Indian population. In the late nineties the fruit-growing industry of the Fraser Valley suffered much from the prevalence of fungous diseases affecting trees and fruit. Considerable market-gardening is engaged in by the Chinese in the neighborhood of the larger towns. The pastures of British Columbia are proving valuable. On the Cariboo road (between Soda Creek and Quesnel), there is a plain 150 miles long, and 60 or SO wide; and between the Thompson and Fraser rivers there is an immense tract of grazing land. The creamery system has been introduced, and in 1900 there were eight creameries in the province.
Flora and Forests. The flora is distinctly of a northern type, and the forest resources of the province rank next to the mineral wealth in importance. British Columbia probably contains the largest unbroken area of merchantable forests on the continent. The western slopes of the mountains, particularly the coast ranges, are covered with a dense growth of forest trees which attain remarkable proportions. On the eastern slopes the forests are not so dense nor the trees so large, while much of the interior plateau is well-nigh treeless. The lower Fraser country especially is densely wooded. Smaller streams and the numerous inlets and arms of the sea give access to extensive forests all along the coast. Owing to the very limited Pacific Coast market, the forest resources have as yet been but little drawn upon. There are about eighty sawmills in the province, and the annual cut runs from 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 feet. The most abundant and valuable species is the Douglas fir. On the coast it sometimes attains a height of 350 feet. The white cedar is also widely distributed, and is extensively used for shingles and for finishing purposes. The yellow cedar, confined largely to the more northern regions, is also of great commercial value. The dense forests of spruce and hemlock north of Knight's Inlet afford an almost inexhaustible supply of pulp-wood of a superior quality. The precipitous coast streams supply all the power necessary for carrying on the pulp-manufacturing industry, and arrangements have been made looking to its establishment. Other important varieties are Menzie's fir, yellow pine, arbor vitæ, yew, oak, white maple, aspen, cherry, willow, and cottonwood.
Fauna. The animals of British Columbia are those of the Northwest generally. Wapiti remain only along the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains, but moose, black-tailed deer, and caribou are abundant throughout the valleys everywhere, while the bighorn abounds upon the Alpine pastures of the Rocky Mountains and the white goat frequents the summits of the coast ranges. Bears, wolves, and wild-cats are known everywhere, but the puma is unknown except along the southern border, and is rare there. Fur-bearing animals are numerous, and in the northern part a great trade in the collection of peltries from Indian trappers is still carried on. This province presents more attractions to the sportsman and hunter of big game than almost any other part of North America; and excellent game-fish abound in all its streams.
Geology. The geology of British Columbia has been studied only in a very general way, and large areas arc still unexplored. In the Rocky Mountains, Archæan rocks are represented by granites, gneisses, and schists, which underlie immense thicknesses of Paleozoic strata ranging from the Silurian to the Carboniferous. Jura-Trias beds are found overlying the Paleozoic in places. At the close of the Triassic, the first upheaval took place in the Gold Range, and in the highlands of Vancouver and Queen Charlotte islands. Cretaceous rocks are found along the coast, and probably also along the u|)per course of the Skeena and the Lower Nechaes rivers. They hold valuable coal deposits where they outcrop on Queen Charlotte and Vancouver islands. Tertiary strata occur in the southwestern coast region. In the interior of British Columbia between the Rocky and Coast ranges there are areas occupied by limestones, quartzites, serpentines, and igneous rocks, the age of which has not been determined. A large part of British Columbia is mineralized, and gold, silver, lead, and copper ores are wrought in numerous localities. Rossland, Kaslo, Yale, Nelson, Slocum, Trail, and New Denver are important centres of mining industry. Auriferous gravels, resulting from the erosive action of glaciers and rivers, are of widespread occurrence and yield considerable quantities of gold.
Mining. Mining is the principal industry of the province. Placer mining for gold was carried on extensively as early as 1857 along the Fraser River and its tributaries. In 1803 the output reached $3,000,000, a large part being obtained from the northern interior, about the headwaters of the Fraser, called the Caribou District. The output then diminished, reaching the minimum of $380,000 in 1893. The introduction of hydraulic methods and machinery produced a revival of industry and so increased the output that in 1900 the product exceeded $4,700,000 in value, nearly three-fourths of which was obtained from the lode mines. Silver and lead are obtained from the same ores in the southeastern part of the province, and they have consequently bad a parallel development. The silver output increased in value from $73,000 in 1890 to $2,400,000 in 1900, while the value of the lead for the latter year slightly exceeded that amount. Copper-mining is one of the most recent in development, but one of the most promising in its outlook. This, too, is obtained from the southeastern portion of the province, where extensive operations began about 1890 in the Kootenay district. From $111,000 in 1896, the value of the output increased to $1,600,000 in 1900. The output of coal (bituminous) doubled in value during the decade, being $4,300,000 in 1900. This, however, is mined almost exclusively from Vancouver Island. Vast resources of coal exist in the eastern foothills of the Rockies.
Fisheries. The position of British Columbia upon the Pacific coast, giving her the advantage of the enormous quantities of fish which frequent the coast waters and streams, is another important source of wealth to the province. British Columbia is second to Nova Scotia alone in the importance of her fisheries. The exports of fish exceeded $1,000,000 for the first time in 1882, and exceeded $2,000,000 in 1800, while in the nineties the exports averaged about $3,500,000. The total value of the product in 1899 was $5,200,000, of which $4,000,000 represented the salmon-fisheries. The salmon-fisheries are most extensive along the Fraser River. On this river only nets are allowed, which, together with other stringent regulations, has prevented the depletion of the supply. Seal-fishing is not so important as in former years. The catch increased from 9000 in 1883 to 95,000 in 1894. when it declined to 35.500 in 1900. The greater portion of the catch was from pelagic fishing. Herring, sturgeon, halibut, oolachan, and cod are among the fishery products.
Transportation and Commerce. The transportation facilities of British Columbia have not been fully developed. Communication with the East is, however, established by means of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which crosses the province, and is connected at two points with the railroad system of the United States. The same company has a branch route from the East into the Kootenay region, where the short lines and steamboat routes connect the various mining towns. The rivers, as a rule, are too precipitous to admit of navigation. Steamers ascend the Fraser as far as Fort Yale, and others run upon its upper waters, and on Lake Okanagan, etc.; but the interior is dependent for transportation mainly upon stage lines. Telegraph and mail routes penetrate to all civilized parts of the province. Its position on the Pacific gives British Columbia an advantage with respect to the Oriental and Pacific Coast trade, but there is some uncertainty as to what the future of this will be, particularly in view of the building of an Isthmian canal. The province imported $10.300.000 worth of goods for home consumption in 1900, the value having doubled during the decade. The total exports amounted to $17,800,000, or three times that of a decade earlier. Coal and fish are the two most important exports.
Government. British Columbia is represented in the Canadian Parliament by three Senators and six members of the House of Commons. The local government is in the hands of a local Legislature of thirty-eight elected members, a Lieutenant-Governor, appointed by the Dominion Government, and an Executive Council. The chief towns are Victoria and Vancouver. At the close of the century the receipts amounted to $1,544,000—the Dominion subsidy, general mining receipts, and free miners' certificates being the most important sources. The expenditure for the same year was $1,831,000, the construction of public works, education, and interest on public debt being the largest items.
Banks. The clearing-house transactions of Victoria in 1900 amounted to $32,000,000, and those of Vancouver to $40,100,000. The province contains post-office and Government savings-banks.
Education. There are free public schools, and, differing from most Canadian provinces, they are wholly under secular control. The system comprehends common, graded, and high schools, with a total teaching force of nearly 500. There are also a number of private schools. The city school districts are divided into three classes, and to these the Provincial Government gives a per capita allowance of $13, $15, and $20, respectively, according to the average actual daily attendance of public-school pupils, and all additional expenses are locally provided for. The total cost of education to the province in 1899-1900 was $307,479, and to the cities, $81,886. Schools in the rural districts are under the management of a board of three trustees, while in the city districts the trustees number three, five, or seven, according to the class into which the city falls. The wives of qualified freeholders or leaseholders are eligible for the position of school trustees.
Religion. The leading religious denominations, according to the census of 1901 are: Church of England. 40,072; Catholics, 34,227; Presbyterians, 34,170; Methodists, 25,021; Baptists, 6506; and Lutherans, 5332. Among the Chinese and Japanese there were 10,027 Buddhists and 4804 Confucians.
Population. In 1901 the population numbered 178.057, or nearly double that of 1891. the largest rate of increase recorded in any of the Canadian provinces during that decade. In the five-year period, 1890-1900, there were 27,273 immigrants into the province, or nearly twice those of any preceding period of equal length. Only a little over half, or 99,012, were born in Canada, of whom 59,589 were born within the province. Of the other countries represented, the most important are: the British Islands, 30,629; the United States, 17,164; China, 14,570; and Japan, 3515. A sentiment has developed against the Asiatics, and they do not come in as large numbers as formerly. As is common in newly settled countries, the males (114,081) far outnumber the females.
Victoria, the capital, containing a population of 20.800, is situated in the southern extremity of Vancouver Island. Vancouver, the largest city, population 26,200, is situated on the coast of the mainland. Of the other cities, the largest are Nanaimo, 6130; Nelson, 5273; Rossland, 6159; and New Westminster, 6499.
Indians. The census of 1901 gives the Indian population as follows: West Coast Agency, 2750; Fraser River Agency, 3380; Babine and Upper Skeena Agency. 2783; Williams Lake Agency, 1899; Northwest Coast Agency, 3994; Kootenay Agency, 562; Cowichan Agency, 2029; Kamloops Agency, 2880; Okanagan Agency, 651; Kwawkewlth Agencv, 1639; bands not counted, about 2500; making a total of 25,068. While the Indians are decreasing in numbers, the amount of the decrease is not known. owing to the uncertain accuracy of earlier estimates. The influences of civilization, however, are thought to have arrested the decay, and there is even an increase in some of the tribes. The status of the coast tribes of British Columbia presents a number of contrasts with that of the Indians of the interior plains and regions farther east. Food is more abundant, the climate is milder, and the Indian is more industrious, and consequently famines are almost unknown, although no annuities or financial assistance is given them. Many of them now own comfortable houses. Land is set aside for the Indians, which they are not allowed to sell without permission from the Government. They are not obliged, however, to remain on these reservations, but may acquire property elsewhere, and under certain conditions are admitted to the rights of franchise. Acts passed by the Indian chiefs and councilors may be enforced if approved by the Government. Their interests are protected by the Indian Department of the Dominion Government. The census returns 6769 as Protestant and 12,628 as Catholic. The Indian schools are conducted on denominational lines.
History. Captain Cook, the famous explorer, visited a part of the coast of British Columbia in 1778, and ten years later an English settlement was established at Nootka by Captain John Meares, formerly a lieutenant in the British Navy, though it was almost immediately broken up by the Spanish, who claimed the whole coast a-j far as the Russian possessions, on the basis of prior discovery. For some time war appeared imminent between England and Spain, but in 1793 the difficulties between the two Courts were settled by arbitration, England receiving all the northwest coast from Nootka Sound to the Russian trading posts in Alaska. Meanwhile, in 1792, Captain George Vancouver (q.v.) circumnavigated the island which bears his name, besides exploring a part of the coast of the mainland; and in 1793 Alexander Mackenzie (q.v.), a partner in the Northwest Company, reached the coast of the present British Columbia after an arduous overland journey from Lake Athabasca. For many years the territory now included within the province formed part of 'New Caledonia,' throughout which the Northwest Company and later the Hudson's Bay Company (with which the Northwest Company was amalgamated in 1821) carried on trading operations; and in 1843 a fort was built by the Hudson's Bay Company on the site of the present city of Victoria. A considerable portion of the territory at this time was claimed by the United States, on the strength of the Louisiana Purchase, and feeling ran high, giving origin to the campaign cry of '54-40 or fight.' But under Polk the matter was arbitrated.
In 1849 Vancouver Island was erected into a Crown colony, though it remained under the virtual control of the company. Sir James Douglas occupying both the position of Governor and that of the company's chief factor. In 1856 an assembly was called, though the island was still only sparsely settled. Gold was discovered in the bed of the Fraser River in 1856, and, settlers having arrived in some numbers, New Caledonia was also organized as a Crown colony in 1858 under the name of British Columbia, of which also Douglas acted as Governor for several years. In 1863 an act was passed by the British Parliament establishing as the boundaries of the colony the Pacific Ocean and the frontier of the Russian territory in North America to the west, the sixtieth parallel of north latitude to the north, the one hundred and twentieth meridian of longitude and the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the east, and the northern boundary of the United States to the south. The two colonies were united under the name British Columbia in 1866. and five years later the new province thus created was admitted into the confederation of Canada, the Dominion Government pledging itself to pay a considerable subsidy to the province and to secure the construction within ten years of a railroad connecting the seaboard of the province with the main railway system of Canada. The road, however, was not completed until 1885. Soon after its admission into the Dominion, British Columbia secured a constitution under which a government was organized similar to those of the other provinces. The southern, southwestern, and northwestern (Klondike) boundaries of British Columbia have at various times formed the subject of considerable controversy between the United States and Great Britain. See Oregon; and San Juan Boundary Dispute.
Bibliography. British Association for the Advancement of Science, Handbook of Canada (London, 1897); Gosnell, Year Book of British Columbia (London, 1808); Mill, New Lands (London. 1900); Begg. History of British Columbia (Toronto, 1894): Baillie-Groliman, Fifteen Years in the Hunting Grounds of Western America and British Columbia (London. 1900); Smith, "The Archæology of British Columbia." in American Antiquarian, Vols. XXIII., XXV. (Chicago. 1901); Green, Among the Selkirk Glaciers (London. 1890); Ingersoll, The Canadian Guide-Book: Part II., Western Canada (New York, 1893); Dawson (and others), Reports Geological Survey of Canada, and Official Publications of the Province of British Columbia.
