A New Gold Excitement

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Since the days when the grandees of Old Spain looked upon the continent of America as a land of gold, and the love of wealth made them forget their family pride, and the time when Sir Walter Raleigh. risked his life on the broad Atlantic to visit the western Eldoradonot in a steamship or a. modern clipper shipfrom these times to to-day this continent has been snbject to the best kind of yellow jacks, namely, gold fevers. California has been made by one, and no sooner do we see her rising a prosperons State, and able as it were to walk alone, withont the stimulus of gold washing, than a new field is opened up for the restless miner, and gold in plenty is discovered far north on the Pacific Coast. Thousands have left California for the new gold field, which is in the valley of the Frazer river; in the British possessions, flowing from the Rocky Mountains into the Gulf of Georgia. There would seem to be no humbug in the excitement, and the gold discovered has been really astonishing, many miners report having collected almost fabulous quantities of gold. The Hudson Bay Company have the control of this portion of the country, and we are inclined to think that the discovery of gold in their territory, and consequent enormons immigration, will do more to break up this disgraceful monopoly than anc the Reports which the British,House of Commons have been making for the same purpose dnring the last few years. The Indians who inhabit the district belong to the Chinook tribe, and are already familiar with the whites from their intercourse with British andFreneh trappers, and will no doubt prove of valuaWe assistance to the miners. We also see that some English capitalists propose to make a great Pacific Hailroad in connection with the Grand Trunk of Canada, and their surveyors are already in the field planning the line from Lake Superior throngh this same territory to Vanconver's Island in the Pacific Ocean. This will increase the valne of the gold mines, and render the journey there easy. Imagine the Great Eastern to Portland, railroad to Montreal, crossing the Victoria Bridge, from thence by boat and rail to the Pacificonly seven thonsand miles by steam through the finest scenery in the world, and over the greatest engineCl'ing triumphs mankind has ever seen. Truly America and England are great countries, and the people rather go-a-head.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 47This article was published with the title “A New Gold Excitement” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 47 (), p. 373
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican07311858-373c

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