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along the International boundary line, via Lillooet and Cariboo clear up to Cassiar and the Yukon.

The former place is at present the largest producer from its smelting ores, but profitable free milling operations are carried on in the West Kootenay, at the "Poorman," near Nelson, and at the "Cariboo" mine at Camp McKinney.

The development is not confined to the main shore, but Vancouver Island is producing gold and the Victorians are very hopeful.

Dredging the river beds for concentrated gold is a very attractive "proposition," but owing to large boulders and rapid current it has not been successful on the Fraser or the Quesnelle. Large schemes in this direction are still being undertaken, and the lessons to be derived from the successful New Zealand operations may be profited by and lead to paying dredging work in British Columbia.

Silver mining has been very profitable in some instances, especially in the

output of the United States, which for 1895 was $38,682,347,-more than the whole combined metal and mineral production of the Dominion of Canada! The only mercury mine under the British flag is being operated at Savonas, on the Shushwap Lakes.

Lead is too abundant to be considered, and more or less of almost every mineral is found in the immense stretch of mountain ranges traversing British Columbia from the American boundary to the Arctic.

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Slocan. A perman- BULL PINE TREES IN THE BUNCH GRASS COUNTRY OF THE OKANAGAN, B.C.

ent industry in this

direction may confidently be expected, both from silver-lead ore and from silver-copper ore. Smelters have already been built, one of which has been running on the former class of ores at Pilot Bay, and another on the latter class at Nelson. There is a third smelter operating in the Province at Trail, on the copper-gold ores of the Rossland district.

Copper seems to be as abundant in British Columbia as in the adjacent State to the south (Montana). This State produces nearly half the copper

Regarding the possibilities of the future, the United States produced metallic and non-metallic substances in 1895 of a value of $622,230,723. Amongst these pig iron, chiefly the product of the east, was $105,198,550, the ore coming from ranges that run in some instances into Ontario. The chief output of silver, $72,051,000; gold, $46,610,000; mercury, $1,337,131, was in the west, and about two-thirds the production of copper, above mentioned, would also be from the continuation of those ranges, which

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ada (for 1895) gives the total production of metallic and nonmetallic substances at $22,500,000.

It does not require another statement to carry conviction to any ordinary minded person that a disparity exists which is by no manner of means justifiable that there must be latent possibilities for mineral development from the Atlantic to the Pacific of which advantage has not been taken. Whether from a lack of patriotic policy on the part of the government of the country, as in the case of steel rails, or a lack of interest and faith in

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THE LIGHT-COLOURED ROCK IS THE GOLD-BEARING VEIN.

the possibilities of their country on the part of a land speculating and money lending people, the minerals of the Dominion of Canada have been neglected by Canadians. Up to the present the foreign investor has, as a rule, been deceived or disappointed by taking undeveloped prospects for mines. We should take a little of the risk ourselves, try the prospects, spend some money on them to see if they will justify their development into mines, and

when they are proved to such an extent that their worth is undoubted, and that it is only a question of capital to open up a mine and erect a plant, their sale will be justified, and disappointment and "black eyes" to the whole mineral prospects will not be so numerous as in the past. Therefore, Canadian development Companies, acting under the most conservative and experienced advice, can do good work for the future of the mineral production of Canada. Wm. Hamilton Merritt.

OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN.

EACH us, dear Lord, all that it means to say

TEACH

The words "Our Father" when we kneel to pray;

Our Father Thou, then every child of Thine

Is, by the bond, a brother, Lord, of mine.

Teach us, dear Lord, all that it means to say

"Thy will be done" when we do kneel and pray ; Thy will be done, then our proud wills must break And lose themselves in love for Thy dear sake.

Teach us, dear Lord, all that it means to say
"Give us our daily bread" when we do pray ;
We will be trustful when we understand,
Nor grasp the loaf from out a brother's hand.

Teach us, dear Lord, all that it means to say,
Forgive our trespasses " when we do pray;
Forgive the word was coined in Paradise,
And this world's hope and trust within it lies.

Teach us, dear Lord, all that it means to say
This prayer of Thine when kneeling day by day;
For when we know—and live-its meaning deep,
No hearts will need to break, no eyes to weep.

Jean Blewett.

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EVERY

SIR WILLIAM C. VAN HORNE, K.C.M.G.

A Character Sketch.

VERY land has its national honour roll, though differing widely as to

who compose it. One country gives preference to heroes of the battlefield, or of the sea; another emphasizes the names of its empire makers. Italy remembers her men of artistic and literary genius in monument and statue, in Pantheon and Santa Croce; France, her illustrious men of letters; Germany, her rulers and liberators. Great Britain has crowded Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's with memorials to her kings and queens, soldiers and sailors, nobles and statesmen, artists and poets.

The indus

With the advent of a more democratic age, especially in western lands, these rolls of honour contain chiefly the names of leaders of commercial and industrial enterprises. trial revolution of the century has evolved leaders who are justly honoured for what they have accomplished. The names of Bessemer and Faraday have been inscribed on the roll of the generation to which we belong. The name of George Stephenson has not yet been erased from memory. He who first navigated the Atlantic in a steam-propelled craft, he who conceived the Suez Canal, he who tunneled the St. Gotthard, or built the Bell Rock lighthouse, or thought out the Forth Bridge, he who harnessed the mysterious forces of electricity, he who discovered an anæsthetic for pain-these are among the honoured ones of this age.

of honour. Some men's achievements mock them, as did those of Troilus, but a man who has stood by at the birth of a great trans-continental railway, who saw the first sod broken and who witnessed the last rail spiked, who passed through the years of storm and stress that intervened between these two events, with all they recall of tests of faith, temporary reverses and hills of difficulty, and who to-day travel over 3,500 miles of railway under his controlling hand—such a man is stamped as great by his work, and such an accomplishment calls for recognition from all who admire definite and great results.

can

Sir William Van Horne has made his home in Montreal, where the head offices of his Company are located, and the occupant of the substantial stone mansion on Sherbrooke Street, surrounded by the art treasures and the home comforts that good fortune and good taste have enabled him to accumulate, must experience a well-earned pleasure in living over again the varied events of his fifty-three years of life, reaching back to his boyhood days in Illinois, when he occupied his first responsible position in life as a chainbearer during the survey of the Central Pacific Railway. He no doubt remembers, too, his occasional visits to town -always an event in a lad's life-Joliet being the nearest centre of population, where he made many friendships, which still last. As a youth he mastered telegraphy, a knowledge of which he has always advised railway juniors to acquire. Then followed his rapid series of promotions, until the little Illinois lad became a Canadian railway magnate, with a comfortable salary and a title from the Queen. Sir William's Dutch ancestors played a not unimportant part in laying the foundations of Manhattan, and from them he

Canada has her Roll of Honour, with not a few worthy names thereon -men who have made an impress on the country by their achievements; and if it is not essential, as it should not be, to await a man's death in order to award him his honestly won place in the esteem and regard of his fellowmen, then the name of Sir William C. Van Horne should be counted worthy

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