The Nineteenth Century , No 182, Apr 1892 [‎75v] (155/244)

640
the nineteenth
April
I drove by tlie log cabins of a dozen more of the crofters in this
settlement, and saw their fields of wheat, promising at that time
(August last) to free the owners from the debts which had been in
curred in 1888 and 1889, in consequence of the unseasonable period
of their arrival, and the bad wheat season which followed. I am
thoroughly satisfied, from what I have seen of these crofters, rom
their own admissions, and the additional information o tame rom
old settlers near them, that, with ordinary industry, they are certain
to become prosperous farmers in a few years' time.^ ^
Before leaving the subject of crofter colonisation in the JNort
West I think it well to say a few words with reference to a proposed
settlement of this class in the San Juan Valley, on Vancouver Island.
Upon learning in Victoria that it was intended to carry out such a
scheme, and that the Imperial Government had promised 50,000£.
towards the locating of two hundred crofter families m this valley, I
resolved to pay the place a visit, and see if it was adapted for such a
settlement. Port San Juan is almost opposite Cape Flattery, at the
entrance to the Straits of San Juan de Fuca,and about sixty miles by
sea from Victoria, B .C. The harbour is about a mile and a half wide
at the entrance, and three deep, with an average of six fathoms of
water. The rivers San Juan and Gordon empty themselves into the
bay at opposite extremities. Both are narrow rivers, full of silver
salmon and trout. ' Port San Juan ' consists of about twenty Indian
cabins, whose owners live by the seal fishing in the Behring Seas.
The San Juan Valley is very heavily timbered, except where some
few miles from the village it is flooded by a jamb, caused by an
accumulation of logs. The valley is a Government reservation, and
consists of about twelve thousand acres, and by far the most of this is
composed of mountain, which is too steep and unsuitable, even when
cleared of timber, for tillage purposes—at least, as seen from the
Indian village. The valley would be a Paradise for sportsmen, as
deer, elk, and black-bear are numerous, while there is an abundance
of ducks and geese, which appear to inhabit almost every part of the
North-West. The place would not answer for a crofter settlement. It
would take years before the timber could be lumbered away, and
crofters are not the right class of people for work of this kind. There
are other parts of British Columbia which would be much better
adapted for such a class of colonists than the Valley of the San Juan. I
was informed by people who know the country well that around
Alberni and near Port Simpson, on Vancouver Island, there are
Government lands more or less free from timber. At Kootenay,
Okanogan, and Chilliwick, on the mainland of British Columbia,
there is an abundance of the richest land available for tillage, but it
is all, I believe, in the hands of speculating companies. This is also
the case with respect to the land in the delta of the Fraser Eiver, the
richest soil to be found possibly on any part of the North American