Pacific Coast Business Directory

British Columbia, Canada

British Columbia is bounded on the north by Alaska, east by the Dominion Territories of North West Saskatchewan, south by Washington Territory of the United States, and southwest and west by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska, extending from the 49th parallel to the 60th degree of north latitude. Organized as a Colony in 1858, and entered the Dominion in 1871, conjointly with the Colony of Victoria, comprising Indians. Capital, Victoria. Principal towns, Barkerville, Burrard Inlet, Clinton, Comox, Esquimalt, Yale,, Vancouver, Queen Charlottes, and it large number of other islands constitute an extensive archipelago on the coast and comprise part of the Province.

The interior is usually spoken of as the Cariboo, Kootenay, Omineca, and Cassiar mining districts, the first being on the upper Fraser River, the second in the southeast, about the upper Columbia, the third in the extreme north and the last in the west, bordering the southern extreme of Alaska. It was established as a crown colony in 1858, owing its origin as such to the discovery of gold at that time on the bars and benches of the Fraser River. The northern boundary as then defined, was the north fork of the Findlay branch of Peace River; this, by a subsequent Act of Parliament, has been extended to the 60th parallel of north latitude. Prior to the discovery of gold in 1858, it was exclusively in the hands of the Hudson Bay Company, a fur trading corporation, whose trading posts were stationed in various places along the coast and scattered throughout the interior, some of which have subsequently become cities of considerable extent and importance. It was from this humble and insignificant beginning that Victoria, the present capital, now containing a population of a little over 4,000 inhabitants, sprung. Read more....

Pacific Coast Business Directory

Source: Pacific Coast Business Directory for 1876-78, Compiled by Henry G. Langley, San Francisco, 1875.

 

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