Reports from the Superintendent of the Coast Survey-Continued. 0.-Progress in weights, measures, and balances, to 1847, P.-General view of the progress made in the construction Q.-Expenditures incurred for the construction, &c., of Annual report of the operations of the Coast Survey office, (quarto). Reports of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, viz: On the operations of his office and the application of the appropria- Documents accompanying the above, viz: Statement of receipts and expenditures under the direction Letter of Mr. Selden, marshal of the District of Columbia, Statements of expenditures from the treasury for the District of Reports of the Superintendent of the Public Printing, viz: On the condition and progress of the public printing... Reports of the Resident Physician of the Washington Infirmary, viz: Documents accompanying the above, viz: List of government patients remaining under treatment in List of patients admitted into the Infirmary from July 1, Prport of the Board of Inspectors of the United States Penitentiary for the Subject. Report of the Board of Visitors of the Government Hospital for the Insane, viz: On the affairs of the Institution for the year ending June 30, 1858.. Documents accompanying the above, viz: Report of the superintendent for the erection of the build- Report of the Board of Directors of the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and On its condition and operations during the year ending June 30, 1858.... Report of the superintendent List of subscriptions and donations for the year ending June 30, Statement of receipts and expenditures 1 1 747 List of pupils in the Institution during the year ending June 30, 1 Rules and regulations of the Institution 1 MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, COMMUNICATING, In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, the report of the specia! agent of the United States, recently sent to Vancouver's Island and British Columbia. JANUARY 31, 1859.-Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. To the Senate of the United States: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 25th instant, I transmit a copy of the report of the special agent of the United States recently sent to Vancouver's Island and British Columbia. WASHINGTON, January 29, 1859. JAMES BUCHANAN. WASHINGTON, January 8, 1859. SIR: In accordance with your letter of instructions, dated August 2, 1858, I proceeded, without unnecessary loss of time, to Victoria, Vancouver's Island, where I arrived on the 20th of September, having been detained twelve days at San Francisco, awaiting the departure of a steamer. On my arrival, I found that a large number of those who had gone to the Frazer river mines, had left on their return to California, having become dissatisfied with the country and the prospect; and that, of those who remained, by far the greater number were merely waiting to realize sufficient to defray their expenses back. to their homes. It was still likely, however, that a considerable number would remain, both on Vancouver's Island and throughout the mining region of Frazer river, during the winter, if not longer; and I addressed myself to the accomplishment, in regard to them, of the objects of the mission with which I had been honored by the President of the United States. The chief purpose of the special agency entrusted to me I understood to be, to infuse among the citizens of the United States, temporarily resident in the vicinity of Frazer river, a spirit of subordination to the colonial authorities, and of respect for the laws of Great Britain,and, at the same time, by such representations to the governor of Vancouver's Island as circumstances would suggest, to endeavor to obtain from that functionary the abrogation of the rigorous system of exactions theretofore pursued, and the adoption for the future of such a policy towards Americans as would not be inconsistent with their rights as the citizens of a friendly power, and would, furthermore, tend to promote among them feelings of kindness and good will towards the government and the subjects of Great Britain. Some such intervention by the United States was deemed necessary, for the reason that much exasperation was alleged to exist among those of our citizens, then making their way to the Frazer river mines, against the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company and the authorities of Vancouver's Island, in consequence of the onerous exactions to which they were said to have been subjected by those officials. The numerous complaints of such exactions that had already reached the government of the United States, as early as June last, were in that month brought to the notice of Lord Malmesbury by Mr. Dallas, our minister at London; and, from the declarations of his lordship in reply, of the favorable disposition of the British government, as well as from repeated assurances of Lord Napier, the British minister at Washington, to the same effect,-assurances of the sincerity of which no doubt was entertained,-the hope was indulged that the rigor of the exactions. previously practiced would, upon proper representations of their injustice, be abated, and that the work of conciliation would be one of no difficult accomplishment. In addition to these duties, my instructions contemplated that I should furnish your department with all needful and attainable information touching the newly discovered mines on Frazer river; the emigration of American citizens thereto; and other kindred subjects. It is scarcely necessary to advert to the history of the Frazer river excitement; how, in April and May of last year, the people of California, and of Oregon and Washington Territories, were startled by rumors industriously circulated of fabulous gold discoveries on Frazer river; how, day after day, steamers and sailing vessels left the port of San Francisco for Victoria, crowded to excess: many of them carrying three times the number of passengers allowed by law; how thousands, who were then in prosperous circumstances in California, dazzled by the prospect of immediately acquiring immense wealth, bandoned their occupations, both professional and manual, and selling off their mining claims and other possessions at a great sacrifice, threw themselves into the mad crowd who were thronging with eager steps to the new gold fields. It is understood that twentythree thousand men left the port of San Francisco for Frazer river, and that some eight thousand more went overland, from the northern counties of California, and from the Territories of Oregon and Washington, by way of the Dalles and Fort Kamloops. Some estimate the number as much greater; but it is safe to assert that the emigration to Vancouver's Island and British Columbia during the gold excitement,--the bulk of it during the months of May, June, and July,-was not under thirty thousand, and may have reached thirty-three thousand. The number remaining there at present probably does not exceed three thousand. The causes which produced this general and rapid abandonment of the colonies, I shall presently endeavor to explain. The first body of gold seekers found their way to Frazer river from Victoria in canoes, skiffs, and whale-boats, American steamers being at that time jealously excluded from the river. Numbers perished in these hazardous voyages; many were lost in the mazes of the archipelago that stretches from Discovery island to the edge of the Gulf of Georgia; and many more in attempting to cross that stormy and dangerous Gulf, dangerous even for strong and large steamers, from the peculiarity of its currents, and from other causes. At length Mr. Douglas, governor of Vancouver's Island, and chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, was induced to permit, on certain conditions, and on the payment of a certain sum for each trip, the navigation of the river by American bottoms, reserving to himself the right to withdraw this permission whenever boats owned by British subjects could be provided for the transportation of passengers and freight. A number of steamers (the Sea Bird, the Surprise, the Umatilla, the Maria, the Enterprize, and others) immediately commenced running between Victoria and the different points on Frazer river, and by these means the emigrants were enabled to spread themselves over the gold regions on the river and its tributaries. The failure of their quest has been already chronicled through the press. Some, it is true, without experience in mining operations, became disgusted, and left without giving the mines a fair trial; but the great majority of the emigrants were men who had gained a thorough knowledge of mining by years of experience in California, and whom no hardships or discomforts could deter from the prosecution of their purpose. These men have penetrated into every accessible portion of the gold fields, from the mouth of the river up to the Canoe country, down Thompson river, from Fort Kamloops to its mouth, and up Bridge river nearly to its source, and have prospected every spot where gold is supposed to exist. It is true that gold has been found everywhere, but, for the most part, diffused in such small quantities as not to reward the labor of digging for it. Some idea may be formed of the unsatisfactory yield of the mines when it is considered that, notwithstanding the immense numbers of people precipitated upon Frazer river and the adjacent country, the entire yield from May till October, inclusive, did not much exceed half a million of dollars. There are some five or six bars on the river, between Fort Hope and Fort Yale, (Santa Clara bar, Texas bar, Emory's bar, Hill's bar, and one or two others,) that yield well; and on Bridge river, and at the forks of Frazer and Thompson's rivers, good diggings have been found;-but in the whole region hitherto prospected, there are not eligible placers more than enough to give remunerative employment to about fifteen hundred miners. What discoveries may be the result of future researches to the northward and eastward of the present gold region can be, for the present, only matter of vague speculation. Hitherto, no gold-bearing quartz ledge of any extent has been found, and but little coarse gold. The bulk of that washed out is exceedingly fine dust. Some considerable |