Welsh Journals

in response to the news of the riches being brought out. The Times correspon- dent at Victoria, on 9 December 1859 wrote:1 'All accounts agree that the individual earnings of the miners are much larger than in California or Australia. It is very common to light upon a man going to San Francisco with several thousand dollars More specific evidence was provided by him on 25 January 18602: 'The other day four Germans came down from Quesnell's River with$24,000, which they dug out of a small stream, a tributary of that river, in the short space of five weeks For the last few months so many successful miners have returned to California with 'piles' that we are promised a considerable immigration from that country in the Spring. It is now admitted that the average earn- ings are much greater in British Columbia than in the older gold fields, where the surface diggings are worked out'. Such favourable reports as these undoubtedly convinced many waverers. Welsh- men, both in Wales and in the United States, caught the fever to emigrate to British Columbia and emigrants from Aberdare, for instance, began selling their possessions 1 Times, 30 January 1860. 2 ibid., 15 March 1860.