There is only one shaft working, and the output in the 24 hours of the
day previous had been 434 tons. The coal comes to the surface in two
'boxes' at a time, each containing about 35 cwt. This Company has good
railway tracks of 4 feet 8-1/2 inches gauge, with English locomotives,
&c. The machinery and appliances at this mine were all better and more
costly than at the West Wellington mines, and the cars were hopper
bottomed, and discharged their contents directly into the hold of the
vessels by simply opening the hopper bottom. The staff of men employed
at the present time amounts to 350, and the miners are white men, with
Chinese labourers. The work at this mine and West Wellington is all
done by piecework.


"ESQUIMALT HARBOUR AND DOCK.

"The harbour at Esquimalt is quite land-locked, and can be very easily
protected from an enemy approaching by sea, the heights around being
easily fortified, as there are many in good positions for commanding
the entrance, both at a distance from it, and also in the immediate
vicinity; there is plenty of depth of water at low tide to enter the
harbour. A fort on the Race Rocks, where there is a lighthouse, and
which are some 2 miles or so from the coast, would, if supplied with
heavy guns capable of long range, command the whole of the San Juan de
Fuca Straits, the distance from Race Rock to the American shore not
exceeding 8 miles.

"The harbour contains an area of about 400 or 500 acres, in which there
is sufficient depth of water for large vessels to lie at all states of
the tide.