Fruit-growing is one of the most important industries in the south of British Columbia. In all the fertile valleys, west of the Rocky Mountains and south of Cariboo, apples, pears, cherries, plums, and small fruits can be grown. Peaches, grapes, and nectarines are chiefly raised in the interior, south of the trans-con tinental line, where the warm dry summers produce excellent crops, but render irrigation necessary. Among the principal districts in which fruit is at present grown are Vancouver Island, New Westminster, Okanagan, Lillooet, Yale, and Kootenay.
British Columbia accounts for nearly one-third of the annual value of Canadian fisheries. The Fraser and other rivers along the west coast are ascended each year by vast numbers of salmon, and these contribute about two-thirds of the value of the annual output. Halibut fishing ranks next in importance, and a certain amount of sealing and whaling is also carried on.
Mineral wealth is both abundant and varied, though its full extent is unknown. Gold occurs in placer deposits in many parts of the interior ; and it is worked by hydraulic methods, chiefly in the Cariboo district, though the output is small. Gold-copper deposits are frequent in the regions of contact between intrusive granites and older rocks, which lie to the west and south of the Arrow Lakes ; and of the two chief producing regions at present, the first is situated in the basin of Trail Creek, which drains into the Columbia, and has Rossland as its chief town ; and the second is Grand Forks, in the Boundary district of Yale. The production of gold obtained by lode-mining from these and other areas amounts in value to over £1,000,000. Copper is produced in the same localities, the output of the Boundary district being over one-half of the total annual output of the Cordilleran region ; while the mines at Ross land produce about one-ninth, and the copper districts situated at various points along the Pacific coast about one-fourth. The total amount averages 42,000,000 lbs. Silver-lead deposits are found also in regions around intrusive rocks in the country between the Selkirk Range and the Arrow Lakes, though some occur farther west in the Yale District. Iron ores exist in various parts, but so far they have only been worked at Cherry Bluff near Kamloops, and in Texada Island. The total output has only on one or two occasions reached 2,000 tons. The coal areas are extensive and widespread. In the Rocky Mountains, the Cretaceous measures containing coal generally occur in long narrow bands among the folded and faulted Palaeozoic and Mesozoic strata, and are found at intervals between the international boundary and the Athabasca River. The coals
are, as a rule, bituminous, but in places they pass into anthracite, as at the town of that name and at Bankhead, where the present Canadian supply of anthracite, amounting to 235,000 tons per year, is obtained. Further south are the Elk River and Crowsnest basins, the first of which has an output of over 1,000,000 tons, and manufactures considerable quantities of coke at Fernie, while the second is the chief field in Alberta producing bituminous coals, and yields 1,000,000 tons per year. In Vancouver Island, mining is pursued on the east coast at Nanaimo and Comox, and in 1910 the amount produced was nearly 1,800,000 tons. Much of the coal and coke from the Elk River and Crowsnest areas makes its way across the frontier into Montana, Idaho, and Washington ; while the mines in Vancouver Island serve the coast from Washington to Alaska. Coal has also been located in many places which at present are too distant from good means of communication to render exploitation profitable.
The economic activities of the Cordilleran region are intimately connected with its past history and present conditions. To the geological changes which have taken place it owes the variety of its mineral wealth ; configuration and climate determine alike its timber resources and its agricultural areas; from the rivers it draws its vast supplies of fish. At present a mere handful of people (392,000 in 1911) are working the vast resources of this region, but it is not unlikely that the future may see a great industrial population settled here, sending its products not only to the agricultural lands further east but to all parts of the Pacific area. The principal towns include Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, and Rossland. Vancouver, with a population of 100,000, is situated on Burrard Inlet ; it is the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, has good harbour facilities, and is an important Pacific port. Victoria (31,000), the capital of British Columbia, is on the south-east of Vancouver Island ; it has an excellent harbour, and is an important shipping centre. Nanaimo and Rossland are mining centres ; New Westminster, on the Fraser, is largely engaged in canning salmon ; Nelson is the business centre of the Kootenay District.