AROUND SANTA ROSA 285 



In time a disagreement arose, and after some litiga- 

 tion Santa Rosa passed into the hands of A. P. and 

 H. H. More, prominent residents of Santa Barbara, 

 who for years carried on a large stock ranch here. 

 To-day it is owned by Messrs. Vail and McVicker, 

 who also conduct it as a great stock ranch. I have 

 seen a number of shearings at the islands, as parts of 

 all of them have for years been given over to sheep- 

 raising and a pastoral life, but in all probability these 

 occasions at Santa Rosa were more typical than any; 

 for Santa Barbara has retained its local color, through 

 all the changes, and the parties of young people who 

 sailed over to the island were representative of the old 

 Castilian life. 



The hacienda or ranch house of the Mores stands 

 near a grove of cypress trees distorted and beaten 

 down by the strong trade winds. From here one can 

 look out on a little village made up of the various 

 buildings appertaining to the business of shearing sixty 

 thousand sheep — one of the largest herds in Southern 

 California. Some years ago, under the More regime, 

 fine stock and blooded horses were raised in large 

 numbers for the San Francisco market. Here are great 

 storing-barns and shearing-rooms, stables, pens, sheds, 

 dining-rooms, and houses for the Indian and Mexican 

 shearers, all not far from a little stream which flows 

 down from the Santa Rosa Mountains to the sea, pass- 

 ing a big sandstone cave, once the home of the ancients, 

 now the sleeping apartment of the shearers. 



Forty or fifty shearers engage in the work. Some 

 of the most skilful will shear one hundred sheep a 

 day, and the scene, which can be seen any Fall at 

 Santa Rosa, Santa Catalina, or San Clemente, is most 



