STEEP TRAILS 



wool fibers are white and glossy, and beauti 

 fully spired into ringlets. The average length 

 of the staple is about an inch and a half. A 

 fiber of this length, when growing undisturbed 

 down among the hairs, measures about an 

 inch; hence the degree of curliness may easily 

 be inferred. I regret exceedingly that my in 

 struments do not enable me to measure the 

 diameter of the fibers, in order that their 

 degrees of fineness might be definitely com 

 pared with each other and with the finest of 

 the domestic breeds; but that the three wild 

 fleeces under consideration are considerably 

 finer than the average grades of Merino 

 shipped from San Francisco is, I think, un 

 questionable. 



When the fleece is parted and looked into 

 with a good lens, the skin appears of a beauti 

 ful pale-yellow color, and the delicate wool 

 fibers are seen growing up among the strong 

 hairs, like grass among stalks of corn, every 

 individual fiber being protected about as spe 

 cially and effectively as if inclosed in a sepa 

 rate husk. Wild wool is too fine to stand by 

 itself, the fibers being about as frail and invisi 

 ble as the floating threads of spiders, while the 

 hairs against which they lean stand erect like 

 hazel wands; but, notwithstanding their great 

 dissimilarity in size and appearance, the wool 



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