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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