158 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



without an overpowering or interested motive ever sought 

 to make converts to them. Time has gone on, and we read 

 in a report of one of the largest wool sales catalogued 

 in Australia that "the wool interest has changed its 

 character. A new set of producers has come into the 

 field." The catalogue consists of 1444 lots, representing 

 12,274 bales, nearly the whole of it the produce of farms in 

 Riverina, Pentland Hills, Bacchus Marsh, the Werribee, 

 Kyneton, &c. 



SHEEP FOR WOOL THE MERINO. This celebrated 

 family, from the time that they first attracted attention 



under their present family name, 

 may be considered as indigenous 

 to Spain. The Spanish merinos 

 were divided into two grand 

 families the Transhumantes, or 

 migratory sheep, which were 

 driven from the southern pro- 

 . vinces in April or May to the 

 mountains in the north, some 

 400 miles, and driven back again 

 in the autumn ; and the Estantes, 

 escurials, or stationary sheep, which remained on the 

 estates. 



Introduction into Australia. This national event was 

 in 1797, and afforded an illustration of the hackneyed 

 saying, " It's an ill wind that blows no one good ;" for to 

 the circumstance of a Colonel Gordon at the Cape of Good 

 Hope having shot himself, Australia was indebted for her 

 first shipment of merino sheep. They had been presented 

 by the King of Spain to the Dutch Government, had 

 passed into the possession of Colonel Gordon at the Cape, 

 and at his death were sold by his widow, and shipped in 

 the war ships "Reliance" and "Supply" for Sydney. 

 They were of the escurial breed, and were considered very 

 superior. On their arrival, Captain Macarthur purchased 

 three rams and five ewes, and these formed the basis of his 

 celberated Camden flock. In 1805, Captain Macarthur, 

 when in England, purchased some of the Kew flock, 

 which had been presented to George III. by the Spanish 



