WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 977 



his officers were frequently almost in mutiny against his self-denying 

 policy. Oregon -will erect a monument to his memory some day. 



In 1844 a small flock was driven across the plains and mountains from 

 the Missouri Eiver to the "Willamette by Joshua Shaw and son. In 

 1847 over 100 were driven by a Mr. Fields. In 1848 Joseph Watts drove 

 330, including grade Saxon Merinos, 7 pure-bloods, and 6 high-grade 

 Spanish Merinos. Of the "Lease" sheep the largest part were purchased 

 by officers of the Hudson Bay Company (who had formed the Puget 

 Sound Agricultural Company) and taken to the north side of the Co- 

 lumbia Eiver (now the State of Washington) as a means of strengthen- 

 ing the British claim to the north bank of that river, the question of the 

 Oregon boundary being yet unsettled. The next largest purchasers of 

 the "Lease" sheep were the Catholic missionaries, who let them out 

 mostly in small bands to the Canadian French settlers, members of 

 their church. Some of the American settlers also got a few of these 

 sheep by purchase. 



The Mr. Fields, before mentioned, died soon after his arrival in Ore- 

 gon, and his little flock was sold by the administrator in small lots, so 

 that it became the foundation of many flocks. Sheep were eagerly de- 

 sired as necessary to meet the needs of domestic manufacture of cloth- 

 ing. In 1851 Hiram Smith brought to Oregon some pure-blood Me- 

 rino rams from Ohio. In 1858 Martin Jesse brought to Oregon McAr- 

 thur's Australian Merinos — part of a shipment made from Sydney, 

 'New South Wales. They were certified as being pure descendants ot 

 Spanish Merino flocks of King George III of England, and drawn 

 from the Kew farm flock of the King by Capt. John McArthur> 

 father of the McArthur brothers, who sold them to J. H. Williams, 

 United States consul at Sydney, Kew South Wales, for shipment to 

 California. Early in 1860 E. J. Jones and S. B. Eockwell brought into 

 and sold in Oregon pure-blood American Merinos and French Merinos 

 from Addison County, Vt.* Jewett and Lane brought in the same 



*In connection witli this importation I wish to say that the certificate of sale of 

 these sheep came into possession of the writer in 1860, hy purchase of a half interest 

 in ten head of pure Merinos, consisting of one French Merino ram and one ewe of 

 the same family, two ewes of American Merinos of the Vermont type, and six McAr- 

 thur Australians. As there is not known to be now in existence, I understand, a 

 paper tracing back to any particular flock or " cabana" of Spain, this certificate 

 traces to the Negretti cabaBa, if we accept as correct the history of King George 

 Ill's acquisition as given on page 241 of the Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 for 1889-'90. I kept the ewes in question in western Oregon till they died of old age, 

 and watched others owned by other breeders, and have no doubt that the McArthur 

 Australians can be bred to produce as fine fiber in most of the arid land districts of 

 the United States as in the interior of Australia. Oregonians bred the Australians 

 to American Merino rams because the latter were a larger sheep, and gave fleeces of 

 double the weight of wool and nearly as fine. The cross increased the weight rap- 

 idly. The first three ewe lambs of this cross were sold to a neighbor, Hon. T. L. 

 Davidson, who bred towards the American Merino, and who, sixteen years after the 

 cross began, sent samples as part of the Oregon State exhibit at the American Cen- 

 22990 62 



