*** Source: History and Business Directory of Humboldt County, Lillie E. Hamm, November 1890, Eureka, Cal. *** ---page 061--- [ad] Headquarters FOR USEFUL VARIETIES AND ORNAMENTAL ARTICLES J. E. Mathews [ad] HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY 61 abundant, and the wool produced in this county is sold in the market at prices from three to five cents higher than the product from other parts of California. Taking the annual clip of the county at 2,000,000 pounds it is worth at least $300,000, besides mutton and lambs, which altogether would bring the value of the sheep industry of Humboldt county up to $600,000 annually. It is authoritively stated that the total annual production of wool in the world is 16,000,000 cwt, (1,792,000,000 pounds.) The estimated value is £200,000,000, or $968,000,000. The number of sheep in Europe is estimated at 200,000,000, which furnish 4,000,000 cwt of wool; of an estimated value of £36,000,000. Morocco, Algiers and Tunis grow a considerable quantity, while France produces 37 per cent. less than it did forty years ago. The European countries are ranked in the following order: (1) Russia, (2) Great Britain, (3) Germany, (4) France, (5) Austria-Hungary (6) Italy, (7) Spain. The East Indies and China produce about 3,000,000 cwt. of wool per annum. It may be stated in this connection that in 1884 our sheep numbered 50,626,626 head, valued at $119,902,706, producing 300,000,000 pounds of wool. Since that time the sheep of the country have steadily decreased, year by year, until last year we had but 42,999,079 sheep, producing 265,000,000 pounds of wool. Our home grown wools are mostly fine and medium wools. Our import wools are mostly clothing, combing and carpet wools. Our average imports from 1880 to 1889 were, clothing wools, 19,305,070 pounds, combing wools, 5,654,193 pounds, or an average of 88,443,309 pounds a year. COAL Vast Fields of Coal Beds, Obstacles in the way of Development, Future Prospect, Eel River Coal BEYOND MAN’S MEMORY. Long ago, thousands and tens of thousands of years, the glaciers swept down the eastern slope of the Coast Range in Mendocino and Humboldt counties carrying with them trees which were three and four times the size of the giant redwoods which now tower above the valleys. Stumps with a vast acreage of roots, may be found nowadays hidden in the forest depths, denoting the mammoth growth in primeval days. These were the forests that made the coal on the Eel river. The country shows signs of tremendous transitions. Volcanic action threw up ridges, out of which the coal seams crop. Extraordinary landslides must have occurred. In fact the surface of the earth has undergone all sorts of changes. [ad] Gibbard & Lever Manufacturers of Furniture and Every Kind of Ornamental House Finish Factory, 2d & C Sts. Eureka, Cal. [ad] ---end---