"Only a small portion of the land being fenced, almost the whole Willamette Valley is open to travel, and covered with the herds of the settlers, some of whom own between two and three thousand cattle and horses. Though thus pastured the grass is knee-high on the plains, and yet more luxuriant on the low lands; in summer the hilly parts are incarnadine with . ... Besides the natural increase of the first importations, not a year has passed since the venture of the in 1837, without the introduction of cattle and horses from California, to which are added those driven from the States annually after 1842, .. when come likewise constantly increasing flocks of sheep."