Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/66



58 J. NEILSON BARRY

While examining some ancient parchments the writer of this sketch was struck with the peculiar manner in which the figure eight was written, similar to the dollar mark but with only one short downward stroke. The idea occurred that the use of the quill pen might account for this style of forming the figure, which was verified by an experiment which anyone can easily make with a quill toothpick. The origin of the dollar mark can be thus explained as to the old style of the figure eight with a cancellation mark to designate thallers or pieces of eight.

When the California miners made small change with the little Spanish reals or "bits," they were using the system which had been customary before the United States government adopted the eight real piece as its standard for a decimal system of coinage.

PART II.

The flotsam and the jetsam on a sea beach mark not only the extent of a receding tide but also the character of what had been carried on the waters. In a similar way the area of the North American continent to which French influence has formerly extended is indicated by French names of places so widely scattered as from Montreal to St. Louis and New Orleans, and from Lake Champlain to The Dalles and Des Chutes in Oregon. Many French words which have become incorporated into our distinctively American speech suggest peculiarities of the country occupied by the French as well as of the character of their occupancy.

The French were first attracted to America by the cod fishing on that part of the Atlantic coast where there are many islands, and the spelling of Maine for the mainland is said to have been the result of French influence.

Louisiana, which formerly extended over practically the entire Mississippi Valley, preserves the name of a French king and reminds us of the early French settlements on our largest river, while such French words as plantation, barge and levee recall characteristics of that region, while the French word pickayune for the ancient Spanish coin, the value of half