knocking at the Barrier of the Rockies and spurred by competition they might at any moment burst through;" nor had Fraser in 1806 "already advanced from the Forks of the Peace and accomplished the difficult and dangerous feat of descending the Fraser River"—that descent was not made until 1808. Chapter VII, "The Race to the Sea," shows that there really was no "race." I am unaware that Thompson's "orders were to anticipate this ship (Astor's) in reaching the mouth of the river." Thompson in his Narrative (p. 448) states that his "object was to be at the Pacific Ocean before the month of August." As Mr. T . C. Elliott has said, "This argues against any extreme haste on his part to forestall the Astorians."
But these are, after all, merely minor defects or, perhaps, only differences of interpretation which do not in the least detract from the merit and interest of the book.
History of the Oregon Country. By Harvey W. Scott, Forty Years Editor of the Morning Oregonian. Compiled by Leslie M. Scott. Printed by the Riverside Press (Cambridge). In six volumes. 1924. Pp. xvii, 2036.
This is a project of constituting a history out of a classified and arranged compilation of representative editorials and public addresses, carefully annotated, of the long-time and renowned editor of the leading newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. These conditions make this an unique undertaking. Insuperable difficulties would seem to debar the possibility of approximating anything near an ideal history with such a plan and materials. History's function is to convey a sense of continuity and unity of the social process depicted. To be true to reality all events must be seen as interrelated and developing as an organic whole. Editorials and public addresses wholly distinct and appearing apropos to casual occurrences, without any thread of sequence, are thus quite unpromising elements for an integrated story of a people's life. And yet the revealing potencies of these constituent units of the text of this work, supplemented by the results of the assiduous
