Book Reviews 



129 



"In the Oregon Catch an Easterner young enough and he may become 

 Country"* more loyal to the West than many a born Westerner. 



Perhaps because he has experienced the "conservative 

 pessimism" of the East he is the more likely to become enamoured of 

 the "impulsive optimism" of the Pacific Coast. In the Oregon Country 

 is a striking but not overdrawn picture of the West that Mr. Putnam 

 has grown to love since he first, nearly eight years ago, struck out on the 

 trail with the Sierra Club. Though the book deals chiefly with Oregon, 

 he ranges over its borders into Washington and California too. From 

 the mountaineer's standpoint the latter part of the book will be found 

 most interesting, dealing as it does with the wilderness of the West 

 rather than its agricultural or economic development. The last chapter 

 is devoted to his summer in the Sierra, including a knapsack journey 

 through Yosemite Park and an outing in the Kern with the Sierra Club. 

 The book is well written, truthful and entertaining, and shows a real 

 love and enthusiasm for the present beauty as well as the hopeful future 

 of this country of his adoption. M. R. P. 



"Mountain Explora- Mr. Alfred H. Brooks, chief of the division of 

 TiON IN Alaska""! Alaskan mineral resources of the United States 

 Geological Survey, is the author of Number 3 of 

 Alpina Americana, published by the American Alpine Club. After an ade- 

 quate description of the location and character of the principal mountain 

 systems and ranges of Alaska, particularly of their glaciers and glaci- 

 ation, Mr. Brooks gives a very interesting but brief account of explora- 

 tion and mountaineering there, from the first glimpse of St. Elias re- 

 corded by Stellar, naturalist of the Bering Expedition in 1741, to the 

 recent much-discussed ascents of Mount McKinley. Much of the explor- 

 ing fell to the lot of our indefatigable Geological Survey, especially in 

 connection with the International Boundary Survey in 1903. 



The paper is uniform in size with the other two numbers of Alpina 

 Americana, "The High Sierra of California," by Joseph N. Le Conte, 

 published in 1907, and "The Canadian Rocky Mountains," by Charles 

 E. Fay, issued in 1911. Like the others of the series, it is magnificently 

 illustrated. It is unfortunate, from the point of view of those who es- 

 teem these excellent publications on the mountains of our continent, that 

 they are issued at such long intervals. A. H. A. 



* In the Oregon Country. Out-doors in Oregon, Washington and California, to- 

 gether with some legendary lore and glimpses of the modern West in the making. 

 By George Palmer Putnam. With 52 illustrations. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York 

 and London. 1915. Pages, 169. Price, $1.75. 



t Mountain Exploration in Alaska. By Alfred H. Brooks. Alpina Americana, 

 No. 3. Published by the American Alpine Club, Philadelphia. Baltimore, Williams & 

 Wilkins Company. 1915. Price, 85 cents. 



