Book Reviews. 



211 



Washington"* is a comprehensive and interesting record of that 

 part of Old Oregon which in 1853 became, not Columbia Terri- 

 tory as was first suggested, but the Territory of Washington. 

 The book is divided into five parts, including the Period of Dis- 

 covery, the Period of Exploration, of Occupation, Territorial 

 Days, and Statehood. While the later part treating of more 

 recent days will be of especial interest to Washingtonians, the 

 general reader will probably find greater satisfaction in the 

 chronicle of early days when Oregon was jointly occupied by 

 Americans and English and the Hudson Bay Company practically 

 dominated the situation. The story of the early explorers, of the 

 fur traders, of the Indian wars — particularly the story of the 

 slow-moving march of the pioneers, cannot fail to stir the reader 

 who has Western blood in his veins, for it is a part of our great 

 epic of the West. M. R. P. 



Running water, with its unending, resistless 

 HE COLUMBIA s^j-jying towards unknown goals, has for many 

 River • • 



of us a certain mysterious allure, rivaled per- 

 haps, among all the forces of nature, only by the tides of the 

 sea. The child who sets his fragile play-craft adrift in the way- 

 side gutter, the fisherman in whose ears the song of the river 

 rings all through the city-bound months of the year, the poet 

 who finds his inspiration in the onward rush of mighty waters — 

 are but a few of those who confess themselves subject to its 

 charm. And so to many readers William Denison Lyman's recent 

 book, "The Columbia River,"t will make instant appeal. Pro- 

 fessor Lyman has developed his theme with a sympathetic and 

 wonderful charm. The first part of the book tells the story 

 of the river as far as we can trace it — the legendary lore of 

 Indian days, the early discoveries by sea and land; the days 

 of the fur trader, the voyageur, the missionary, when the Hudson 

 Bay Company's word was law in Old Oregon; the pioneer era 

 and its influence in gaining Oregon for the American flag; and 

 finally the marvelous change from the unknown, untraveled river 

 of the wilderness to the busy highway of the alert and fruitful 

 Inland Empire, Following this stirring narrative is a description 

 of the whole length of the mighty river from its birthplace in the 

 Canadian Rockies down through the beautiful lake region and 

 the "land of wheatfield, orchard and garden," and the picturesque 

 grandeur of its cleavage of the Cascade Range at the Dalles to the 

 point where it slips past the historic old town of Astoria to lose 



*History of the State of Washington. By Edmond S. Meany. Pub- 

 lished by the Macmillan Company, New York, 1909. 



t The Columbia River. By William Denison Lyman. G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons, New York, 1909. 



