the scenes in the
early mining camps of Idaho and Montana. Valuable as the work of a
contemporary writer who took part in the scenes he describes.

JOHN C. VAN TRAMP, "Prairie and Rocky Mountain Adventures or Life in
the West," 1870. A study of the States and territorial regions of our
Western empire, embracing history, statistics, and geography,
with descriptions of the chief cities of the West. In large part a
compilation of earlier Western literature.

SAMUEL BOWLES, "Our New West," 1869. Records of travel between the
Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, with details regarding scenery,
agriculture, mines, business, social life, etc., including a full
description of the Pacific States and studies of the "Mormons, Indians,
and Chinese" at that time.

HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN, "The American Fur Trade of the Far West," 1902.
The work of a distinguished Army officer. Done with the exact care of an
Army engineer. An extraordinary collection of facts and a general view
of the picturesque early industry of the fur trade, which did so much
toward developing the American West. See also his "History of Steamboat
Navigation on the Missouri River" (1903).

A. J. SOWELL, "Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas,"
1900. A local book, but done with contemporary accuracy by a man who
also studied the Texas Rangers and who was familiar with some of the
earlier frontier characters of the Southwest.

The foregoing volumes are of course but a few among the many scores or
hundreds which will have been read avidly by every man concerned with
frontier life or with the expansion of the American people to the West.
Space lacks for a fuller list, but the foregoing readings will serve to
put upon the trail of wider information any one interested in these and
kindred themes.

Let especial stress again be laid upon the preeminent value of books
done by contemporaries, men who wrote, upon the ground, of things which
they actually saw and actually understood. It is not always, or perhaps
often, that these contemporary books achieve the place which they ought
to have and hold.

Among the many books dealing with the Indians and Indian Wars, the
following may be mentioned: J. P. DUNN, "Massacres of the Mountains, A
History of the Indian Wars of the Far West," 1886.

L. E. TEXTOR, "Official Relations between the United States and the
Sioux Indians," 1896.

G. W. MANYPENNY, "Our Indian Wards," 1880.

There is an extensive b