The first two volumes, on subjects of discovery, exploration, pioneer settlement and Indian affairs, contain but a small number of Mr. Scott's copious writings on these matters of Pacific Northwest history. The full writings would make many volumes and numer ous repetitions. The work of gathering the materials, of sifting and compressing them , of verification, annotation and appendix amplification, has been a long and exacting one. The compiler cannot presume to attain, in his part of this book, the quality and accuracy that were characteristics of Mr. Scott's. The personal impulse to publish this work comes from the compiler's filial regard for his father — a man whose fame, as a distinguished editor and leader of public thought, was secondary, in the family circle, to the devotions of parental affection.
The compiler has made numerous references, in footnotes and ap pendices, to other publications, and offers them, not with effort at encyclopedic detail nor as exhaustive in their scope , but as coming within his reading of chief and corollary subjects for contributory additions. The original purpose in these references was to make them chiefly from the files of The Oregonian. But the other, or sec ondary references, grew with the compiler's researches, and he ar rived at the opinion that they will enhance the value of The Ore gonian citations. Many of Mr. Scott's historical writings were con temporaneous with the publication of the references by that news paper. The references from The Oregonian are due directly to his editorship, and, therefore, may be regarded as auxiliary parts of his contributions to Oregon and Washington history. Early files of The Oregonian are in the office of that newspaper, in the Portland, Oregon, Library and in the Oregon Historical Society; later files, in the Oregon State Library, the University of Oregon and numerous other libraries of the Pacific Northwest, as well as in the places first named.
The Compiler's Appendix, in the first volume, contains several articles on pioneer subjects, written by sisters of Mr. Scott: Catharine Amanda Coburn, Abigail Jane Duniway and Sarah Maria Kelty. As members of the Scott family that came to Oregon, in
