Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/650



its fascinating diversity of physical characteristics, the wide range of experience afforded to its people and its lingering individualities of culture, has provided an extensive field for descriptive writers, whose larger quantity of composition has been printed in newspapers, magazines and pamphlets rather than in books. Since experience and observation are usually mixed to form a combined subjective and objective interpretation of a local environment, this becomes a significant type of regional expression; and has in addition a folk, aspect because so many write it. Instead of a complete bibliography of Oregon books of description, which are themselves in small proportion to the total amount otherwise printed, a representative group of writers in this field will be listed to show the richness and variety of their subject matter.

Some of the special bibliographies, particularly in outdoor fields, indicate the large amount of description and exposition that have been written on Oregon subjects. Bibliography of Oregon Geology, published by the University of Oregon in 1926, gives a total of 1001 items ranging in importance from short magazine articles to books. Bibliography of the Cascade Mountains, printed as early as 1905 in Mazama, contains 159 references, exclusive of those to Mount Rainier, and mentions articles in 18 outside magazines.