In order to understand this Epic of Pennsylvania one must know, not only the Indian but also the frontiersman, whose rugged character was moulded by the environment in which he was placed. Stretching along the foothills of the Alleghenies, at the commencement of the period which is pictured in these volumes, lived a class of people who were the products of an environment almost as remarkable as that in which they found themselves after they were transplanted to the American continent. With but few exceptions they were Scotch-Irish or German, as their names in the Colonial Records show. As the 18th Century dawned, big with tremendous events, these pioneers had crossed the narrow strip of level land along the seaboard and sere pushing their way to the long ridges of mountains along the western horizon. Their cabins dotted the mountain sides, far beyond the limits of civilization, in the very heart of the great forest enshrouded wilderness. Along this skirmish line of civilization, out beyond the advance guard of the German and English lived the Scotch-Irish, who had little in common with the quiet Quakers who lived along the Delaware. Long before the outbreak of the Indian hostility their cabins were builded (sic) in the little clearings beyond the mountains of the Juniata and the West Branch valleys. One must live in such environment in order to understand its influence. The mountains and brooding forests produce men of a different type than is produced in the artificial life of any community, however large or small it may be. The mystery, the silence, the solemn grandeur, the lurking danger of the environment of mountains and forests get into a man's very soul. The difficulties and dangers of life in such an atmosphere make the small things of mere political expediency seem small indeed. Each man acts for himself. Self, and the little group within the cabin, becomes a center of life and of life's aims. It is small wonder then that the very same motive which led the Delaware to seek the protection of his wigwam, led the frontiersman to the protection of his cabin. Both were alike under the spell of the savage life of the forest and mountain, and both used the same methods of protecting that which he loved. The frontiersman of Pennsylvania, living as an Indian lived, became an Indian in everything but his religion. He hunted, fished, fought, not as his father had done these things beyond the eastern hills, but as the Indians did in the trackless forests. It is not difficult to understand why these frontiersmen were little effected by the "Proclamations" which were issued by the Provincial authorities, warning them to give up the land upon which they had built their cabin. Philadelphia was a long distance away, and the questions of Indian policy were just as far removed from the quiet cabin beyond the outskirts of civilization. So, before he was fully aware of its coming, the storm had broken, and his cabin was a smoking ruin. The tale of these years is a sad one indeed. But out of the hardship and suffering of those years was produced the type of men who made possible the existance of the great Nation which now sweeps westward to the Pacific. The Boarder (sic) Wars of Pennsylvania and Virginia were but the prelude to the Revolution. These frontiersman made possible the Nation, which sprang out of the rugged manhood which was produced during this epoch of struggle against savagery. These were the men who were with Braddock and Washington, who were with Forbes and Bouquet, who were with Crawford and Wayne, and these were the men who were with Washington at Valley Forge and with Stark and Morgan at Saratoga. Without them there would have been no Declaration of Independence and no United States of America. Chancellor MacCracken, of the University of New York, said at the dedication of the Saratoga Battle Monument, in speaking of the Germans with Herkimer, "The German-Americans who followed Herkimer were by no means the only Germans who fought the battles of Saratoga. Over twenty-two per cent of the so-called Virginia riflemen, of whom we shall hear, are declared upon good authority to have been Pennsylvania Germans." And again he says, "If I turn to the men who followed Morgan, being detached by George Washington from his army, the most of these were Scotch-Irish from the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies." Sir George Trevelyan says of these, in his "History of the American Revolution," "History knows them as Morgan's Virginians, but full two-thirds of them were from the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, and two-thirds of these were Scotch-Irish who traced their descent back to Ulster." While the fashionable people of New York were declaring themselves openly against the Revolution, and were paying court to Tryon, the British Governor, on his ship in the harbor, the frontiersmen of Pennsylvania and Virginia were rallying to the support of the army of Washington. Cut out of the Revolutionary army the frontiersmen of Pennsylvania and Virginia and there would be little left. The men who were being trained in the hardships of the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia during the period of these border wars were the men who were to drive France from the Ohio, and then place Washington at the head of a new Nation. History has not yet done justice to the Red Men who fought for the land which they loved, nor has History yet done justice to the Frontiersman of Pennsylvania who drove out the Red Man and then the Frenchman and then the Britishman. And yet-the history of the Indian and the History of the Frontiersmans the only thing in our literature which saves it from being merely commonplace. The student of history will find these volumes of the Frontier Forts a most valuable storehouse. Pennsylvania is a small state in area, but it is large in the great world of History. Fort Duquesne, Braddock's Field, Fort Necessity, Bushy Run, Valley Forge, Gettysburg-these, and many more spots upon her soil, have been the scenes where World History was made." The recommendations of the Commission upon Frontier Forts were submitted in 1895, but no active measures were taken by the Legislature to carry them out until the PennsylvaniaHistorical Commission was appointed by Governor Tener. The Sons of the Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Enoch Brown Memorial Association and the various historical societies have shown a commendable interest in marking these sites. The Historical Commission has assisted in placing appropriate markers at Fort McCord, at Fort Augusta, on Penn's Creek, Fort Loudon, and Harris' Ferry; and has arranged for placing others at Fort Necessity, Ligonier, Fort McDowell, Fort Hunter and Fort Granville. The Berks County Historical Society has marked Fort Northkill, Fort Henry and Fort Dietrich Snyder during the past year. The indications are that within the next year all the more important forts will be adequately marked, and that thus one of the wise recommendations of the Frontier Forts Commission will be satisfactorily carried out. In the opinion of the Editor certain of those sites, such as Fort Augusta, should be purchased by the State and converted into small parks. The Bushy Run battlefield should also be purchased, and an adequate monument placed there in honor of the brave and efficient Colonel Bouquet-the hero of that affray. 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