"Pacific Slope" is an American contra-dance and old-time breakdown, reel or hornpipe known in the Midwest, southwestern Pa. and New England in A Major. The parts are played AABB (Christeson, Cole, Hinds, Phillips, Sweet) or AB (Bayard). The Pacific Slope refers to that part of North America that drains into the Pacific Ocean, a term that had particular meaning in the 19th century prior to the formation of the region into states and territories. Then it was America’s “manifest destiny” to settle and develop the lands of the Pacific Slope, then the frontier. The melody is commonly played at mid-western fiddle contests. It is one of '100 essential Missouri tunes' listed by Missouri fiddler Charlie Walden. An Irish version appears in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland under the title "Chief O'Neill's Visit", set as a hornpipe and a hornpipe version is also known to Scottish musicians as the "The Cambridge Hornpipe" Compare it to this tune to see how subtle variations can appear in differing fiddle traditions. The high notes in the B part require the fiddler to shift to third position which traditional fiddlers know only by intuition. The high E can be most easily played as a harmonic and is noted as such in Cole's. It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981), R.P. Christeson's Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, vol. 1 (1973), Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940), Hinds/Hebert's Grumbling Old Woman (1981), Phillips' Traditional Music in America (1994), Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883) and Sweet's Fifer’s Delight (1965/1981). It was recorded by Howard Bursen on Cider in the Kitchen (1980), Rodney Miller & David Surette on New Leaf (2000), Taylor McBaine on Boone County Fiddler and Country Cooking, Dwight Lamb on Old Ladies Pickin' Chickens and Cyril Stinnett on Old Time Fiddler's Repertory (1976).