Literature of American Big-Game Hunting 
Throughout the pioneer stages of American his- 
tory, big-game hunting was not merely a pleasure, 
but a business, and often a very important and in 
fact vital business. At different times many of the 
men who rose to great distinction in our after his- 
tory took part in it as such: men like Andrew 
Jackson and Sam Houston, for instance. Moreover, 
aside from these pioneers who afterward won dis- 
tinction purely as statesmen or soldiers, there were 
other members of the class of professional hunters— 
men who never became eminent in the complex 
life of the old civilized regions, who always re- 
mained hunters, and gloried in the title—who, 
nevertheless, through and because of their life 
in the wilderness, rose to national fame and left 
their mark on our history. The three most famous 
instances of this class are Daniel Boone, David 
Crockett, and Kit Carson: men who were renowned 
in every quarter of the Union for their skill as game- 
hunters, Indian-fighters, and wilderness explorers, 
and whose deeds are still stock themes in the float- 
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