American Big-Game Hunting 
books as of those relating to graver matters, that in 
very many cases he whose experiences are best 
worth recording is himself wholly unable to record 
them. No amount of experience and observation 
can supply the lack of the literary gift. Many of 
the old hunters tried their hands at making books, 
but hardly a volume they produced is worth pre- 
serving, save possibly as material which some bet- 
ter writer may handle at a future time. Boone 
wrote, or rather allowed a small pedant to write for 
him, a little pamphlet on his early wanderings in 
Kentucky; but its only value is derived from the 
fact that for certain of the events in early Kentucky 
history it is the sole contemporaneous authority. 
The biography published by or for Davy Crockett 
is somewhat better, but it is hard to say what parts 
of it are authentic and what not. Of course a com- 
paratively uneducated man may by some rare 
chance possess the true literary capacity; and the 
worst of all writers is the half-educated man, es- 
pecially he who takes the newspapers as models 
whereon to found his style; while the mere pedant 
who takes his language solely from books and the 
school-room is but slightly better. But, taken as 
a rule, it may be stated that the man who writes 
well about life in the wilderness must not only 
have had long and thorough acquaintance with 
that life, but must also have had some good 
literary training. 
322 
