BOOKS ON BIG GAME 



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There are many good books on American big game, 

 but, rather curiously, they are for the most part modern. 

 Until within the present generation Americans only 

 hunted big game if they were frontier settlers, profes- 

 sional trappers, Southern planters, army officers, or ex- 

 plorers. The people of the cities of the old States were 

 bred in the pleasing faith that anything unconcerned with 

 business was both a waste of time and presumably im- 

 moral. Those who travelled went to Europe instead of 

 to the Rocky Mountains. 



Throughout the pioneer stages of American history, 

 big game hunting was not merely a pleasure, but a busi- 

 ness, 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 history took part in it as such: 

 men like Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston, for instance. 

 Moreover, aside from these pioneers who afterward won 

 distinction 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 remained hunters, and 

 gloried in the title who, nevertheless, through and be- 

 cause of their life in the wilderness, rose to national fame 

 and left their mark on our history. The three most 

 famous men of this class were Daniel Boone, David 

 Crockett, and Kit Carson, who were renowned in every 

 quarter of the Union for their skill as game-killers, Ind- 

 ian-fighters, and wilderness explorers, and whose deeds 

 are still stock themes in the floating legendary lore of the 

 border. They stand for all time as types of the pioneer 



