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. 



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