Being near the Gulf Coast I like reading about things like this the Gulf is about 70 miles down river from here.

There is a great deal of sporting literature for the period you mention here, Milton. On the earlier side is Carolina Sports by Land and Water, by William Elliott, which covers different types of hunting (but mostly big game). If you are really interested, let me know and I can work up a list for you. Be careful, though, collecting sporting literature is akin to collecting big bore guns -- addictive.:)

On the topic of Eakins; I taught 19th Century art history for many years, so I'm happy to see folks here show an interest in the works of, especially, American artists like Eakins. I'd recommend Winslow Homer to you. He is most certainly not a sporting artist per se, but his many paintings of hunting and fishing are incredible. BTW, he also was an "art correspondent" during the Civil War, and I would bet you would enjoy those works of his also.

I especially enjoy Homer’s paintings from when he spent time in Maine’s Great North Woods.





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Eakins . . . Homer . . . Frost . . . All some of my favorites.

Evidently the tradition of rail shooting from poled boats continues in tidal regions along the U. S. East coast, from Maine to Texas.

Here is an article "The Incredible, Edible Rail", by Stephen D. Carpenteri, from UPLAND ALMANAC, Spring 2020.


https://uplandalmanac.com/the-incredible-edible-rail[/url]

I have a few friends who do it around here.

I've got a lead on a late season shoot for king rails, I found the guy too late this year but I'm pushing to get on the books for next. Kings is my last rail, I've killed the other three legal species.

That would be much appreciated, would you happen to know if there are any books on the contrast between sports hunters and market hunters of the time? I have also been wondering are there any detailed books about Grover Cleveland and his passion for waterfowling? I am looking up Winslow Homer now, I particularly like this one.

Cleveland wrote a book on hunting (and it's pretty good, too!). I'm not sure what you mean by the "contrast between sports hunters and market hunters," but there were certainly conservation minded sporting authors and editors of sporting periodicals (Wilbur F. Parker, Sr. was a very early advocate for conservation who decried market gunning. You might be interested in my article on him that was in a recent Parker Pages.)

There is a more recent book, The Outlaw Gunner, that has accounts of market gunning, especially for waterfowl.

The line between sport hunter and market hunter is often blurry. As an example, Fred Kimble has sometimes been referred to as a market hunter. This really is not accurate. He and his group of hunting friends would often go off on 2 to 3 week expeditions and return to Peoria with a thousand or so birds. They would sell these to the local markets in order to defray the cost of the hunting trip. They hunted for "sport", not to make a living. But their kind of sport hunting was expensive.