PART II.

CONTENTS: CHAPTER II.

TRACKING;

or, Noticing and Reading the Meaning of Small Signs.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

CAMP FIRE YARNS.

5.—Observation of "Sign" or Tracks: Details of People; "Sign" round a Dead Body; Use of Eyes, Ears, and Nose; Night Scouting.

6.—Spooring: Adventures; Value of Spooring, How to Learn.

7.—Reading "Sign": Sherlock Holmesism; Deduction, or putting this and that together; Instances; How to Practice.

PRACTICES, GAMES, and PLAYS in TRACKING.

BOOKS ON TRACKING.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

Instruction in the art of observation and deduction is difficult to lay down in black and white. It must be taught by practice. One can only give a few instances and hints, the rest depends upon your own powers of imagination and local circumstances.

The importance of the power of observation and deduction to the young citizen is great. Children are proverbially quick in observation, but it dies out as they grow older, largely because first experiences catch their attention, which they fail to do on repetition.

Observationis, in fact, a habit to which a boy has to be trained.Trackingis an interesting step towards gaining it.Deductionis the art of subsequently reasoning out and extracting the meaning from the points observed.

When once observation and deduction have been made habitual in the boy, a great step in the development of "character" has been gained.

CONTENTS: CHAPTER III.

(Commences on page109.)

WOODCRAFT;

or, Knowledge of Animals and Nature.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

CAMP FIRE YARNS.

8.—Stalking: As an Aid to Observation; How to Hide.

9.—Animals: The Calling of Wild Animals. Animals; Birds; Reptiles; Fish; Insects.

10.—Plants: Trees and How to Identify Them.

PRACTICES, GAMES, COMPETITIONS, and PLAYS IN WOODCRAFT.

BOOKS ON WOODCRAFT.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

HOW TO TEACH NATURAL HISTORY.

If in London take your scouts to the Zoological Gardens and to Natural History Museum, South Kensington. Take them to certain animals on which you are prepared to lecture to them. About half a dozen animals would be quite enough for one day.

If in the country, get leave from a farmer or carter to show the boys how to put on harness, etc., and how to feed and water the horse; how he is shod, etc. How to catch hold of a runaway horse in harness. How to milk a cow.

Study habits of cows, rabbits, birds, water-voles, trout, etc., by stalking them and watching all that they do.

Take your scouts to any menagerie, and explain the animals.

CHAPTER II.TRACKING;

or,

Noticing and Reading the meaning of small Signs.—Camp Fire Yarns on Observation—Spooring—Reading "Sign."

Noticing "sign."—Details of People.—Sign round a dead body—Details in the Country—Use of eyes, ears, and nose by Scouts—Night Scouting—Hints to Instructors—Practices and Games in Observation—Books on Observation.

"Sign" is the word used by scouts to mean any little details such as footprints, broken twigs, trampled grass, scraps of food, a drop of blood, a hair, and so on; anything that may help as clues in getting the information they are in search of.

Mrs. Smithson, when travelling in Kashmir last year, was following up with some native Indian trackers the "pugs" of a panther which had killed and carried off a young buck. He had crossed a wide bare slab of rock which, of course, gave no mark of his soft feet. The tracker went at once to the far side of the rock where it came to a sharp edge; he wetted his finger, and just passed it along the edge till he found a few buck's hairs sticking to it. This showed him where the panther had passed down off the rock dragging the buck with him. Those few hairs were what scouts call "sign."

Mrs. Smithson's tracker also found bears by noticing small "sign." On one occasion he noticed a freshscratch in the bark of a tree evidently made by a bear's claw, and on the other he found a single black hair sticking to the bark of a tree, which told him that a bear had rubbed against it.

One of the most important things that a scout has to learn, whether he is a war scout or a hunter or peace scout, isto let nothing escape his attention; he must notice small points and signs, and then make out the meaning of them: but it takes a good deal of practice before a tenderfoot can get into the habit of really noting everything and letting nothing escape his eye. It can be learnt just as well in a town as in the country.

And in the same way you should notice any strange sound or any peculiar smell and think for yourself what it may mean. Unless you learn to notice "signs" you will have very little of "this and that" to put together and so you will be no use as a scout; it comes by practice.

Remember, a scout always considers it a great disgrace if an outsider discovers a thing before he has seen it for himself, whether that thing is far away in the distance, or close by under his feet.

If you go out with a really trained scout you will see that his eyes are constantly moving, looking out in every direction near and far, noticing everything that is going on, just from habit, not because he wants to show off how much he notices.

I was walking with one the other day in Hyde Park in London. He presently remarked "that horse is going a little lame"—there was no horse near us, but I found he was looking at one far away across the Serpentine: the next moment he picked up a peculiar button lying by the path. His eyes, you see, were looking both far away and near.

In the streets of a strange town a scout will notice his way by the principal buildings, and side-streets, and in any case he will notice what shops he passes and what is in their windows; also what vehicles pass him and such details as whether the horses' harness and shoes are all right; and most especially what people he passes, what their faces are like, their dress, their boots, and their wayof walking, so that if, for instance, he should be asked by a policeman, "Have you seen a man with dark over-hanging eyebrows dressed in a blue suit, going down this street," he should be able to give some such answer as "Yes—he was walking a little lame with the right foot, wore foreign looking boots, was carrying a parcel in his hand, he turned down Gold Street, the second turning on the left from here, about three minutes ago."

Information of that kind has often been of greatest value in tracing out a criminal, but so many people go along with their eyes shut and never notice things.

In the story of "Kim," by Rudyard Kipling, there is an account of two boys being taught "observation" in order to become detectives, or scouts, by means of a game in which a trayful of small objects was shown to them for a minute and was then covered over and they had to describe all the things on it from memory.

We will have that game, as it is excellent practice for scouts.

There was a revolutionary society in Italy called the Camorra who used to train their boys to be quick at noticing and remembering things. When walking through the streets of the city, the Camorrist would suddenly stop and ask his boy—"How was the woman dressed who sat at the door of the fourth house on the right in the last street?" or, "What were the two men talking about whom we met at the corner of the last street but three?" or, "Where was the cab ordered to drive to, and what was its number?" "What is the height of that house and what is the width of its upper floor window?" and so on. Or the boy was given a minute to look in a shop window and then he had to describe all that was in it. Captain Cook, the great explorer and scout, was trained in the same way as a boy, and so was Houdin the great conjurer.

Every town scout should know, as a matter of course, where is the nearest chemist's shop (in case of accidents), the nearest police "fixed point," police-station, hospital, fire alarm, telephone, ambulance station, etc.

The scout must also have his eyes on the groundespecially along the edge of the pavement against the houses or in the gutter. I have often found valuable trinkets that have been dropped, and which have been walked over by numbers of people, and swept to one side by ladies' dresses without being noticed.

How the wearing of a hat shows character.How the wearing of a hat shows character.

How the wearing of a hat shows character.

When you are travelling by train or tram always notice every little thing about your fellow travellers; notice their faces, dress, way of talking and so on so that you could describe them each pretty accurately afterwards; and also try and make out from their appearance and behaviour whether they are rich or poor (which you can generally tell from their boots), and what is their probable business, whether they are happy, or ill, or in want of help.

But in doing this you must not let them see you arewatching them, else it puts them on their guard. Remember the shepherd-boy who noticed the gipsy's boots, but did not look at him and so did not make the gipsy suspicious of him.

Close observation of people and ability to read their character and their thoughts is of immense value in trade and commerce, especially for a shop-assistant or salesman in persuading people to buy goods, or in detecting would-be swindlers.

It is said that you can tell a man's character from the way he wears his hat. If it is slightly on one side, the wearer is good-natured: if it is worn very much on one side, he is a swaggerer: if on the back of his head, he is bad at paying his debts: if worn straight on the top, he is probably honest but very dull.

The way a man (or a woman) walks is often a good guide to his character—witness the fussy, swaggering little man paddling along with short steps with much arm-action, the nervous man's hurried, jerky stride, the slow slouch of the loafer, the smooth going and silent step of the scout, and so on.

I was once accused of mistrusting men with waxed moustaches. Well, so, to a certain extent, I do. It often means vanity and sometimes drink.

Certainly the "quiff" or lock of hair which some lads wear on their forehead is a sure sign of silliness. The shape of the face gives a good guide to the man's character.

Perhaps you can tell the character of these gentlemen?

Character of gentlemen.Character of gentlemen.

Character of gentlemen.

I was speaking with a detective not long ago about a gentleman we had both been talking to, and we were trying to make out his character. I remarked—"well, at any rate, he was a fisherman," but my companion could not see why: but then he was not a fisherman himself. I had noticed a lot of little tufts of cloth sticking upon the left cuff of his coat.

A good many fishermen, when they take their flies off the line, stick them into their cap to dry: others stick them into their sleeve. When dry they pull them out, which often tears a thread or two of the cloth.

It is an amusing practice when you are in a railway carriage or omnibus with other people to look only at their feet and guess without looking any higher what sort of people they are, old or young, well to do or poor, fat or thin, and so on, and then look up and see how near you have been to the truth.

Mr. Nat Goodwin, the American actor, once described to me how he went to see a balloon ascent at a time when he happened to be suffering from a stiff neck. He was only able to look down instead of up—and he could only see the feet of the people round him in the crowd so he chose among the feet those that he felt sure belonged to an affable kind-hearted man who would describe to him what the balloon was doing.

I once was able to be of service to a lady who was in poor circumstances, as I had guessed it from noticing, while walking behind her, that though she was well dressed the soles of her shoes were in the last stage of disrepair. I don't suppose she ever knew how I guessed that she was in a bad way.

But it is surprising how much of the sole of the boot you can see when behind a person walking—and it is equally surprising how much meaning you can read from that boot. It is said that to wear out soles and heels equally is to give evidence of business capacity and honesty; to wear your heels down on the outside means that you are a man of imagination and love of adventure; but heels worn down on the inside signify weakness and indecision of character, and this last signis more infallible in the case of man than in that of woman.

Remember how "Sherlock Holmes" met a stranger and noticed that he was looking fairly well-to-do, in new clothes with a mourning band on his sleeve, with a soldierly bearing, and a sailor's way of walking, sunburnt, with tattoo marks on his hands, and he was carrying some children's toys in his hand. What should you have supposed that man to be? Well! Sherlock Holmes guessed, correctly, that he had lately retired from the Royal Marines as a Sergeant, and his wife had died, and he had some small children at home.

It may happen to some of you that one day you will be the first to find the dead body of a man, in which case you will remember that it is your duty to examine and note down the smallest signs that are to be seen on and near the body before it is moved or the ground disturbed and trampled down. Besides noticing the exact position of the body (which should if possible be photographed exactly as found) the ground all round should be very carefully examined—without treading on it yourself more than is absolutely necessary, for fear of spoiling existing tracks. If you can also draw a little map of how the body lay and where the signs round it were, it might be of value.

Twice lately bodies have been found which were at first supposed to be those of people who had hanged themselves—but close examination of the ground round them, in one case some torn twigs and trampled grass, and in the other a crumpled carpet, showed that murder had been committed, and that the bodies had been hung after death to make it appear as though they had committed suicide.

Finger-marks should especially be looked for on any likely articles and if they do not correspond to those of the murdered man they may be those of his murderer,who could then be identified by comparing the impression with his fingers. Such a case occurred in India, where a man was found murdered and a bloody finger-mark on his clothes. The owner of the finger-mark was found, tried, and convicted.

In St. Petersburg in Russia a banker was found murdered. Near the body was found a cigar-holder with an amber mouthpiece. This mouthpiece was of peculiar shape and could only be held in the mouth in one position, and it had two teeth marks in it. These marks showed that the two teeth were of different lengths.

The teeth of the murdered man were quite regular, so the cigar-holder was evidently not his. But his nephew had teeth which corresponded to the marks on the mouthpiece, so he was arrested, and then further proof came up and showed that he was the murderer.

[Compare the story in "Sherlock Holmes' Memoirs" called "The Resident Patient" in which a man was found hanging and was considered to be a suicide till Sherlock Holmes came in and showed various signs such as cigar ends bitten by different teeth, footprints, and that three men had been in the room with the dead man for some time previous to his death and had hanged him.]

If you are in the country you should notice landmarks, that is objects which help you to find your way or prevent you getting lost, such as distant hills, church towers, and nearer objects such as peculiar buildings, trees, gates, rocks, etc.

And remember in noticing such landmarks that you may want to use your knowledge of them some day for telling someone else how to find his way, so you must notice them pretty closely so as to be able to describe them unmistakably and in their proper order. You must notice and remember every by-road and footpath.

Then you must also notice smaller signs such as birds getting up and flying hurriedly which means somebody or some animal is there; dust shows animals, men, or vehicles moving.

Of course when in the country you should notice just as much as in town all passers-by very carefully—how they are dressed, what their faces are like, and their way of walking, and examine their footmarks—and jot down a sketch of them in your notebook, so that you would know the footmark again if you found it somewhere else—(as the shepherd boy did in the story at the beginning of this book).

And notice all tracks—that is footmarks of men, animals, birds, wheels, etc., for from these you can read the most important information, as Captain d'Artagnan did in the story of the secret duel, of which I shall tell you later.

This track-reading is of such importance that I shall give you a lecture on that subject by itself.

Let nothing be too small for your notice, a button, a match, a cigar ash, a feather, or a leaf, might be of great importance.

A scout must not only look to his front but also to either side and behind him, he must have "eyes at the back of his head" as the saying is.

Often by suddenly looking back you will see an enemy's scout or a thief showing himself in a way that he would not have done had he thought you would look round.

There is an interesting story by Fenimore Cooper called "The Pathfinder" in which the action of a Red Indian scout is well described. He had "eyes at the back of his head," and after passing some bushes he caught sight of a withered leaf or two among the fresh ones which made him suspect that somebody might have put the leaves there to make a better hiding place, and so he discovered some hidden fugitives.

NIGHT SCOUTING.

A scout has to be able to notice small details just as much by night as by day and this he has to do chiefly by listening, occasionally by feeling or smelling.

In the stillness of the night sounds carry further than by day. If you put your ear to the ground or place it against a stick, or especially against a drum, which is touching the ground, you will hear the shake of horses' hoofs or the thud of a man's footfall a long way off. Another way is to open a knife with a blade at each end, stick one blade into the ground and hold the other between your teeth and you will hear all the better. The human voice, even though talking low, carries to a great distance and is not likely to be mistaken for any other sound.

I have often passed through outposts at night after having found where the picquets were posted by hearing the low talking of the men or the snoring of those asleep.

"Criminal Investigation" by Dr. Gross. Edited by John Adam. 30s.

"Aids to Scouting." 1s. (Gale and Polden.)

An Alarm Bell in Mafeking—"Look out for shells!"An Alarm Bell in Mafeking—"Look out for shells!"

An Alarm Bell in Mafeking—"Look out for shells!"

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.HOW TO TEACH OBSERVATION IN PRACTICE.

In Towns: Practise your boys first in walking down a street to notice the different kinds of shops as they pass and to remember them in their proper sequence at the end.

Then to notice and remember the names on the shops.

Then to notice and remember the contents of a shop window after two minutes' gaze. Finally to notice the contents of several shop windows in succession with half a minute at each.

The boys must also notice prominent buildings as landmarks; the number of turnings off the street they are using; names of other streets; details of horses and vehicles passing by; and—especially—details of the people as to dress, features, gait; numbers on motor cars, policemen, etc.

Take them the first time to show them how to do it; and after that send them out and on their return question them, as below.

Make them learn for themselves to notice and remember the whereabouts of all chemists' shops, fire alarms, police fixed points, ambulances, etc., etc.

In the Country: Take the patrol out for a walk and teach the boys to notice distant prominent features as landmarks such as hills, church steeples, and so on, and as nearer landmarks such things as peculiar buildings, trees, rocks, gates, etc. By-roads or paths, nature of fences, crops; different kinds of trees, birds, animals, tracks, etc., also people, vehicles, etc. Also any peculiar smells of plants, animals, manure, etc.

Then send them out a certain walk, and on their return have them in one by one and examine them verbally, or have them all in and let them write their answers on, say, six questions which you give them with reference to certain points which they should have noticed.

It adds to the value of the practice if you make a certain number of small marks in the ground beforehand, or leave buttons or matches, etc., for the boys to notice or to pick up and bring in (as a means of making them examine the ground close to them as well as distant objects).

Telling Character: Send scouts out for half an hour to look for, say, a brutish character, or a case of genteel poverty, etc.

The scout must on his return be able to describe the person accurately, and give the reasons which made him think the person was of the character he reports.

He should also state how many other characters he passed in his search, such as silly, good-natured, deceitful swaggering, wax-moustached, and so on, judging of course by their faces, their walk, their boots, hats, and clothing, etc.

Thimble Finding(Indoors).

Send the patrol out of the room.

Take a thimble, ring, coin, bit of paper, or any small article, and place it where it is perfectly visible but in a spot where it is not likely to be noticed. Let the patrol come in and look for it. When one of them sees it he should go and quietly sit down without indicating to the others where it is.

After a fair time he should be told to point it out to those who have not succeeded in finding it.

[This ensures his having really seen it.]

Shop Window(Outdoors in town).

Umpire takes a patrol down a street past six shops. Gives them half a minute at each shop, then, after moving them off to some distance, he gives each boy a pencil and card, and tells him to write from memory, or himself takes down what they noticed in, say, the third and fifth shops. The one who sets down most articles correctlywins. It is useful practice to match one boy against another in heats—the loser competing again, till you arrive at the worst. This gives the worst scouts the most practice.

Similar Game(Indoors).

Send each scout in turn into a room for half a minute; when he comes out take down a list of furniture and articles which he noticed. The boy who noticed most wins.

The simplest way of scoring is to make a list of the articles in the room on your scoring paper with a column for marks for each scout against them, which can then easily be totalled up at foot.

Spotting the Spot(Indoors—town or country).

Show a series of photos or sketches of objects, in the neighbourhood such as would be known to all the scouts if they kept their eyes open—such, for instance, as cross-roads, curious window, gargoyle or weathercock, tree, reflection in the water (guess the building causing it), and so on.

A pair of scouts can play most of the above competitions off between themselves, if they like, as a matter of practice.

Patrol leaders can match one pair of their scouts against another pair in the game, and thus get them really practised at it, and when they become really good he can challenge other patrols to compete against his.

Follow the Trail.

Send out a "hare," either walking or cycling, with a pocketful of corn, nutshells, confetti paper or buttons, etc., and drop a few here and there to give a trail for the patrol to follow.

Or go out with a piece of chalk and draw the patrol sign on walls, gateposts, pavements, lamp-posts, trees, etc., every here and there, and let the patrol hunt you by these marks. Patrols should wipe out all these marks as they pass them for tidiness, and so as not to mislead them for another day's practice.

The other road signs should also be used, such as closing up certain roads as not used, and hiding a letter at some point, giving directions as to the next turn.

Scouts' Nose(Indoors).

Prepare a number of paper-bags, all alike, and put in each a different smelling article such as chopped onion in one, tan in another, roseleaves, leather, aniseed, violet powder, orange-peel, etc. Put these packets in a row a couple of feet apart and let each competitor walk down the line and have five seconds' sniff at each. At the end he has one minute in which to write down or to state to the umpire the names of the different objects smelled, from memory, in their correct order.

Far and Near.(For town or country.)

Umpire goes along a given road or line of country with a patrol in patrol formation. He carries a scoring card with the name of each scout on it.

Each scout looks out for the details required and directly he notices one he runs to the umpire and informs him or hands in the article if it is an article he finds. The umpire enters a mark accordingly against his name. The scout who gains most marks in the walk, wins.

Details like the following should be chosen, to develop the scout's observation and to encourage him to look far and near, up and down, etc.

The details should be varied every time the game is played; and about 8 or 10 should be given at a time.

Every match found 1 mark.Every button found 1 mark.Birds' foot tracks 2 marks.Patch noticed on stranger's clothing or boots. 2 marks.Grey horse seen 2 marks.Pigeon flying 2 marks.Sparrow sitting 1 mark.Ash-tree 2 marks.Broken chimney pot 2 marks.Broken window 1 mark.

Every match found 1 mark.

Every button found 1 mark.

Birds' foot tracks 2 marks.

Patch noticed on stranger's clothing or boots. 2 marks.

Grey horse seen 2 marks.

Pigeon flying 2 marks.

Sparrow sitting 1 mark.

Ash-tree 2 marks.

Broken chimney pot 2 marks.

Broken window 1 mark.

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 6.SPOORING.

Men's Tracks—Animals' Tracks—How to Learn Spooring.—Hints to Instructor—Tracking Games—Books on Spooring.

General Dodge, of the American Army, describes how he once had to pursue a party of Red Indians who had been murdering some people.

The murderers had nearly a week's start and had gone away on horseback. But General Dodge got a splendid tracking-scout named Espinosa to help him. The Indians were all riding unshod horses, except one, and after Espinosa had been tracking them for many miles he suddenly got off his horse and pulled four horseshoes out of a hidden crevice in the rocks. The Indian had evidently pulled them off so that they should not leave a track.

For six days they pursued the band, and for a great part of the time there was so sign visible to an ordinary eye, and after going for 150 miles they eventually overtook and captured the whole party. But it was all entirely due to Espinosa's good tracking.

On another occasion some American troops were following up a number of Indians, who had been raiding and murdering whites, and they had some other Red Indian scouts to assist them in tracking. In order to make a successful attack, they marched by night, and the trackers found the way in the darkness by feeling the tracks of the enemy with their hands, and they went at a fairly good pace for many miles, merely touching the track with their fingers; but suddenly they halted andreported that the track they had been following had been crossed by a fresh track, and on the commanding officer going up, he found the Indians still holding the track with their hands, so that there should be no mistake. A light was brought and it was found that the new track was that of a bear which had walked across the trail of the enemy! So the march continued without further incident, and the enemy were surprised, and caught in the early hours of the morning.

The scout, Burnham, in South Africa, who was with Wilson's party when they were massacred on the Shangani River in Matabeleland, was sent away with a dispatch shortly before they were surrounded. He travelled during the night to escape observation of the enemy. He found his way by feeling for the tracks left in the mud by the column when it marched up there in the morning.

I myself led a column through an intricate part of the Matopo Mountains in Rhodesia by night to attack the enemy's stronghold which I had reconnoitred the previous day. I found the way by feeling my own tracks, sometimes with my hands and sometimes through the soles of my shoes which had worn very thin; and I never had any difficulty in finding the line.

Tracking, or following up tracks, is called by different names in different countries. Thus, in South Africa you would talk only of "spooring," that is, following up the "spoor"; in India it would be following the "pugs," or "pugging"; in America it is "trailing."

It is one of the principal ways by which scouts gain information, and hunters find their game. But to become a good tracker you must begin young, and practise it at all times when you are out walking, whether in town or country.

If at first you constantly remind yourself to do it you will soon find that you do it as a habit without having to remind yourself. And it is a very useful habit, and makes the dullest walk interesting.

Hunters when they are looking about in a country to find game first look for any tracks, old or new, to see ifthere are any animals in the country; then they study the newer marks to find out where the animals are hiding themselves; then, after they have found a fresh track, they follow it up till they find the animal and kill him; and afterwards they often have to retrace their own tracks to find their way back to camp. And war scouts do much the same as regards their enemies.

First of all you must be able to distinguish one man's footmark from that of another, by its size, shape, and nails, etc. And similarly the prints of horses and other animals.

From a man's track, that is, from the size of his foot and the length of his stride, you can tell, to a certain extent, his height.

In taking notes of a track you should pick out a well-marked print, very carefully measure its length, length of heel, with widest point of tread, width at waist, width of heel, number of rows of nails, and number of nails in each row, heel and toe-plates or nails, shape of nail-heads, etc.

It is best to make a diagram of the foot-print thus—nails missing.

You should also measure very carefully the length of the man's stride from the toe of one foot to the heel of the other.

Note to Instructor:Make each scout take off his own boot and draw a diagram of it on paper, putting in all nails and other points. Or, out of doors, give each scout the outline ready drawn of a foot-mark, and thenlet him find a foot-mark (or make his own) and fill in the details of nail-marks, etc.

Also, he should note down the length of stride taken, and how much the feet point outwards from the straight direction of their path.

A man was once found drowned in a river. It was supposed that he must have fallen in accidentally, and that the cuts on his head were caused by stones, etc., in the river. But some one took a drawing of his boots, and after searching the river bank came on his tracks, and followed them up to a spot where there had evidently been a struggle, the ground being much trampled and bushes broken down to the water's edge, and the track of two other men's feet. And though these men were never found, it showed the case to be one of probable murder, which would not otherwise have been suspected.

A scout must learn to recognise at a glance at what pace the maker of the tracks was going, and so on.

A man walking puts the whole flat of his foot on the ground, each foot a little under a yard from the other. In running the toes are more deeply dug into the ground, and a little dirt is kicked up, and the feet are more than a yard apart. Sometimes men walk backwards in order to deceive anyone who may be tracking, but a good scout can generally tell this at once by the stride being shorter, the toes more turned in, and the heels being tightly impressed.

With animals, if they are moving fast, their toes are more deeply dug into the ground, and they kick up the dirt, and their paces are longer than when going slowly.

You ought to be able to tell the pace at which a horse has been going directly you see the tracks.

At a walk the horse makes two pairs of hoof prints—the near (left) hind foot close in front of near forefoot mark, and the off (right) forefoot similarly just behind the print of the off hindfoot.

At a trot the track is similar but the stride is longer.

The hind feet are generally longer and narrower in shape than the forefeet.

HORSES' TRACKS.

Walking.Walking.

Walking.

Trotting.Trotting.

Trotting.

Canter.Canter.

Canter.

Galloping.Galloping. (O.H. = Off Hind, etc.)

Galloping. (O.H. = Off Hind, etc.)

Lame Horse Walking.Lame Horse Walking: Which leg is he lame in? (N.B.—The long feet are the hind feet.)

Lame Horse Walking: Which leg is he lame in? (N.B.—The long feet are the hind feet.)

Bird tracks.Bird tracks.

Bird tracks.

These are the tracks of two birds on the ground. One lives generally on the ground, the other in bushes and trees. Which track belongs to which bird?

Native trackers boast that not only can they tell a person's sex and age by their tracks, but also their characters. They say that people who turn out their toes much are generally "liars."

It was a trick with highwaymen of old, and with horse stealers more recently, to put their horses' shoes on wrong way round in order to deceive trackers who might try to follow them up, but a good tracker would not be taken in. Similarly, thieves often walk backwards for the same reason, but a clever tracker will very soon recognise the deception.

Track of (1) Bicycle and (2) Motor.Track of (1) Bicycle and (2) Motor.

Track of (1) Bicycle and (2) Motor.

Wheel tracks should also be studied till you can tell the difference between the track of a gun, a carriage, a country cart, motor-car, or a bicycle,and the direction they were going in. [See diagram.]

In addition to learning to recognise the pace of tracks, you must get to know how old they are. This is a most important point, and requires a very greatamount of practice and experience before you can judge it really well.

So much depends on the state of the ground and weather, and its effects on the "spoor." If you follow one track, say on a dry, windy day, over varying ground, you will find that when it is on light, sandy soil it will look old in a very short time, because any damp earth that it may kick up from under the surface will dry very rapidly to the same colour as the surface dust, and the sharp edges of the footmark will soon be rounded off by the breeze playing over the dry dust in which they are formed. When it gets into damp ground, the same track will look much fresher, because the sun will have only partially dried up the upturned soil, and the wind will not, therefore, have bevelled off the sharp edges of the impression, and if it gets into damp clay, under shade of trees, etc., where the sun does not get at it, the same track, which may have looked a day old in the sand, will here look quite fresh.

Of course, a great clue to the age of tracks will often be found in spots of rain having fallen on them since they were made (if you know at what time the rain fell), dust or grass seeds blown into them (if you noticed at what time the wind was blowing), or the crossing of other tracks over the original ones, or where the grass has been trodden down, the extent to which it has since dried or withered. In following a horse, the length of time since it passed can also be judged by the freshness, or otherwise, of the droppings—due allowance being made for the effect of sun, rain, or birds, etc., upon them.

Having learnt to distinguish the pace and age of spoor, you must next learn to follow it over all kinds of ground. This is an accomplishment that you can practice all you life, and you will still find yourself learning at the end of it—you will find yourself continually improving.

Then there is a great deal to learn from the ashes of fires—whether they are still warm or cold, scraps showing what kind of food the people were eating, whether plentiful or scarce.

You must not only keep a sharp look out for scout signs made by your own scouts, but also for those made by hostile scouts. Foreign scouts also have their private signs—as also do tramps. The following are some of the signs made by tramps on walls or fences near houses where they have been begging which they chalk up to warn others of their class:

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