CHAPTER II.

TRACKING;

or,

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

CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 5. OBSERVATION OF "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.

NOTICING SIGN.

"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 fresh scratch 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, is _to 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 way of 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 ground especially 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.

DETAILS OF PEOPLE.

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 are watching 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?

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 sign is 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.

SIGNS ROUND A DEAD BODY.

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._]

DETAILS IN THE COUNTRY.

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.

USING YOUR EYES.

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.

BOOKS TO READ ON OBSERVATION.

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

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

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS. HOW TO TEACH OBSERVATION IN PRACTICE.

_PRACTICES._

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.

GAMES IN OBSERVATION.

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 correctly wins. 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.

CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 6. SPOORING.

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

MEN'S TRACKS.

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 and reported 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 if there 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 then let 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.

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.

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 great amount 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:

There are very good native trackers in the Soudan and Egypt, and I saw some of their work there.

The Colonel of the Egyptian Cavalry had had some things stolen out of his house, so a tracker was sent for from the neighbouring Jaalin tribe.

He soon found the footprints of the thief and followed them a long way out on to the desert, and found the spot where he had buried the stolen goods. His tracks then came back to the barracks.

So the whole of the regiment was paraded without shoes on for the tracker to examine. And at the end when he had seen every man walk, he said, "No the thief is not there." Just then the Colonel's native servant came up to him with a message, and the tracker who was standing by said to the Colonel "That is the man who buried the stolen things."

The servant, surprised at being found out, then confessed that it was he who had stolen his master's property, thinking that he would be the last man to be suspected.

Mr. Deakin, the Premier of Australia, told me how he travelled on board ship with a number of natives of Australia who were on the sea for the first time in their lives.

When the ship got out to sea he noticed all these natives had got into the bows and were lying flat on the deck with their heads over the side staring intently into the water ahead of the ship. So interested were they in the water that for some time he could not get any reply to his question as to what they were looking at, till at length one of them said: "We cannot understand how the ship is finding its way across the sea; we cannot see the trail that it is following; we know that our eyes are sharp enough on shore and often when we are guiding white men along a trail they say they cannot see the tracks which to us are clear enough--their eyes are different to ours. But here at sea the English sailors evidently can see tracks ahead of them, otherwise they would not know which way to send the ship, and yet we, who are so good at seeing on shore, cannot see any sign of a track or mark on the water."

When getting on to very fresh spoor of man or beast, the old scout will generally avoid following it closely because the hunted animal will frequently look back to see if it is being followed. The tracker therefore makes a circle, and comes back on to where he would expect to find the spoor again. If he finds it, he makes another circle further ahead till he finds no spoor. Then he knows he is ahead of his game, so he gradually circles nearer and nearer till he finds it. See diagram.

HINTS TO SPOORING.

Some trackers of Scinde followed up a stolen camel from Karachi to Sehwan, 150 miles over sand and bare rock. The thieves, to escape detection, drove the camel up and down a crowded street, in order to get the trail mixed up with others--but the trackers foresaw this and made a "cast" round the town, and hit on the outgoing spoor on the far side, which they successfully followed up.

In tracking where the spoor is difficult to see, such as on hard ground, or in grass, note the direction of the last foot-print that you can see, then look on in the same direction, but well ahead of you, say 20 or 30 yards, and in grass you will generally see the blades bent or trodden, and on hard ground, possibly stones displaced or scratched, and so on, small signs which, seen in a line one behind the other, give a kind of track that otherwise would not be noticed. I once tracked a bicycle on a hard macadam road where it really made no impression at all, but by looking along the surface of the road for a long distance ahead of me, under the rising sun as it happened, the line it had taken was quite visible through the almost invisible coating of dew upon the ground. Standing on the track and looking upon it close to my feet I could not see the slightest sign of it. The great thing is to look for a difficult track _against_ the sun, so that the slightest dent in the ground throws a shadow.

If you lose sight of the track you must make a "cast" to find it again. To do this put your handkerchief, staff, or other mark at the first footmark that you noticed, then work round it in a wide circle, say 30, 50 or 100 yards away from it as a centre--choosing the most favourable ground, soft ground if possible, to find signs of the outward track. If you are with a patrol it is generally best for the patrol to halt while one or perhaps two men make the cast. If everybody starts trying to find the spoor they very soon defeat their object by treading it out or confusing it with their own footmarks--too many cooks easily spoil the broth in such a case.

In making a cast use your common-sense as to which direction the enemy has probably taken, and try it there. I remember an instance of tracking a boar which illustrates what I mean. The boar had been running through some muddy inundated fields, and was easy enough to follow until he turned off over some very hard and stony ground, where after a little while not a sign of his spoor was to be seen. A cast had accordingly to be made. The last footmark was marked, and the tracker moved round a wide circle, examining the ground most carefully, but not a sign was found. Then the tracker took a look round the country, and, putting himself in place of the pig, said "Now which direction would I have gone in?" Some distance to the front of him, as the original track led, stood a long hedge of prickly cactus; in it were two gaps. The tracker went to one of these as being the line the boar would probably take. Here the ground was still very hard, and no footmark was visible, but on a leaf of the cactus in the gap was a pellet of wet mud; and this gave the desired clue; there was no mud on this hard ground, but the pig had evidently brought some on his feet from the wet ground he had been travelling through. This one little sign enabled the tracker to work on in the right direction to another and another, until eventually he got on to the spoor again in favourable ground, and was able to follow up the boar to his resting place.

I have watched a tracker in the Soudan following tracks, where for a time they were quite invisible to the ordinary eye in this way. While the track was clear he made his own stride exactly to fit that of the track, so that he walked step for step with it, and he tapped the ground with his staff as he walked along--ticking off each footprint as it were. When the footprints disappeared on hard ground, or had been buried by drifting sand he still walked on at the same place tap-tapping the ground with his staff at the spot where there ought to have been a footprint. Occasionally one saw a slight depression or mark which showed that there had been a footprint there, and thus he knew he was still on the right line.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS. PRACTICES IN TRACKING.

1. _The Instructor should make his scouts prepare a well-rolled or flattened piece of ground (about ten or fifteen yards square) and make one boy walk across it, then run, and then bicycle across it. Part of the ground should be wet as if by rain, the other part dry._

_He can then explain the difference in the tracks so that scouts can tell at once from any tracks they may see afterwards whether a person was walking or running._

_If possible, a day later make fresh tracks alongside the old and notice the difference in appearance so that the scouts can learn to judge the age of tracks._

_Then make tracks of various kinds overrunning each other such as a bicycle meeting a boy on foot, each going over the other's tracks, and let the scouts read the meaning._

2. _Send out a boy with "Tracking Irons" on and let the patrol track him and notice when any other tracks override his, showing what people or animals have passed since._

_N.B. Tracking irons are an invention of Mr. Thompson Seton's and can be strapped on to soles of scout's boots (like a pair of skates) so that wherever he goes he leaves a track similar to that of a deer._

TRACKING GAMES. PRACTICES AND GAMES IN SPOORING.

TRACK MEMORY.

Make a patrol sit with their feet up so that other scouts can study them. Give the scouts, say, three minutes to study the boots. Then leaving the scouts in a room or out of sight let one of the patrol make some footmarks in a good bit of ground. Call up the scouts one by one and let them see the track and say who made it.

TRACK DRAWING

Take out a patrol; set them on to one foot-track. Award a prize to the scout who makes the most accurate drawing of one of the footprints of the track. The scouts should be allowed to follow up the track till they get to a bit of ground where a good impression of it can be found.

FOR HONOURS.

SPOT THE THIEF.

Get a stranger to make a track unseen by the scouts. The scouts study his track so as to know it again.

Then put the stranger among eight or ten others and let them all make their tracks for the boys to see, going by in rotation. Each scout then in turn whispers to the umpire which man made the original track--describing him by his number in filing past. The scout who answers correctly wins; if more than one answers correctly, the one who then draws the best diagram, from memory, of the foot-print wins.

This game may also be carried out as a test for marks towards a badge of honour. Correct detection of the thief counts two marks; if good diagram is also drawn another mark may be added.

"SMUGGLERS OVER THE BORDER."

The "Border" is a certain line of country about four hundred yards long, preferably a road or wide path or bit of sand, on which foot-tracks can easily be seen. One patrol watches the border with sentries posted along this road, with a reserve posted further inland. This should be about half-way between the "border" and the "town," the "town" would be a base marked by trees, buildings, or flags, etc., about half a mile distant from the border. A hostile patrol of smugglers assembles about half a mile on the other side of the border. They will all cross the border, in any formation they please, either singly or together or scattered, and make for the town, either walking or running, or at scout's pace. Only one among them is supposed to be smuggling, and he wears tracking irons, so that the sentries walk up and down their beat (they may not run till after the 'alarm'), waiting for the tracks of the smuggler. Directly a sentry sees the track, he gives the alarm signal to the reserve and starts himself to follow up the track as fast as he can. The reserve thereupon co-operate with them and try to catch the smuggler before he can reach the town. Once within the boundary of the town he is safe and wins the game.

BOOKS TO READ ON SPOORING.

"Lectures on Tracking": _Cavalry Journal_ Office, Whitehall, S.W.

"Scouting and reconnaissance in Savage Countries": Captain. Stigand.

"Tracks of Wild Animals."

CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 7. READING "SIGN" OR DEDUCTION.

Putting this and that together--Sherlock-Holmesism--Instances of Deduction--Hints to Instructors--Practice in Deduction--Books on Deduction.

When a scout has learned to notice "sign," he must then learn to "put this and that together," and so read a _meaning_ from what he has seen. This is called "deduction." Here is an example of what I mean which was lately given in the "Forest and Stream," which shows how the young scout can read the meaning from "sign" when he has been trained to it.

A cavalry soldier had got lost and some of his comrades were hunting all over the country to find him, when they came across a native boy, and asked him if he had seen the lost man. He immediately said: "Do you mean a very tall soldier, riding a roan horse that was slightly lame?"

They said, "Yes; that was the man. Where did you see him?"

The boy replied "I have not seen him, but I know where he has gone."

Thereupon they arrested him, thinking that probably the man had been murdered and made away with, and that the boy had heard about it.

But eventually he explained that he had seen tracks of the man which he could point out to them.

Finally he brought them to a place where the signs showed that the man had made a halt. The horse had rubbed itself against a tree, and had left some of its hairs sticking to the bark which showed that it was a roan horse; its hoof marks showed that it was lame, that is, one foot was not so deeply indented on the ground and did not take so long a pace as the other feet. That the rider was a soldier was shown by the imprint of his boot which was an army boot. Then they asked the boy "How could you tell that he was a tall man?" and the boy pointed out to where the soldier had broken a branch from the tree which would have been out of reach of a man of ordinary height. Deduction exactly like reading a book.

A boy who has never been taught to read and who sees you reading from a book would ask "How do you do it?" and you would point out to him that a number of small signs on a page are letters; these letters when grouped form words; and words form sentences; and sentences give information.

Similarly a trained scout will see little signs and tracks, he puts them together in his mind and quickly reads a meaning from them such as an untrained man would never arrive at.

And from frequent practice he gets to read the meaning at a glance just as you do a book without the delay of spelling out each word, letter by letter.

I was one day, during the Matabele war [_Show on map_] with a native out scouting near to the Matopo Hills over a wide grassy plain. Suddenly we crossed a track freshly made in grass, where the blades of grass were still green and damp though pressed down; all were bending one way which showed the direction in which the people had been travelling; following up the track for a bit it got on to a patch of sand, and we then saw that it was the spoor of several women (small feet with straight edge, and short steps), and boys (small feet, curved edge and longer strides) walking not running, towards the hills, about five miles away; where we believed the enemy to be hiding.

Then we saw a leaf lying about ten yards off the track--There were no trees for miles, but we knew that trees having this kind of leaf grew at a village fifteen miles away, in the direction from which the footmarks were coming. It seemed likely therefore that the women had come from that village, bringing the leaf with them, and had gone to the hills.

On picking up the leaf we found it was damp, and smelled of native beer. The short steps showed that the women were carrying loads. So we guessed that according to the custom they had been carrying pots of native beer on their heads, the mouths of the pots being stopped up with bunches of leaves. One of these leaves had fallen out; but we found it ten yards off the track, which showed that at the time it fell a wind was blowing. There was no wind now, _i.e._, seven o'clock, but there had been one about five o'clock.

So we guessed from all these little signs that a party of women and boys had brought beer during the night from the village 15 miles away and had taken it to the enemy on the hills, arriving there soon after six o'clock.

The men would probably start to drink the beer at once (as it goes sour in a few hours), and would, by the time we could get there, be getting sleepy and keeping a bad look-out, so we should have a favourable chance of looking at their position.

We accordingly followed the women's track, found the enemy, made our observations and got away with our information without any difficulty.

And it was chiefly done on the evidence of that one leaf. So you see the importance of noticing even a little thing like that.

INSTANCES OF DEDUCTION.

Mr. Tighe Hopkins writing in "World's Work" describes how by noticing very small signs detectives have discovered crimes.

In one case a crime had been committed and a stranger's coat was found which gave no clue to the owner. The coat was put into a stout bag and beaten with a stick. The dust was collected from the bag and examined under a powerful magnifying glass and was found to consist of fine sawdust which showed that the owner of the coat was probably a carpenter, or sawyer, or joiner. The dust was then put under a more powerful magnifying glass--called a microscope--and it was then seen that it also contained some tiny grains of gelatine and powdered glue. These things are not used by carpenters or sawyers, so the coat was shown to belong to a joiner, and the police got on the track of the criminal.

Dust out of pockets, or in the recesses of a pocket-knife, and so on, if closely examined, tells a great deal.

Then on another occasion a murder was committed, and close by a cap was found which did not belong to the victim, so probably it belonged to the murderer. Two hairs were found sticking to the lining of the cap; they were carefully taken to Dr. Emile Pfaff, a celebrated observer. He examined the hairs under a microscope and was able to read from them that the owner of the cap was "A man of middle age, strong, inclined to be fat; black hair with some grey among it, getting bald; lately had his hair cut."

In this way a clue was got to the appearance of the murderer.

Dr. Bell of Edinburgh is said to be the original from whom Sir Conan Doyle drew his idea of Sherlock Holmes.

The doctor was once teaching a class of medical students at a hospital how to doctor people. A patient was brought in, so that the doctor might show how an injured man should be treated. The patient in this case came limping in, and the doctor turned to one of the students and asked him:

"What is the matter with this man?"

The student replied, "I don't know, sir. I haven't asked him yet."

The doctor said, "Well, there is no need to ask him, you should see for yourself--he has injured his right knee; he is limping on that leg: he injured it by burning it in the fire; you see how his trouser is burnt away at the knee. This is Monday morning. Yesterday was fine; Saturday was wet and muddy. The man's trousers are muddy all over. He had a fall in the mud on Saturday night."

Then he turned to the man and said, "You drew your wages on Saturday and got drunk, and in trying to get your clothes dry by the fire when you got home you fell on the fire and burnt your knee--Isn't that so?"

"Yes, sir," replied the man.

I saw a case in the paper last week where a judge at the county court used his powers of "noticing little things," and "putting this and that together." He was trying a man as a debtor.

The man pleaded that he was out of work, and could get no employment.

The judge said--"Then what are you doing with that pencil behind your ear if you are not in business?"

The man had to admit that he had been helping his wife in her business, which, it turned out, was a very profitable one, and the judge thereupon ordered him to pay his debt.

Dr. Reiss, of the Police Department of the University of Lausanne, records how the police read the spoor.

A burglary had taken place in a house, and the thief's footprints were found in the garden. Those going towards the house were not so deeply impressed as those coming away from it nor were they so close together; from this the police gathered that the burglar had carried away with him a heavy load which made him take short steps and he was fully weighted down so that they sank deeply in the ground.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS. HOW TO TEACH DEDUCTION IN PRACTICE.

_Read aloud a story in which a good amount of observation of details occur, with consequent deductions, such as in either the "Memoirs" or the "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes."_

_Then question the boys afterwards as to which details suggested certain solutions, to see that they really have grasped the method._

_Follow up ordinary tracks and deduce their meaning. For examples of daily practice see my book of "Aids to Scouting."_

EXAMPLE OF PRACTICE IN DEDUCTION.

A simple deduction from signs noticed in my walk one morning on a stony mountain path in Kashmir.

_Sign Observed_--Tree-stump, about three feet high, by the path. A stone about the size of a cocoanut lying near it, to which were sticking some bits of bruised walnut rind, dried up. Some walnut rind also lying on the stump. Further along the path, 30 yards to the south of the stump, were lying bits of walnut shell of four walnuts. Close by was a high sloping rock, alongside the path. The only walnut tree in sight was 150 yards north of the stump.

At the foot of the stump was a cake of hardened mud which showed the impression of a grass shoe.

What would you make out from those signs? My solution of it was this:

A man had gone southward on a long journey along the path two days ago, carrying a load; and had rested at the rock while he ate walnuts.

My deductions were these:

It was a man carrying a load, because carriers when they want to rest do not sit down, but rest their load against a sloping rock and lean back. Had he had no load he would probably have sat down on the stump, but he preferred to go 30 yards further to where the rock was. Women do not carry loads there, so it was a man. But he first broke the shells of his walnuts on the tree-stump with the stone, having brought them from the tree 150 yards north. So he was travelling south, and he was on a long journey, as he was wearing shoes, and not going barefooted as he would be if only strolling near his home. Three days ago there was rain, the cake of mud had been picked up while the ground was still wet--but it had not been since rained upon and was now dry. The walnut rind was also dry and confirmed the time that had elapsed.

There is no important story attached to this, but it is just an example of everyday practice which should be carried out by scouts.

_GAMES AND COMPETITIONS IN DEDUCTION._

_Get some people who are strangers to the boys to come along as passers-by in the street or road, and let the boys separately notice all about them; and after an interval ask each for a full description of each of the passers-by as to appearance, peculiar recognisable points, and what he guesses his business to be; or let each boy have two minutes' conversation with your friend and try to find out what he can about him in that time by questioning and observation._

_Set a room or prepare a piece of ground with small signs, tracks, etc., read aloud the story of the crime up to that point and let each boy or each patrol in turn examine the scene for a given time and then privately give each his solution of it._

_The very simplest, most elementary schemes should be given at first, and they can gradually be elaborated. For instance take a number of footmarks and spent matches by a tree showing where a man had difficulty in lighting his pipe, etc._

_For a more finished theme take a mystery like that in "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" called "The Resident Patient." Set a room to represent the patient's room where he was found hanging, with footprints of muddy boots on the carpet, cigar ends bitten or cut in the fireplace, cigar ashes, screw-driver and screws, etc. Put down a strip or "stepping stones" of stuff, handkerchiefs, or paper on which the competitors shall walk (so as not to confuse existing tracks). Let each scout (or patrol) come in separately and have three minutes in which to investigate. Then to go out and give in his solution, written or verbal, half an hour later._

_Let one patrol make tracks by carrying out such a series as that which D'Atagnan elucidated. The other patrol then acts as detectives and endeavours to unravel the mystery from the tracks and other sign._

PLAY.

Any one of Sherlock Holmes stories makes a good play.

BOOKS TO READ.

"Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes."

"Adventures of Sherlock Holmes."

"The Thinking Machine" which contains a number of stories like Sherlock Holmes.

"Criminal Investigation" by Dr. Gross. Edited by J. Adam. (Published by Specialist Press, London.)