I90 SCOUTING 



lives at ease, it would be an error to suppose 

 him unobservant. In wild countries one's life 

 depends on alertness. 



Few range men trust a compass, which may 

 be lost or broken, is hard to read at night, 

 difficult to steady at any time, and apt to 

 point at one's gun. Point the hour hand of 

 your watch at the sun, and half way to XII is 

 south (for the northern hemisphere). If the 

 sky is overcast polish a coin or finger nail and 

 hold a match or a pin upon it vertically. 

 The upright match will cast a shadow made by 

 the unseen sun. 



So much for the rule of thumb, but one's 

 real rehance is on the indications of the land- 

 scape : the reading of trees and bushes as 

 shaped by the prevalent wind ; the reading 

 of rocks or tree trunks for any mosses or 

 lichens which grow on the side (north for 

 northern hemisphere) on which the sun does 

 not shine ; and sundry other signs local to 

 different regions. 



The constant habit of locating north grows 

 to an instinct. In Petrograd, as a stranger 

 unable to ask questions or read signs in 

 Russian, on level alluvial land, in a thick winter 

 night, without having seen one inch of the 

 route before, I w^as able to walk by the shortest 



