50 North American Forests and Forestry 



discoverable, but generally the trail was nothing 

 but a succession of landmarks. A spring, a natural 

 meadow, a striking rock, a peculiarly shaped tree, 

 these were the things which from time to time 

 proved to the wanderer that he had not " lost the 

 trail." Often it took all the skill and experience of 

 the woodsman to find these marks, which some- 

 times were nothing but the faintest evidences show- 

 ing that people had passed here before evidences 

 which by the novice in woodcraft could not be dis- 

 cerned at all. Far as these trails were even from the 

 simplest idea of a road, they were by no means use- 

 less ; for they generally led through the portions 

 of the wilderness most easily traversed, avoiding as 

 far as possible the impenetrable swamps and wind- 

 falls, and crossing the rivers at the best fordable 

 places. Of more importance was the trail by prov- 

 ing to the traveller from time to time that he was 

 not lost, but walking in the right direction. To 

 those unacquainted with travel in the forest it is 

 sometimes hard to understand the fear the natives 

 have of getting lost in the woods, but a little expe- 

 rience soon convinces them and often throws them 

 into the opposite extreme of an unreasonable horror 

 of leaving the beaten path. It is frequently said 

 that it would be an easy matter to get lost in a forty- 

 acre piece of forest, and there is some truth in the 

 statement. On account of the many fallen trunks 

 one has to climb over or go around, and in places 

 the dense underbrush, it is very difficult to keep 

 one's direction. An experienced woodsman, of 



