GETTING LOST IN THE WILDERNESS. 93 



comer should always remember that it is a matter of 

 exceeding danger for a novice to go off alone in 

 quest of game, a thing which should never be attempted 

 by anyone unaccustomed to the wilderness. He should 

 never go anywhere out of actual sight of camp unless 

 he is accompanied by some one or more trustworthy 

 persons, competent to act as guides and counsellors 

 in finding his way about. The number of serious and 

 fatal accidents that have from time to time occurred 

 by disregard of such precautions, has been very 

 numerous; indeed after a careful study of the works 

 of great travellers, we find that there is scarcely an 

 individual who has not his own particular tale to tell 

 of the troubles of this kind which have befallen him 

 at one time or another during his career. Even the 

 most experienced white hunters at times seem to lose 

 their reckoning, becoming, what used to be known in 

 the Far West in the early days of exploration, as 

 "turned round." Experienced rangers, if out alone in 

 the woods or on the plains, when they found themselves 

 affected in this way, used to go into camp and wait 

 until this peculiar affection of the nervous system passed 

 off, which it generally used to do of itself after a short 

 time. * On the other hand, the savage seems to be 

 proof against these influences; and excepting during 

 dense fogs, or other altogether exceptional circumstances 

 lasting for a short time, his sense of direction seems 

 never to fail him, and he can no more get lost in his 

 native forests, or on his boundless plains and deserts r 

 than a Londoner in his maze of streets. 



Another reason why, in the forest especially, no man 



* See The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Col. R. L 

 Dodge, U.S.A., 1877, pp. 4648. 



