104 MARKS LEFT BY GAME. 



or merely speaking at random and which the intelli- 

 gent young sportsman will at once see the sense of; 

 he must however guard himself against exaggerating 

 the quantity of game which these footmarks repre- 

 sent, a matter which is a very common source of 

 error, particularly in the vicinity of drinking places. 

 The margins of desert pools for instance, are often 

 marked by such numerous footprints that one might 

 easily be led to suppose that a very large number of 

 animals had drank at their waters on the previous 

 night; whereas a comparatively small band of thirsty 

 beasts, trampling backwards and forwards, and jostling 

 each other at the water's edge, may account for a very 

 large number of these tracks. 



The trails leading down to the water therefore, 

 and the ground for some distance all round its margins 

 should be carefully examined : and thus a fair estimate 

 of the game frequenting it can generally be arrived 

 at. It has been commonly remarked that even where 

 no actual game paths exist, animals nearly always 

 take certain fixed directions when approaching a spring, 

 and in districts where water is scarce they may travel 

 long distances to reach a favourite water hole, where 

 experience has taught them the precious fluid is always 

 to be found. These facts will therefore readily account 

 for very large numbers of tracks found at, and around, 

 places of this sort; while it may be that little or no 

 game is to be found near them, or even for long dis- 

 tances all round during the day time. " One of the 

 first and most ineradicable ideas" (says the author of 

 the American 'Still-Hunter') "the beginner gets is, 

 that there are about ten or twenty times as many deer 

 about him as there really are." 



