

260 AUSTRALIAN NATIVE TRACKERS. 



" Australian black-boys (says the author of the Austral- 

 ian Graziers ' Guide) are matchless trackers, and can 

 run the trail of horses if they stray, or guide the party 

 to the last camp, however involved their wanderings, 

 with wonderful certainty." * Or in the words of an 

 old Australian pioneer of very great experience, spoken 

 to ourselves, " All you have to do when you send a 

 black-boy in search of anything lost, is to sit down 

 and wait till he returns. If it is still above ground, 

 he will be sure to find it and bring it. " 



So also speaking of the Hottentot trackers, Mr. Bur- 

 chell, chief of the British Government Exploring Ex- 

 pedition at the beginning of this century, thus expresses 

 himself 



" These Africans pay an extraordinary degree of attention 

 to every little circumstance connected with the habits and 

 mode of life of the wild animals in their country, though 

 they so closely resemble each other that few European eyes 

 would see the difference, even if it were pointed out to them. 

 The footsteps of some are too remarkable to be mistaken, 

 but with respect to others, they are obliged to examine not 

 only their form, but even their distance apart, and their 

 greater or less depth of impression ; they are thus enabled 

 to tell a heavy animal from a lighter one. In estimating the 

 time since the animal passed, they consider the effect of the 

 weather, sun, wind, or rain. If the impression was made 

 upon wet ground but is partly filled with leaves, dust, or 

 sand, then they know the animal passed since the last shower, 

 but before the storm of wind." t 



This paragraph gives a good general idea of the 

 modus operandi of native trackers; the hunter should 



* The Australian Graziers' Guide (Cattle), by Silver & Co., 1881. 

 t Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, by W. J. Burchell, 

 1822, Vol. ii, p. 92. 



