TRAILING. 411 



with his long wiping stick to most unmistakable ' sign ' in 

 the droppings of the horse. For more than 100 miles, 

 over the most difficult country, did this remarkable man 

 follow the single track, scarcely ever at a loss, and only 

 once or twice dismounting from his horse to examine the 

 ground more closely, until finally we came to where the 

 Indians had united. 



Once again, with Espinosa as guide, I was in pursuit 

 of a large party of Comanches. On reaching the head 

 spring of the Perdinales, I found that they had there 

 made a halt of several days, that the whole vicinity was 

 marked with footprints of horses, and that, after the 

 Indians had left, the prairie had been burned, obliterating 

 the trail. Sending Espinosa to work out the problem, I 

 went into camp with my party. He returned at night- 

 fall, having laboured patiently for six or seven hours. 

 He had not succeeded, but was confident. By dawn 

 he was out. About 11 o'clock I rode out on his trail, 

 easily followed in the black ashes, and found him just 

 about to return to me. He had succeeded. "We returned 

 to camp. The command, all ready, marched rapidly in 

 rear of Espinosa for a dozen miles, when we struck the 

 trail. That night Espinosa explained how he had managed. 

 Going down the river from the camping ground of the 

 Indians, so far as to be sure he was beyond the range of ' 

 feeding horses, he made a circuit, the camp as centre, 

 carefully examining the ground. He soon discovered 

 ' sign,' and, dismounting from his horse, he went down on 

 his hands and knees, and with his breath blew away the 

 light ashes, until sufficient prints were discovered to show 

 the direction of the trail. Mounting his horse he con- 

 tinued his circuit, finding other sign, and fixing in the 

 same way the direction of the trails, which he discovered 

 diverged from each other like lines from the centre of a 

 circle. Next day he went out and tried the trails about 

 four miles from camp to find them still diverging. 

 Another trail a mile and a half beyond, discovered them, 



