CHAPTER XVII. 

 Lost in the Woods. 



ONE writer contends that the pocket compass is but very little 

 use to a man in a dense forest. This, I think, depends 

 largely upon circumstances. While the writer has spent a 

 good portion of fifty years almost continuously in the 

 woods, he has seldom found it necessary to use a compass to 

 guide him out. Now this is due partly to the natural faculty of 

 locating any particular place. This faculty of locating any cer- 

 tain place or point by giving or knowing the proper direction to 

 take after one has traveled all day or for several days in the 

 woods, I am inclined to credit to a sort of natural instinct. 



I have often thought of the story }f the Indian who was met 

 by a man in the woods who asked the Indian if he was lost. The 

 reply was, "No, me ain't lost, wigwam lost, me here." Now I 

 can say without boasting that it is seldom that the camp or a 

 given point gets lost with me, while it is not an uncommon occur- 

 rence for the writer to get lost or rather bothered himself in a 

 strange locality. But after a moment's thought, I say the camp 

 or the point I wish to reach is in that direction, and it is not 

 often that I miss my calculation. 



As I have had several occasions to search for parties lost in 

 the woods, I wish to relate a particular instance of one man who 

 was lost. It was an uncle of mine by the name of Nelson, and 

 the writer went in search of him. To illustrate that those who are 

 lost lose their heads as soon as they find that they do not know 

 where they are. 



Now I wish to say that if you lost your course or get bothered 

 in your bearings, do not lose your head, for if you do you are lost, 

 but keep cool and keep your head. Sit down and fill your pipe, 

 and while you smoke draw a map of the country carefully in 



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