THE FATAL CIRCLE 27 



it that lost persons have not the gumption to follow 

 the sun, or to move in a line from one fixed object to 

 another ? " There is very great ignorance on such points 

 as these. " I was told if I kept my back to the sun I 

 couldn't go wrong," said a man who was found in a state 

 of exhaustion on the Bogan plains. It is not worth while 

 to inquire which was the more ignorant, the person who 

 gave this advice, or he who was guided by it ; but it was 

 the cause of the latter moving round in a circle, from which 

 he could not break away, although in a very few hours he 

 discovered that he was going wrong. Following fixed 

 objects is also a very uncertain and unsafe plan, for it is 

 impossible to keep the attention fixed for long on obscure 

 objects such as trees, bushes, boulders, and so on, in a 

 country where the scene is constantly, though perhaps 

 but slightly, changing. The educated traveller has a 

 compass, and this is a sure but troublesome guide ; the 

 true bushman relies on his instinct — an instinct that soon 

 comes with experience and practice — and this is an even 

 surer guide than the compass. The compass cannot lead 

 to water or to the best route. These and other necessary 

 or desirable objects seem to be as discoverable by the 

 bushman's instinct as surely as they are by that of the 

 brute or the bird. Certainly, a bushman or a native black 

 will strike a straight line from place to place over any 

 description of country and for any distance. If they are 

 compelled to diverge from the true line for a time to avoid 

 impediments, as lakes, marshes, or hills, they nevertheless 

 have no difficulty in resuming the true direction as soon 

 as the obstacle is passed. 



The instinct of the native blackfellow in this respect 

 is passing wonderful. Nobody ever heard of a black 

 perishing from inability to look after himself in the desert ; 

 and if anyone asserted that he had known of such a case, 

 I should receive his statement with much doubt. The 

 black never perishes from hunger or thirst, or from being 

 out of his latitude. Game is scarce sometimes, and he 

 strives to numb the craving of his stomach by tightening 

 his hunger-belt, but he never dies of actual starvation. 



