couple of hours* chase with all its twists and turns 

 and doublings ; but when camp is made on a known 

 road a l on g main road that strikes a fair line between 

 two points of the compass it seems impossible for 

 any one to be hopelessly lost. If the road runs east 

 and west you, knowing on which side you left it, 

 have only to walk north or south steadily and you must 

 strike it again. The old hands told the beginners 

 this, and we were glad to know that it was only a 

 matter of walking for a few hours, more or less, and 

 that in the end we were bound to find the road and 

 strike some camp. "Yes," said the old hands, "it is 

 simple enough here where you have a road running 

 east and west ; there is only one rule to remember : 

 When you have lost your way, don't lose your head." 

 But indeed that is just the one rule that you are quite 

 unable to observe. 



Many stories have been told of men being lost : 

 many volumes could be filled with them for the trouble 

 of writing down what any hunter will tell you. But 

 no one who has not seen it can realise how the thing 

 may happen ; no one would believe the effect that 

 the terror of being lost, and the demoralisation which 

 it causes, can have on a sane man's senses. If you 

 want to know what a man can persuade himself to 

 believe against the evidence of his senses even when 

 his very life depends upon his holding to the absolute 

 truth then you should see a man who is lost in the 

 bush. He knows that he left the road on the north 

 side ; he loses his bearings ; he does not know how long, 

 how fast, or how far he has walked ; yet if he keep 



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