1 88 Footprints 



walked alone in the woods, for I was but 

 the companion of a worker, not one myself. 

 It occurred to me that when we read of 

 hunters, or perhaps have followed a trapper 

 in his rounds, we have been led to think that 

 footprints are animal autography that the 

 initiated can read without hesitation. To 

 distinguish the track of a rabbit from that of 

 a raccoon is readily done, and we can go 

 much further, and determine whether the 

 animal was walking or running, made a leap 

 here or squatted there ; but can we go to any 

 length, and decipher every impress an animal 

 may have made in passing over the sand or 

 mud ? I think not. I have seen a twig sent 

 spinning a long distance up the beach at low 

 tide, making a line of equidistant marks that 

 were extremely life-like in appearance. A 

 cloud of dead leaves have so dotted an ex- 

 panse of mud that a gunner insisted there 

 had been a flock of plover there a few mo- 

 ments before he arrived. All depends, or 

 very much does, on the condition of the sur- 

 face marked. If very soft and yielding, the 

 plainest bird-tracks may be distorted, and a 

 mere dot, on the other hand, may have its 

 outline so broken as to appear as though made 



