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a circle. One cause of this was that it was night, and that I 

 could not tell by leaves, trees, or footsteps where I was going; 

 I was therefore compelled to sleep alone in the lonely forest 

 and amid wild animals more than once incidents by no means 

 pleasant. Had not my companions been better backwoodsmen 

 than I was, I would, in all probability, have been lost, for I 

 was in a portion of the forest where it would have been almost 

 impossible to track me, and where I must have died of hunger. 

 I learned from these incidents not to travel in unknown forests 

 without a compass; to take bearings of all the prominent 

 landmarks, and the peculiarities of the trees on my route ; and 

 not to depend on the sound of a horn to lead me to camp in a 

 region covered with woods and seamed by canyons, as the 

 latter cause an echo to sound in every direction, and to repeat 

 it from so many quarters at the same time that one gets 

 bewildered. I have been much in the forest since then, and 

 though I have sometimes had to grope my way through it in 

 doubting fear, yet, by carrying a compass, I was always enabled 

 to reach my destination in time enough to prevent any 

 apprehensions about my safety. It may be all well enough 

 for persons who know a piece of woods as well as they do their 

 own kitchen to smile at the caxition of those who carry a 

 compass to guide them back to camp ; yet I, for one, would 

 advise the sporting novice to pay no heed to their criticisms, and 

 to consider life, or even the danger of getting lost, of much more 

 importance than any idle ridicule; I would therefore never 

 move out without one, even if it were only for a distance of a 

 few miles, unless I was familiar with the country. 



After some experience in woodcraft, and learning to be a care- 

 ful observer, one may find camp in the densest forest almost as 

 easily as he would in a glade. The first thing in starting out 

 in the morning is to note the position of the encampment and 

 its immediate surroundings, paying particular attention to any 

 peculiar or prominent landmarks, streams, tarns or rocks, and 

 the direction in which they lie from it. The region traversed 

 during the day, if one is alone, should also be impressed on 

 the memory ; or it might be " blazed " at intervals by scoring 

 trees with a knife, breaking the boughs of some of the shrub- 



