646 WOODCRAFT. 



" Bewildered persons frequently travel in a perfect circle, some- 

 times keeping the same track until they have made half a dozen 

 equal rounds ; at other times making the circle larger or smaller 

 each time. It is not, by any means, always the case, when a per- 

 son is lost ; but it is so frequent that it is within the experience of 

 every one who has been much in the woods. In calm and cloudy 

 (veather in a country of much sameness of appearance, the best 

 woodsmen get so bewildered as to " take the circles." Persons 

 not accustomed to the woods will sometimes do so, when the sun 

 is shining and a steady breeze blowing. On the level or gulf prai- 

 ries of this country on a calm, foggy morning, no man can travel 

 without a road. It is an incident of every day occurrence in the 

 spring and fall seasons, that men are thus becalmed on the prairie 

 as effectually as men are at sea ; nor will a compass mend the 

 matter, for it cannot be carried steadily enough to keep its merid- 

 ian, and the course it points cannot be kept for fifty yards ; if a 

 man attempts it he will make a circle and come back to the place 

 he started from. The circle will be large or small generally in 

 proportion to the density of the fog — sometimes only a hundred 

 yards in diameter ; at other times a mile, but seldom more. The 

 circles thus made are perfect. This kind of wandering seems to 

 arise from an attempt to go a straight course when there is nothing 

 to guide the senses, or when the usual guides of sun, wind, or the 

 general contour of the country are disregarded. It rarely befalls 

 children, who do not attempt to get on a course, but only run from 

 one visible point to another equally perceptible. 



" Many apparently trivial traits in the disposition of animals, 

 which are of great use to woodsmen are omitted in books of nat- 

 ural history ; chiefly from ignorance no doubt. One of these is the 

 disposition of the horse, when frightened, to run against the wind, 

 if any is blowing. Thousands of horses which would be other- 

 wise irrecoverably lost annually on this frontier, are recovered by 

 observing this simple rule in pursuit. All animals have similar 

 inexplicable traits in their disposition ; and men are no exception 

 to the rule. White men, when they are scared, will retreat in the 

 same direction in which they came. The Indians know this, and 

 lay their plans accordingly ; and many a gallant company has been 

 cut to pieces simply from ignorance of this fact. But those who 

 understand these matters, when they find it necessary to make a 

 hasty retreat, always do so in a straight line, and in a direction 

 different from the one in which they came. 



" We frequently see notices in Northern papers of children being 

 lost. Such things rarely occur on this frontier ; though children 

 often wander, and there are but few neighbors to help to search 

 for them. Perhaps the cause of humanity might be subserved by 

 publishing a few rules to be observed in such searches. Any 

 :hild will make a track or trail plam enough to be followed by the 



