TRACKERS AND TRACKING 177 



it is annoying to find, a dozen yards farther 

 on, the trail of a herd alongside. To avoid 

 disappointment, don't make up your mind that 

 it is a solitary bull until the absence of other 

 tracks puts the matter beyond doubt. 



Tracking, as I have said, is the inherited 

 instinct of the jungle man, backed by practice 

 and experience. Few, if any, white men can 

 hope to compete with the brown inhabitants 

 of the jungle, whose ancestors have lived in it 

 for generations, and to whom every elephant 

 path is as familiar as Piccadilly to the Londoner. 

 Therefore it is best, once you have decided 

 to follow a trail, to leave your trackers quite 

 alone, unless you have sufficient experience to 

 do the tracking yourself. However keen you 

 may be to help them, you probably do more 

 harm than good — by walking over the tracks 

 they are looking for, and distracting their atten- 

 tion. If they are good men they will puzzle out 

 the tracks. If bad your efforts will be useless. 



Should the tracks lead into heavy bamboo 

 jungle, and keep in it, it is fairly certain that the 

 animal is in some part of that particular jungle, 

 and you may come on him at any moment, 

 even though still following the trail of the day 

 before. It is always worth while to move very 

 quietly in thick cover, even when on old tracks, 

 for this reason. The old and warier beasts 

 often select a thick piece of jungle, extending, 



