LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



recent tracks has been made ; but in cold weather 

 it is somewhat more difficult. If the air is not 

 utterly devoid of moisture, you can judge pretty 

 closely by the size of the frost crystals formed 

 at the edge of each footprint. You may also, 

 by taking up a handful of snow around it, tell 

 something from the readiness with which it 

 falls together, but this last method is likely to 

 prove pretty wild guessing, with any but an 

 old hunter or an Indian. In thick woods you 

 must look for hemlock leaves or anything of 

 the kind, and calculate from the comparative fre- 

 quency with which they occur in the track and 

 on the surrounding snow, and from the strength 

 of the wind and the age of the snow, about how 

 far you are behind your quarry. 



But above all things, you must have your eye 

 in readiness to see that which you are not look- 

 ing for, as on every track there is something for 

 every few rods that can tell you conclusively 

 what you wish to know, if you can only read 



S 



