92 
ON DISTINGUISHING THE TRACKS OF ANIMALS. 
14 March, 
the tribes of the Interior, are admirably quick and discerning. Their 
experience enables them to distinguish almost with certainty, the 
foot-mark of every animal in their country ; although many of them 
so closely resemble each other that few European eyes would see the 
difference, even if it were pointed out to them. But these natives, 
whose food and clothing so greatly depend on knowledge of this kind, 
are most acutely observant of every thing relating to it ; and the 
results of their judgment by combining these observations, are 
often surprising and would lead to a belief that in the powers of 
reasoning and reflection they are not so low as, in most other matters, 
they appear to be. And if it can be admitted that this is really the 
case, it affords in the same individual a striking, and an instructive, 
example how much the human intellect may be raised by being duly 
exerted, and how low it will insensibly sink, if not carefully culti- 
vated and brought into use. These Africans pay an extraordinary 
degree of attention to every little circumstance connected with the 
habits and mode of life of the wild animals. The footsteps of some 
are too remarkable to be mistaken ; but with respect to others, they 
are obliged to examine not only their form, but even their distance 
apart, and their greater or less depth of impression ; by which 
latter observation they are enabled to distinguish a heavy-bodied 
animal from a lighter. If it be an animal of the cat or dog genus, 
they discover the kind by attending, not only to the size of the foot, 
but to the different protuberances of it and to their relative position. 
These marks conjointly with a knowledge of the different situations 
and nature of the country and ground preferred by each species, lead 
them to conclusions in which they rarely err. In estimating the 
time elapsed since the animal had passed that way, they consider 
the effects of the weather, the sun, the wind, or the rain : if these 
have not altered the freshness of the impression, they naturally con- 
clude it to have been made since the last of these occurred; if the 
impression appear to have been made upon wet ground but partly 
filled with dust or sand or leaves, they then know that the animal 
must have passed over the ground since the last shower, but before 
the storm of wind. Of this nature there are a multitude of other 
