Nov. 30, 1907.] 

Hyttnilerme ster, 
———— 
U. S. Government experts. 
UNITED STATES 

FOREST AND STREAM. 
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THE INDIAN TRAILER. 
WHEN a frontiersman talks of a trail he may 
mean anything that indicates the passage that 
way of somebody or something. But there is 
another sort of a trail that the Indians became 
expert in following, and some of the feats of the 
aborigines of the West have bordered on the 
miraculous. An old Indian left his people in 
southwestern California and wandered over the 
desert, after having become demented through 
senility. This same Indian, in his younger days, 
had been noted for his ability to trace the slighest 
trail left by man or beast, and his recovery and 
return to care of friends were due entirely to 
the ability of members of his tribe to follow the 
feeble trail on the desert which he left as he 
started on his aimless wanderings. 
It is difficult in the extreme to follow the trail 
of one who does not attempt to hide the fact that 
he has been traveling across the country, writes 
Clarence E. Edwards in the San Francisco 
Chronicle, and, this being true, it may be under- 
stood how much more difficult the task becomes 
when the person followed has used every en- 
deavor and precaution to efface all marks that 
show his passage. Take such a trail and success 
depends entirely on the ability of the trailer to 
follow for miles by means of discoyering marks 
left by accidental or inadvertent slips of the foot. 
An expert trailer can follow a trail where a 
trained hound would fail to find a scent, Sign 
means any evidence that something has been 
where the object is seen. Ashes, tin cans, gun 
shells, pieces of paper or clothing, broken sticks, 
footprints, anything indicating that man has been 
there is “sign.” Broken bushes, overturned logs 
and stones, muddy water, scratched bark or 
earth, patches of hair, footprints, all indicate the 
passage of an animal and are “sign.” 
Where these signs are continuous they make 
the trail, and where the trail is used frequently 
and for a long time it is known as an old trail. 
Where the signs are new and recently made it 
is a fresh trail. As the trail is the continuation 
of the “sign,” or rather a succession of “sign,” 
it follows that trailing is the ability to find this 
succession of signs in order to follow the route 
taken by the object being trailed. To become a 
good trailer, therefore, it is necessary to have 
a good knowledge of the country, a thorough 
acquaintance with the habits of animals and the 
character of sign that each kind of animal makes. 
If the object trailed be white or red men a 
nee a of the habits of these must also be 
aad. 
In this branch of field craft the white man 
must always take second place to the Indian, 
for in the red man there is the weight of genera- 
tions of trailers to make the art one that is 
almost second nature. I am sure that in many 
cases which have come under my observation 
the art of trailing has amounted to an instinct. 
Whites never become so expert as do Indians, 
but I have known Mexicans who have excelled 
and surpassed the Indians. I have heard of many 
expert white trailers, but in every instance the 
expertness was good for a white man but would 
have been considered as indifferent had the work 
been done by an Indian. Even white men, who 
have been captured as boys by Indians and trained 
to manhood, have-never been so good as the In- 
dians themselves. 
Probably the finest trailer ever known was 
Pedro Espinosa, a Mexican, whose powers bor- 
dered upon the mythical. A story told by Gen. 
Dodge will illustrate what an expert trailer is 
able to accomplish under conditions that seem 
to preclude possibility of success. 
“T was sent in pursuit of a party of murder- 
ing Comanches,” said the General, ‘‘who had 
been pursued, scattered, and the trail abandoned 
by a party of Texas Rangers, who found the 
task of following the Indians too difficult for 
them. Eight days after the Indians had been 
scattered and had taken different routes to some 
prearranged meeting place I put Espinosa on 
the trail. One of the horses ridden by the 
Comanches was shod, the rest were barefoot, and 
Espinosa followed the trail of the shod horse. 
When we were fairly into the rough and rocky 



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Guadalupe Mountains, Espinosa stopped, dis- 
mounted and picked up from a crevice in the 
rocks the four shoes of the horse. Its owner 
had found out the fact that this horse would 
leave an easily followed trail, and he put him- 
self on an equality with the rest of the band by 
removing the shoes. With a grin Espinosa 
handed them to me and said the Indian in- 
tended to hide his trail. 
“For six days we journeyed over the roughest 
mountains, turning and twisting in what was 
apparently the most objectless manner. Not a 
man in my whole command was able to discover 
a single evidence that any human being had gone 
that way ahead of us, except at times when Espi- 
nosa would call attention to some faint mark left 
by the Indian horses. Or one or two occasions 
I lost patience and demanded that he show me 
some evidence that we were after the band of 
Comanches, and he would blandly answer, poce 
tiempo’ (‘a little while’). Then in a short time 
he would point to a mark or a footprint or some 
other unmistakable sign. We followed the de- 
vious windings of this almost indistinguishable 
trail for nearly 150 miles and during the entire 
ride Espinosa left his saddle but three times to 
look closer at the ground. He finally took us 
to where the Indians had reunited and we were 
able to overtake them and punish them for their 
raidittg.”” 
I had an experience in the Apache campaign 
which, I think, shows greater skill than that told 
of by the General. All Indians are expert trail- 
ers, the best in this respect being the Delawares, 
Comanches and Apaches. The best trailer that 
ever came under my observation was an Apache 
who was in the employ of the Government dur- 
ing the campaign of Gen, Crook in Arizona. 
During the campaign the best soldiers of the 
Regular army were pitted against the best 
fighters and hiders among all the Indians. 
To assist them the troops had in their employ a 
number of Indian scouts and trailers who were 
famed for their experience and for their knowl- 
edge of the habits of the Indians who were out. 
. 

