The man who first found the track will lead the hunt that follows, and he won t give up that position until he loses the trail. Then the casting-about operation will begin again until contact is reestablished, and a new lead tracker takes over. Trackers work in pairs whenever they can but in silence. This is a very vulnerable operation that could easily be the subject of an ambush. Talking and smoking are not allowed, and noise must always be kept to a minimum.
Footprints are the most important tell-tale.
But you can tell their direction of travel by checking which part of the indentation is the deepest the deepest part shows the direction of march. The depth of the indentations will tell you whether they were carrying heavy loads or not, and so will the length of their stride. Heavily laden men take short paces. The difference between the depths at the front and back will give you an idea of their speed a running man, for example, leaves a deep toe print but little or nothing at the heel. If there has been recent rain, and you can see splatter marks inside the track marks, that s a sure sign that they date from before the rain.