The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-24
TRACKING BIG GAME.
Skill of Burmah Hunters in Reading
Natures Signs.
Correspondence London Field.

Correspondence London Field.
1t was once well said by a great sports
man that killing salmon in Canadian
river was a sport as superior to killing
one in Scotland as shooting a lion in
Africa was superior 90 shooting stag in
the Highlands. Probably to those who
have had experience of it, tracking and
shooting big game are in an equal degree
more exciting sport than having them
tracked or shooting them off-hand. Yet
il is strange how few big-game shooters
actually track for themselves the animals
which they eventually shoot. Many are
quite content to leave the tracking to
the shikari, only taking a hand by using
their rifles when they are finally brought
up to the game.
The ART of tracking, for such 1t is, is
not by any means difficult to acquire. 1t
consists chilly in good powers of observa-
ton rather than in some occult skill with
which most young fellows seem only too
ready to credit the shikari. | do not
wish to detract in any way from the use
fulness and general advantages derived
from the services of a good tracker, and,
of course a man who knows the particu-
lar country in which he is shooting is in
dispensable. 1t is rather to supplement
those advantages by inducing the sports
men to take part in the operations that
venture to offer these remarks. An Eng
liehman usually has better. eyes than
native if he only knows how to use them
from practice. and his power of obser-
walton, if only cultivated, will have
wider and deeper range than that of any
native. This is a matter, however, to
which the saying nascitur non fit most
hIt civ uifb
ordinary intelligence, it may with care
be greatly sharpened and improved.
In the forests of Burmah, where our
scene Is laid, / never cared about track
ing big game except during the monsoon.
for during the ranless months the ground
did not take a sufficiently clear impression
TO indicate whether tracks of game were
old or fresh. The beginning of the rains
was the best time; then, all the forests
having been burnt over, there were no
leaves on the ground to rattle like
half a dozen kettle drums as one moved
along, and the lots of deer or spoor of
elephants showed freshly on the ash
strewn ground or on the sprouting grass
of the hlllsldes. This was the time to get
sup on the hills which the bison then much
then much affected, and, camping among
the pine forests a about 5000 feet above
the plains, TO keep a close eye on the
U
banteng elephant and smaller game,
though the latter we usually shot as We
CHANGED on them, without troubling to
track them. A man who knew the Ooun-
try was Indispensable and II he could
track well so much the better.
Surprising tracks of bison TO have been
found. the first matter to settle was how
recent they were. We knew that Il had
rained on the previous night at about II
o'clock. We could, therefore, easily decide
whether the herd had passed along before
or after this event. The verlest tyro could
of course, decide that matter Puddles in
the boof prints or a muddy deposit In the
mart where the hoof cut deepest would be
certain indications OF the herd having
nassed before the rainfall. To decide how
iona before the rainfall would be more
aifIieult matter, and we should be helped
10 q conclusion on this point by examiu-
ing the grass growing along the path or
track where the herd passed. This Is "a
NUN better clew than any ! know. II Is
hardly an exaggeratou 70 say chat grant