Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-11-30
THE MEN HUNTING GAME.
col. RApEN-PowELL HAS WRIT.
TEN A BOOK ON IT.

els f1oW 10 Sag your Enemy WiHf
out Being 5assed-Extracts From
"Ads to Scouting"
Colonel Baden Powell declares that
"man-stalking' is the best game OF
which he knows, and the Colonel has
had experience enough as hunter OF
both two and four footed animals to
know. He has written a book called
"Alds to Scouting" and in it he clear
ly lays down the rules of the sport
The scouts ten commandments, he
says, are pluck and self-reliance, abili-
ty to find his way in a strange coun-.
try and use his eyes and ears. He
must be able to keep himself hidden,
track the enemy, get across country,
take care of himself and his horse,
and report his information.
The most reliable assistance in find
ing your way Is the compass, but In
South Africa, where there is much
lronstone in the ground, a compass be-
comes very unreliable. The sun by day
gives you the east in his rising, and
west in his setting and north or south
at noon, as you happen to be south or
north Of the equator
ON starting on a reconnaissance, II
you see a mountain to the northward
It viii serve as a guide Similarly,
when you pass any conspicuous object,
like wlthered tree, broken gate or a
strangely shaped rock, keep it in your
mind. On passing such landmarks do
not omit to look back, and see what
their appearance is from the other
side.
A moving enemy is easy to see, but
one who stands still, or who is the
same color as the ground around him,
is very hard to see for the unprac-
ticed eye. Common sense and a little
reflection will often suggest to you
the most likely points to look to find
him.
For instance, you come across three
fresh paths trodden in the grass on
the South African veldt, all running
parallel to each other, at a few yards
distance. BY having studied the habits
of your enemy you will know at once
that this means three companies have
passed that way on the march. as gen
/ orally they march in single file, each
company following its own leader. If
the footmarks show that the men
were wearing sandals it means they
were on a long march; If barefooted,
they were not going far.
1t is often useful thing, after pass
ing a place where you suspect an enc
my to be hiding, to turn very suddenly
and look for him. You may catch him
| looking out less carefully.
In selecting your lookout place, al
ways be careful to see that there is
more than one way out of it, so that,
if an enemy cuts you off at one you
can escape by the other. Thus a tower
is tempting place to look out from,
but If an enemy comes and stands
guard at the foot of it you cannot get
away, whereas the roof of a house
will give you an almost equally good
view and possibly several different
ways of getting to the ground.
Trees, for the same reason as tow
ers, must be used with caution. Re
member that men are very apt to for
get to look up in trees for ysu-unless
they see your footmarks on the
ground leading to a tree. l have stood
under a tree with an enemy up in it,
and never noticed him till he fired
down at me.
Tracking means following up foot
marks. 1t is called "spoorlng' In
South Africa. Scouting without track
ing is like bread-and-butter without
the bread. The FIRST thing to learn is
to distinguish the pace at which q
horse or man was moving when he
made the track. 1t will be seen that a
horse walking leaves pairs of foot
marks, each hind foot coming close to
the impression of the fore foot. At q
trot each pair of footmarks is at a
greater distance from the next, and
the ground is more forcibly struck, the
toe more deeply indented in the
ground than at walk. At canteI
there are two single fOotmarks, and
then a pair; at a galop single foot
marks deeply indented.
With Il man walking, the whole flat
Of the foot comes equally ON the
ground, the feet a little under one
yard apart. Running, the toes are
more deeply indented in the ground
and the feet are more than yard
apart Native trackers boast that mo-
only can they tell persons sex ant
age by their tracks. but also theii
characters. They say that people WHIT
turn out their toes much are generally
liars. 1t was trick with highwaymef
of old, and with horse-stealers NOR,
recently, to put their horses shoes OF
wrong way round. in order to deceive
trackers who might try to follow then
up; but a good traeker would not b,
taken in. Similarly, thieves often wall
backward. In tracking where spoor i
difficult to see-such as ON har,
ground, or In grass-note the direction
of the last footprint that you can see
and then look on in the same diree
ton, but well ahead of you-say, q
to 30 yards-and in the grass you vii
generally see the blades bent or trod
den, and on hard ground possibl,
stones displaced or scratched, and S
on-small signs, which, seen in lin
one behind the other, give a kind o
track that otherwise would not be nc
ticed l once tracked a bicycle on
: hard macadam road, where 1t reall
made no impression at all, but b
looking along the surface of the roa
for a long distance ahead Of me, unde
the rising sun, as 1t happened, the lin
= II had taken was quite visible throug
the almost invisible coating of de,
T. upon the ground. Standing on tn
! track, and looking down upon It clos
! 4 a r~..IF -. A.. -rt--r..