The hatchet. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1883-19??, 1900-04-29
THE MEN HUNTING GAME.
COL. BADEN.PoWELL HAS WRIT
TEN A BOOK ON 1T.
He Declares II a Great Sport, and
Tells How to Bag Your Enemy With
out Being 6agsed-Extraets From
"Aids to Scouting"

"Aids 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
"Aids 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, ablli-
ty to find his way in a strange coun-
try and use his eyes and ears. lie
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 md
| ing your way is the compass, but III
| South Africa, where there is much
| ironstone in the ground compass be-
comes very unreliable. The sun by day
| gives you the east i'm 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 will serve as n guide. Similarly
| when you pass any conspicuous object,
! like a 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 i'm the grass on
| the South African yeldt, 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 footmarlS show that the men
were wearing sandals it means they
were on 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 he 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 tower
is a 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 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 he used with caution. Re.
member that men are very apt to for.
get to look up in trees for you-unlcss
they see your footmarks on the
ground leading to tree. 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 "spooring" 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 a
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 a
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 Il walk. At canter
there are two single footmarks, and
then "A pair; at ganop single foot
marks deeply indented.
With a man walking, the whole fiat
of the foot comes equally on the
ground, the feet little under one
yard apart Running, the toes are
more deeply indented in the ground,
and the feet are more than a yard
apart Native crackers boast that not
only can they tell persons sex and
age by their tracks, but also their
characters. They say that people who
turn out their toes much are generally
liars. 1t was trick with highwaymen
of old, and with horse-stealers more
recently, to put their horses shoes on
wrong way round, in order to deceive
crackers who might try to follow them
up; but a good traCker would not be
taken in, Similarly, thieves often walk
backward. In tracking where spOor is
difficult 10 see-such as on hard
ground, or in grass-note the direction
of the last footprint that you can see,
and then look on in the same direc-
ton, but well ahead of you-say, 20
to 80 yards-and in the grass you will
generally see the blades bent or trod-
den, and on hard ground possibly
stones displaced or scratched, and so
On-small signs, which, seen in a line
| one behind the other, give a kind of