The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-02
GETTING LOST IN THE WOODS
AND THEN FINDING TOUR NAY
 OUT AGAIN.

Hunter Tells Ghe Experience of HIM.
 self and Othsrs-stsus tn Which
 wo"dsmen are Said ia Tracing Paths
 Through FOrests-sense Of Direction
 Men will often turn nearly or quite squarely around and either go in a cir cle or sometimes turn back in the op- posite direction. all the time thinking they are keeping a straight course. It is hard to tell why they do this, says
 Manly Hardy in Forest and Stream.
 sebastis Dana, of the Penobscot In- dians, once told me that when he was moose hunting with two other Indians it came on to snow hard and they started for their camp. All through that they knew the way, and they had travelled some time when they came upon the fresh tracks of three men who were travelling in the same direc- iton as themselves. After following for some time they came to a place where some one had pulled a piece off a rotten stub in passing. Sebattis re-
 cognized it as place where he had slipped and broken off the stub in re- covering himself. A closer inspection showed that they were following their own tracks.
 They started again, but soon came around to their tracks the second time. Sebattis felt sure that he could go straight and took the lead, but short ly they were back again to their owr tracks. Finally one of them climbed tree and could see the lake, near which they camped, close by them; but even then he had to throw a branch toward it to get right start. Soon after they reached camp it stopped showing, and they went back to exam inc their tracks, Sebattis told me that at the time when he was in the lead he had gone straight toward the lake till within plain sight of it, and then all tbree had turned squarely about and gone back in the direction whence they had come.
 I have known of man coming out close to the edge of a good road and then turning and going back. He did not see the road at all, but happened to look up and caught sight of 8 teie- graph wire over his head.
 An uncle of mine told me that he had lived at a farmhouse in northern New York all summer. Occasionally he had gone through piece of woods to visit at another farmhouse. One bright day in the fall he started to go there. The way seemed longer than usual, but ha had no doubt that he was going in the right direction until he came out of the woods and found that he had come out at place which was strange to him. Seeng a house near by, he went up to it to inquire the way. It was not until he was in the act of knocking on the door that he realized that he had returned to the same house where he had lived all summer He had got turned around, and this caused famil- far things to look strange to him. When man is in such a state of mind that he cannot tell a. main road or a clearing when he sees it, it is useless to talk of his. being able to< follow any of the many ways which some of these Sherlock Holmses have written of
 Some instructors tell us 1 that there are more branches on the south side of trees. while others tell us that there is more moss on, the north side of trees and rocks. Trees branch most to- ward the open spaces, where there is room to spread their branches. Wheth- crit is north or south, F'irs and spruces branch very nearly symmetri- cally, no matter what the situation. As to moss, sometimes trees moss more on one side and sometimes on the oth- CT. have carefully tested the matter with compass in various locations and find that there is no possible way to get any help as to direction by lock- ing at either limbs of moss; though 1t is a favorite idea of writers to tell of , people finding their way by looking at branches and moss, I have never l known of any woodsman being guided in that way. 4 Another tells Us that the tins of hemlock and cedar point north, while very recently one claimed that the tips of 11emIock point toward the east Now the actual fact is that no one in the woods can see the, tops of trees, even in bright days, unless he is upon hill above them or in some road or open space. In most cases when men are lost it is on dark, rainy, snowy or