The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1905-10-05
WHEH LUST In The WUUDO.
ADVICE TO PEOPLE WHO SPEND
LITTLE TIME OUT DOORS.

~F
When one considers the many mil
lions of people scattered over the
United States, it would seem that get
ting lost on the prairie or in the
woods was likely to become a for
gotten art, and yet it is not so. Ev-
cry summer the newspapers are hlled
with accounts of men, m and
children who get lost, and remain out
of doors for a longer or shorter time,
finally to be recovered in a condition
of more or less misery. A vast
amount has been written about get
ting lost in the woods, how to avoid
being lost, and how TO find oneself
when lost: but, so far as we have
been able to study this literature, 1T
contains very little that is practical.
Advice to children, to women and
to people who have spent little or
their time out of doors is not likely
to be of great value, and these are
the very people who are likely to get
lost. On the other hand, the man or
woman who is familiar with outdoor
life knows a certain number Of essen
tial things about being lost, and does
not need to have these repeated. n
of the most frequent recommends
tions by persons writing on this sub
feet is that the traveller should re-
member in which direction he is 60
ing, so that when he desires to re-
trace his steps, he may do so by go
ing in the reverse direction; but how
is this to be done? Nothing is easier
than to lose ones sense of direction
when getting out of known surround
ings. but on the other hand, a few
simple suggestions, if recollected,
may help to keep his direction. A
compass is a good thing, but TO be or
much use it must be frequently con-
suited, and the distances varying
from a direct course must be COM
puted. In more or less open coun-
try there are usually land marks, hills
Oh mountains, noteworthy and easily
recognizable, trees on elevations, wa
ter courses or other natural physio-
graphic features which n may use
as guides. On the other hand, If the
country is wooded, the sun must be
the guide, and if this is obscured and
one has lost his OF direction,
he should simply camp until he gets
back again. Often the timber looks
all alike, and in a burned over forest
in the western mountains, If the sun
is hidden, one may stand among the
slender gray tree trunks thirty or
forty yards from camp and absolutely
lost his sense of direction, finding his
way back only by listening for the
camp sounds.
It is on the sun that we must
chiefly depend for direction II we
become lost. We know that it rises
in the east, sets in the west, and is in
the south at midday. At this time, 1t
casts a very small shadow, and a per-
son of slight powers of observation
can notice this. He is likely to know
where the sun was when he started
from camp in the morning, and thus
to recognize the direction in which
he at first travelled. If he knows the
points of the compass when he finds
that he is astray, he should be able
to reverse his mornings direction and
to go back toward camp.
In a mountainous country all
springs and brooks and creeks flow
toward sc-ue main river, and along
the main rivers are usually roads, set
Elements and other unmistakable evil
dences of human beings. To be sure,
there may be sections where the fol-
lowing down a stream will involve a
long and tiresome journey through
tangled swamp and forest; but, on
the other hand, a journey down the
stream may be the s~peediest way OF
finding camp or some n who can
tell you where camp is. When go
ing into camp, it is always well to
acquire from your guide, or from
some one who is familiar with the
country where you are to be, all the
information possible about the region
what streams are in it, what river
do they flow to, what sort of country
do they pass through.
In old times the men who travelled
over the then trackless plains and
mountains came at last to be as OBJ
servant as an Indian of the features
of the landscape. Almost uncon-
sciously they counted the streams
they crossed, calculated the directions
in which they flowed, compared them
with other points where they had
crossed them, noticed the hills, the
bluffs, the rocks, and the trees in the
river bottom, and at the end Of the
days march could, if so disposed,
draw a very correct map of the conn
try passed over.
Nevertheless, it was possible for
the oldest trapper and for the old
time Indian to become lost, if and
marks were not seen, and there vas
nothing to give the sense of direc-
ton. The heavenly bodies are a bet
ter guide than any compass. But If
they be obscured and there are no
land marks. one cannot travel. There
is no inherent sense of direction or
peculiar wisdom of locality in the
trained persons that travel so readily
through regions which posses abso-
lutely nothing recognizable to the
newcomer; it is simply that certain
powers and senses inherent in us all
have, in these special individuals,
been brought out and trained to a
very high degree-Forest and Stream.