Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-11-29
Mistellaneous Beading.
WORK OF INDIAN TRAIlE....
Their Skill In Following Man and
Beast

|
Beast.
When a frontiersman talks of trail
he may mean anything that indicate!
the passage that way of somebody o.
something. But there is another sor
Of trail that the Indians became ex'
pert in following, and some Of the feat!
of the aborigines Of the west have bor'
dered on the miraculous. An old In
dian left his people in southwestern
ert, after having become dementet
through senility. This same Indian, ir
his younger days. had been noted fol
his ability to trace the slightest trail
left by man or beast, and his recov-
cry and return to the care Of friends
were due entirely to the ability OF
members of his tribe to follow the fee
BILE trail on the desert which he left as
he started on his aimless wanderings.
1t is difficult In the extreme to fol-
low the trail Of one who does not at
tempt to hide the fact that he has been
travelling across the country. writes
Clarence E. Edwards In the San Fran
cisco Chronicle, and this being true, II
may be understood how much more
difficult the task becomes when
the person followed has used every en-
deavor and precaution to efface all
marks that show his passage. Take
such a trail, and success depends en-
tirely on the ability of the trailers to
follow for miles by means Of discover
ing marks left by accidental or mad
vertent slips of the foot.
An expert trailer can follow a trail
where a trained hound would fail
to find a scent. Sign means any evi-
dence that something has been where
the object is seen. Ashes, tin cans,
gun shells, pieces Of paper or clothing,
broken sticks, footprints, anything
indicating that man has been there Is
sign" Broken bushes, overturned logs
and stones, muddy water. scratched
bark or earth. patches Of hair, foot
prints, all indicate the passage Of an
animal and are sign"
Where these signs are continuous
they make the trail, and where the trail
used frequently and for long time 1t
Is known as an old trail. Where the
signs are new and recently made 1t Is
a fresh trail. AS the trail Is the con-
tinuation of the Sign" or rather sue
cession Of signs" it follows that trail
ing Is the ability to find this success
sion Of signs in order to follow the
route taken by the object being trail
ed. To become a good trailer there
fore 1t is necessary to have a keen eye,
a good knowledge Of the country, a
thorough acquaintance with the habits
of animals and the character Of sign
that each kind of animal makes. II
the object trailed be white or red men
a knowledge of the habits of these
must also be had.
In this branch Of field craft the
white man must always take second
place to the Indian, for in the red man
there is the weight Of generations m
trailers to make the art one that is al
most second nature. 1 am sure that
in many cases which have come under
my observation the art of trailing has
amounted to an instinct. Whites new
er become so expert as do Indians, but
I have known Mexicans who have ex-
celled and surpassed the Indians. /
have heard Of many expert white trail
ers, but in every instance the expert
ness was good for a white man, but
would have been considered as indif-
ferent had the work been done by an
Indian. Even white men who have
been captured as boys by Indians and
trained to manhood have never been
SO good as the Indians themselves.
Probably the finest trailer ever
known was Pedro Espinosa, Mexican,
whose powers bordered upon the myth
ical. story told by Gen. Dodge VIII
illustrate what an expert trailer is able
to accomplish under conditions that
seem to preclude possibility Of success.
II was sent in pursuit Of a party OF
numbering Comanches," said the gen.
eral, "who had been pursued, scattered
and the trail abandoned by a party OF
Texas Rangers, who found the task OF
following the Indians too difficult for
iurhf
had been scattered and had taken diff
ferent routes to some prearranged
meeting place l put Espinosa on the
trail. One of the horses ridden by the
Comanches was shod, the rest were
barefoot, and Espinosa followed the
trail of the shod horse. When we were
fairly into the rough and rocky Gaud-
alupe mountains, Espinosa stopped,
dismounted and picked up from a Gre
vice in the rocks four shoes Of the
horse. It's owner had found out the
fact that this horse would leave an
easily followed trail and he put him.
self on an equality with the rest of the
band by removing the shoes. With a
grim smile Espinosa handed them to
me and said the Indian intended to
hide his trail.
For six days we journeyed over the
toughest mountains, turning and twist
ing in what was apparently the most
objectless manner. Not a man In my
whole command was able to discover
a single evidence that any human be-
ing had gone that way ahead OF us,
except at times when Espinosa would
call attention to some faint mark left
by the Indian horses. One or two oc-
casions l lost patience and demanded
that he show me some evidence that
we were after the band Of Comanches,
and he would blandly answer POGO
tempo Ga little whileO. Then in a
short time he would point to a mark
or a footprint or some other unmistak-
able sign. We followed the devious
windings Of this almost indistinguish-
able trail for nearly $50 miles, and
during the entire ride Espinosa left his
of