The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-03-16

fifteen to thirty above zero. do
| northwest of Fife Lake, where | keep
| an accurate weather chart, the Their
mometer readings were: Dec. 18th,
plus 33. Dec. 18th, plus %. Dec. 18th,
| plus "a.
But the exact temperature cuts no
| figure. anyway. Had these boys taken
proper precautions, and by proper pre-
cautions / do not mean extraordinary
precautions, they should have com
fortably weathered the storm even at
much colder temperature.
Finding Ones Way Home
Let us first consider the getting lost.
When we speak of a person being
lost what do we mean? I should say
that for practical purposes a person is
lost when he does not know the
position of the point he occupies rela-
tive to some known, or fixed point,
from which point the location of his
starting point or his objective may be
ascertained. .E
There is no question in my mind that
many animals possess a sixth sense,
or an instinct of direction, at least
''homing'' instinct. / have seen many
instances of the working of this in
stinct, the most striking being the
return of horses in Montana to their
home range from points hundreds of
miles distant, when the circumstances
absolutely precluded any possibility of
their back-tracking. Also the case Of
hound which was shipped by his
master from his home in Elizabeth
town, Ohio, to Seymour, Indiana by
express, distance of probably seven
ty-five miles, and the second day there
after he showed up tired and hungry,
at his masters door,
Certain people also are credited with
this "homing instinct" and, 1 am in
cllned to believe, rightly so. l know
of numerous instances in which little
IN ha Of f1Va
and ten, who had been removed from
their homes on the Fort Belknap Re-
servatioon by train to the Fort Peck
Reservation in Montana for schooling,
returned on foot to their homes, dis
lance of considerably more than a
hundred miles across what was at that
time open cattle range.
Old hunters, trappers, and woods
men, are often credited with this sixth
| sense or instinct, but for this there is
no foundation. The reason these men
are rarely lost is not because of any
sense" or instinct that you or / have
not got but because, they have learned
by experience to make use of the five
senses which they have, obviously far
and away the most important of which
is the sense of sight. BY force of
long habit these men subconsciously
note the '1ay Of the land" This in
cludes the position of the natural land
| marks, such as lakes, swamps, hills,
ridges, distinctive trees or clumps of
trees, the location and direction OF
creeks and rivers, and in fact, any
thing whatever that would serve to
aid them in shaping a course, or in
| Identifying a location. Also they take
unconscious note of their turnings and
twistings in circumventing natural OBJ
structions. Upon entering large black
spruce swamps where the terrain is
nearly always fiat, and the trees so
thick that one place looks exactly like
another, they mark their trail by now
and then breaking branch, or blazing
q trunk.
The best advice can give anybody
| upon the general subject of how to
| avoid getting lost, is to form the habit
Of studying the "lay of the land" You
don't need to go into the wilderness
to do this. Do it now. Do it in the
city. Take long walks in unfrequent-
ed parts of your city, and then back
track, or make short cuts using your
landmarks as guides-don't read street
street signs and policemen in the wild
country. Do it on your tramps into
the country. Keep on doing it. Do it
some more. After while you will
sciously-and when you find that out,
you can credit yourself with as much
sixth sense or instinct" as any
white man has. ..
der which anyone may become lost, ev-
en- among comparatively familiar sur
roundings. These conditions are how
ever temporary conditions, due to
darkness, storm, or fog.
When LOst-Camp!
Let us suppose that you are lost, or
for any reason are unable to continue
to your objective. What is the first
thing to do? Obviously, the thing to
do is to CAMP. II the reason for the
interruption of your journey be other
than the fact that you are lost, if you
are temporarily disabled by twisted
ankle, or a broken snowshoe, it re-
quires no effort Of will to decide to
different matter. The state Of being
lost seems to create a condition of un-
reasonableness of mind. Either the
lost person stubbornly refuses to ad-
nit to himself that he is lost, or he be-
! comes panic-stricken and incapable Of
rational reasoning. In either case the
last thing he wishes to do is just the
very thing he must do, and that is to
pulse is to continue stubbornly on in
the. direction he believes to be the
right one, every step carrying him
farther and farther out of his course,
chance Of being found by a searching
party In the second case, in the
frenzy of fear and panic, he charges
senselessly about, first in one direc-
ton, then in another, until he drops
from exhaustion. . I'D ..
Consider first the temporary condi-
lions of darkness, storm, or fog. You
will have to camp for only matter
of hours until the condition is relieved.
The first and absolute essential Ct
refer particularly to winter condi-
tions) is a fire. To build fire you
must have matches AND THE MATCH
Es MUST BE DRY! A belt ak, or at
least q heavy knife is another essen
tisi.
Select a wind-sheltered spot, build
your fire, rig some sort Of reflector of
boughs. or brush, or blanket. place
yourself between it and your fire and
you can pass twelve, twenty-four, or
even thirty six hours in comparative
comfort, even without food. But don't
dry your moccasins or snowshoes close
to the fire. have trapped and hunt
ed and f1shed since was eleven years
old, much Of the time alone, and have
spent many nights in the open, some
times with the temperature far below
zero, and 1 have never vet experienced
more serious mishap than little tenn
porary discomfort.
To go back to the matches, the abb
solute essential Have plenty of them
and HAVE THEM DRY. Yes. / know,
I said that before and I may say it
again before I get through. If could
have said it to John and Willie Glide
that Saturday. they would be alive to-
day.