Читать книгу Scouting for Boys - Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell - Страница 49

If you are in the country you should notice landmarks, that is objects which help you to find your way or prevent you getting lost, such as distant hills, church towers, and nearer objects such as peculiar buildings, trees, gates, rocks, etc.

And remember in noticing such landmarks that you may want to use your knowledge of them some day for telling someone else how to find his way, so you must notice them pretty closely so as to be able to describe them unmistakably and in their proper order. You must notice and remember every by-road and footpath.

Then you must also notice smaller signs such as birds getting up and flying hurriedly which means somebody or some animal is there; dust shows animals, men, or vehicles moving.

Of course when in the country you should notice just as much as in town all passers-by very carefully—how they are dressed, what their faces are like, and their way of walking, and examine their footmarks—and jot down a sketch of them in your notebook, so that you would know the footmark again if you found it somewhere else—(as the shepherd boy did in the story at the beginning of this book).

And notice all tracks—that is footmarks of men, animals, birds, wheels, etc., for from these you can read the most important information, as Captain d'Artagnan did in the story of the secret duel, of which I shall tell you later.

This track-reading is of such importance that I shall give you a lecture on that subject by itself.