Читать книгу Scouting for Boys - Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell - Страница 57

Walking.

Trotting.

Canter.

Galloping. (O.H. = Off Hind, etc.)

Lame Horse Walking: Which leg is he lame in? (N.B.—The long feet are the hind feet.)

Bird tracks.

These are the tracks of two birds on the ground. One lives generally on the ground, the other in bushes and trees. Which track belongs to which bird?

Native trackers boast that not only can they tell a person's sex and age by their tracks, but also their characters. They say that people who turn out their toes much are generally "liars."

It was a trick with highwaymen of old, and with horse stealers more recently, to put their horses' shoes on wrong way round in order to deceive trackers who might try to follow them up, but a good tracker would not be taken in. Similarly, thieves often walk backwards for the same reason, but a clever tracker will very soon recognise the deception.

Track of (1) Bicycle and (2) Motor.

Wheel tracks should also be studied till you can tell the difference between the track of a gun, a carriage, a country cart, motor-car, or a bicycle, and the direction they were going in. [See diagram.]

In addition to learning to recognise the pace of tracks, you must get to know how old they are. This is a most important point, and requires a very great amount of practice and experience before you can judge it really well.

So much depends on the state of the ground and weather, and its effects on the "spoor." If you follow one track, say on a dry, windy day, over varying ground, you will find that when it is on light, sandy soil it will look old in a very short time, because any damp earth that it may kick up from under the surface will dry very rapidly to the same colour as the surface dust, and the sharp edges of the footmark will soon be rounded off by the breeze playing over the dry dust in which they are formed. When it gets into damp ground, the same track will look much fresher, because the sun will have only partially dried up the upturned soil, and the wind will not, therefore, have bevelled off the sharp edges of the impression, and if it gets into damp clay, under shade of trees, etc., where the sun does not get at it, the same track, which may have looked a day old in the sand, will here look quite fresh.

Of course, a great clue to the age of tracks will often be found in spots of rain having fallen on them since they were made (if you know at what time the rain fell), dust or grass seeds blown into them (if you noticed at what time the wind was blowing), or the crossing of other tracks over the original ones, or where the grass has been trodden down, the extent to which it has since dried or withered. In following a horse, the length of time since it passed can also be judged by the freshness, or otherwise, of the droppings—due allowance being made for the effect of sun, rain, or birds, etc., upon them.

Having learnt to distinguish the pace and age of spoor, you must next learn to follow it over all kinds of ground. This is an accomplishment that you can practice all you life, and you will still find yourself learning at the end of it—you will find yourself continually improving.

Then there is a great deal to learn from the ashes of fires—whether they are still warm or cold, scraps showing what kind of food the people were eating, whether plentiful or scarce.

You must not only keep a sharp look out for scout signs made by your own scouts, but also for those made by hostile scouts. Foreign scouts also have their private signs—as also do tramps. The following are some of the signs made by tramps on walls or fences near houses where they have been begging which they chalk up to warn others of their class: