Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

USE OF THE COMPASS 63painted on a fresh blaze on a pine tree, the sapglazes over the mark and makes it almost imperishable.In searching out a line of blazes, one should keephis eyes glancing horizontally along a plane aboutbreast-high, because that isthe height at which surveyorsleave their marks, and others usually followthe custom, unless the line has been spotted by a manon horseback, or from a boat during time of overflow.When a blazed line turns abruptly, so that 9^person following might otherwise overrun it, a longslash isnew direction.It ismade on that side of the tree which faces thedifficult to follow a line of blazes when snowis falling, because the wind drives the damp flakesagainst the tree, where they adhere, and must bebrushed away to find the blaze.Now, it is often of much consequence to a travelerto remember such facts as these.For example, thereis nothing more common in the annals of misadventurethan for a novice to stray off on a deer trail,in southern forests, on a cattle trail, which, althoughseductively plain at first, leads nowhere in particularand soon dwindles to nothing. When undecided,look for blazes along the path. In heavily timberedregions, such as we are now considering, any trailthat is,or,or ever has been, used as a highway by whitemen is likely to have been blazed.Again, it is often of moment to determine, whenone strikes a strange trail, what its nature is—forwhat purpose it was made—and thus be able tofigure out whether it is likely to lead directly to asettlement or camp. This ought not to be verydifficult when one knows what classes of men havepreceded him in this particular forest. Generallyspeaking, a line spotted in a wide forest that as yethas no farmers' clearings is likely to have been madeby either (i) a trapper, (2) a lumberman or timberlooker,or (3) a surveyor.A Trapper's Line usually leads from one stream