When you find the tracks of horses, try to discover at what speed the
animals were travelling. This is indicated by the distances between the imprints of the fore feet and the hind feet. In the sketches above, the long feet are the hind feet.
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 footmarks will soon be rounded off by the breeze playing over the dry dust in which they are brined. When it gets into damp ground, the same track will look much fres her, 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. 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.
In following the track of a bicycle (or motor-car) study especially spots where the road is uneven. Here there will be many signs.
The direction of a bicycle’s travel is shown by the way dirt is thrown
backward. Also by the loops made in the track where the rider made a turn or wobble:
The thinner end of the loop points in the direction he went.
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, upon them.
Having learned 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 practise all your life, and will still 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 lookout for Scout signs made by your own Scouts, but also for those made by “hostile” Scouts.
Tracking for Stolen Goods
There are very good native trackers in the Soudan and Egypt, and I saw some of their work there.
The Colonel of the Egyptian Cavalry had had some things stolen out of his house, so a tracker was sent for from the neighbouring Jaalin tribe.
Some time, you may come upon these tracks. They are, left to right, deer, sheep, wolf and fox.
He soon found the footprints of the thief and followed them a long way out on to the desert, and found the spot where he had buried the stolen goods. His tracks then came back to the barracks.
So the whole of the regiment was paraded without shoes on, for the tracker to examine. And at the end, when he had seen every man walk, he said, “No, the thief is not there”. Just then the Colonel’s native servant came up to him with a message, and the tracker who was standing by, said to the Colonel, “That is the man who buried the stolen goods”.
The servant, surprised at being found out, then confessed that it was he who had stolen his master’s property, thinking that he would be the last man to be suspected.
Hints on Spooring
When getting on to very fresh spoor of man or beast, the old Scout will generally avoid following it closely, because the hunted animal will frequently look back to see if it is being followed. The tracker therefore makes a circle, and comes back on to where he would expect to find the spoor again. If he finds it, he makes another circle farther ahead till he finds no spoor. Then he knows he is ahead of his game, so he gradually circles nearer till he finds it, taking care, of course, not to get to windward of the animal when within scenting distance.
Some trackers of Scinde followed up a stolen camel from Karachi to Sehwan, 150 miles over sand and bare rock. The thieves, to escape detection, drove the camel up and down a crowded street, in order to get the trail mixed up with others— but the trackers foresaw this and made a “cast” round the town, and hit on the outgoing spoor on the far side, which they successfully followed up.
Look Ahead Over Hard Ground
In tracking where the spoor is difficult to see, such as on hard ground, or in grass, note the direction of the last footprint that you can see, and look on in the same direction, but well ahead of you, say, 20 or 30 yards. In grass you will then generally see the blades bent or trodden, and on hard ground, possibly stones displaced or scratched, and so on—small signs which, seen in a line one behind the other, give a kind of track that otherwise would not be noticed.
I once tracked a bicycle on a hard macadam road where it really made no impression at all, but by looking along the surface of the road for a long distance ahead of me, under the rising sun as it happened, the line it had taken was quite visible through the almost invisible coating of dew upon the ground. Standing on the track and looking upon it close to my feet I could not see the slightest sign of it.
The great thing is to look for a difficult track against the sun, so that the slightest dent in the ground throws a shadow.
“Casting” for a Lost Track
If you lose sight of the track you must make a “cast” to find it again. To do this put your handkerchief, staff, or other mark at the last footmark that you noticed, then work round it in a wide circle, say, 30, 50 or 100 yards away from it as a center—choosing the most favourable ground, soft ground if possible, to find signs of the outward track. If you are with a Patrol it is generally best for the Patrol to halt while one or perhaps two men make the cast. If everybody starts trying to find the spoor they very soon defeat their object by treading it out or confusing it with their own footmarks—too many cooks easily spoil the broth in such a case.
In making a cast, use your common sense as to which direction the enemy has probably taken, and try it there.
I remember an instance of tracking a boar which illustrates what I mean. The boar had been running through some muddy inundated fields, and was easy enough to follow until he turned off over some very hard and stony ground, where after a little while not a sign of his spoor was to be seen. A cast had accordingly to be made. The last footmark was marked, and the tracker moved round a wide circle, examining the ground most carefully, but not a sign was found. Then the tracker took a look round the
country, and, putting himself in place of the pig, said “Now in which direction would I have gone?” Some distance to the front of him, as the original track led, stood a long hedge of prickly cactus; in it were two gaps. The tracker went to one of these as being the line the boar would probably take. Here the ground was still very hard, and no footmark was visible, but on a leaf of the cactus in the gap was a pellet of wet mud; and this gave the desired clue. There was no mud on this hard ground, hut the pig had evidently brought some on his feet from the wet ground he had been travelling through. This one little sign enabled the tracker to work on in the right direction to another and another, until eventually he got on to the spoor again in favourable ground, and was able to follow up the boar to his resting-place.