The art of walking in a straight line is possessed in an eminent degree by good ploughmen. They always look ahead, and let the plough take care of itself.
To find the way down a Hill-side.--If on arriving at the steep edge of a ridge, you have to take the caravan down into the plain, and it appears that a difficulty may arise in finding a good way for it; descend first yourself, as well as you can, and seek for a road as you climb back again. It is far more easy to succeed in doing this as you ascend, than as you descend: because when at the bottom of a hill, its bold bluffs and precipices face you, and you can at once see and avoid them: whereas at the top, these are precisely the parts that you overlook and cannot see.
Blind Paths.--Faintly-marked paths over grass (blind paths) are best seen from a distance.
Lost in a Fog.--Napoleon, when riding with his staff across a shallow arm of the Gulf of Suez, was caught in a fog: he utterly lost his way, and found himself in danger. He there-upon ordered his staff to ride from him, in radiating lines, in all directions, and that such of them as should find the water to become more shallow, should shout out.
Mirage.--When it is excessive, it is most bewildering: a man will often mistake a tuft of grass, or a tree, or other most dissimilar object, for his companion, or his horse, or game. An old traveller is rarely deceived by mirage. If he doubts, he can in many cases adopt the following hint given by Dr. Kane: "Refraction will baffle a novice, on the ice; but we have learned to baffle refraction. By sighting the suspected object with your rifle at rest, you soon detect motion."
Lost Path.--If you fairly lose your way in the dark, do not go on blundering hither and thither till you are exhausted; but make as comfortable bivouac as you can, and start at daybreak fresh on your search.
The bank of a watercourse, which is the best of clues, affords the worst of paths, and is quite unfit to be followed at night. The ground is always more broken in the neighbourhood of a river than far away from it; and the vegatation is more tangled. Explorers travel most easily by keeping far away from the banks of streams; because then they have fewer broad tributaries and deep ravines to cross.