will be comparatively easy to keep your right course by consulting the
sun. A fair idea may also be gained of the time of day by the length of
shadows, if you remember that shadows are long in the morning and
continue to grow shorter until midday, when they again begin to
lengthen, growing longer and longer until night.

To find the direction of the sun on a cloudy day, hold a flat splinter
or your knife blade vertically, so that it is absolutely straight up and
down. Place the point of the blade on your thumb-nail, watch-case, or
other glossy surface; then turn the knife or splinter around until the
full shadow of the flat of blade or splinter falls on the bright
surface, telling the location of the sun.

An open spot where the sun can cast a clear shadow, and an hour when the
sun is not immediately overhead, will give best results.


=Wind=

The wind generally blows in the same direction all day, and if you learn
to understand its ways, the wind will help you keep the right trail.
Make a practise of testing the direction of the wind every morning.
Notice the leaves on bush and tree, in what direction they move. Place a
few bits of paper on your open hand and watch in which way the wind
carries them; if there is no paper, try the test with dry leaves, grass,
or anything light and easily carried by the breeze. Smoke will also show
the direction of the wind.

When the wind is very faint, put your finger in your mouth, wet it on
all sides, and hold it up; the side on which the wind blows will feel
cool and tell from what quarter the wind comes: if on the east side of
your finger, the wind blows from the east, and so on. Keep testing the
direction of the wind as you trail, and if at any time it cools a
different side of the finger, you will know that you are not walking in
the same direction as when you left camp and must turn until the wet
finger tells you which way to go. The wind is a good guide so long as
it keeps blowing in the same direction as when you left camp.


=Use of Compass=

Should you be on the trail and sudden storm-clouds appear, the sun
cannot help you find your way; the shadows have gone. Moss on
tree-trunks is not an infallible guide and you must turn to the compass
to show the way, but unless you understand its language you will not
know what it is telling you. Learn the language before going to camp; it
is not difficult.

Hold the compass out in a _level position_ directly in front of you; be
_sure_ it is level; then decide to go north. Consult the compass and
ascertain in which direction the north lies. The compass needle points
directly north with the north end of the needle; this end is usually
black, sometimes pearl. Let your eye follow straight along the line
pointed out by the needle; as you look ahead select a landmark--tree,
rock, pond, or whatever may lie in that direction. Choose an object
quite a distance off on the imaginary line, go directly toward it, and
when intervening objects obscure the landmark, refer to your compass. If
you have turned from the pathway north, face around and readjust your
steps in the right direction. Do not let over two minutes pass without
making sure by the compass that you are going on the right path, going
directly north.

[Illustration: Mariner's Compass.]

[Illustration: Common Compass.]

[Illustration: Big Dipper.

Little Dipper.

The compass and the North Star.]

Practise using the compass for a guide until you understand it; have
faith in it and you may fearlessly trust to its guidance. Try going
according to various points of the compass: suppose you wish to go
southeast, the compass tells you this as plainly as the north; try it.
Naturally, if you go to the southeast away from camp, returning will
be in exactly the opposite direction, and coming back to camp you must
walk northwest. After learning to go in a straight line, guided entirely
by the compass, try a zigzag path. A group of girls will find it good
sport to practise trailing with the compass, and they will at the same
time learn how to avoid being lost and how to help others find their
way. It is possible to


=Make a Compass of Your Watch=

Besides keeping you company with its friendly nearness, its ticking and
its ready answers to your questions regarding the time, a watch in the
woods and fields has another use, for it can be used as a compass. It
will show just where the south is, then by turning your back on the
south you face the north, and on your right is the east and on your left
the west. These are the rules:

With your watch in a horizontal position point the hour-hand to the sun,
and if before noon, half-way between the hour hand and 12 is due south.
If it is afternoon calculate the opposite way. For instance, if at 8 A.
M. you point the hour-hand to the sun, 10 will point to the south, for
that is half-way between 8 and 12. If at 2 P. M. you point the hour-hand
to the sun, look back to 12, and half the distance will be at 1,