CHAPTER II

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TRACKING;

or, Noticing and Reading the Meaning of Small Signs.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

CAMP FIRE YARNS.

5.--OBSERVATION OF "SIGN" OR TRACKS: Details of People; "Sign" round a Dead Body; Use of Eyes, Ears, and Nose; Night Scouting.

6.--SPOORING: Adventures; Value of Spooring, How to Learn.

7.--READING "SIGN": Sherlock Holmesism; Deduction, or putting this and that together; Instances; How to Practice.

PRACTICES, GAMES, AND PLAYS IN TRACKING.

BOOKS ON TRACKING.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

_Instruction in the art of observation and deduction is difficult to lay down in black and white. It must be taught by practice. One can only give a few instances and hints, the rest depends upon your own powers of imagination and local circumstances._

_The importance of the power of observation and deduction to the young citizen is great. Children are proverbially quick in observation, but it dies out as they grow older, largely because first experiences catch their attention, which they fail to do on repetition._

OBSERVATION _is, in fact, a habit to which a boy has to be trained_. TRACKING _is an interesting step towards gaining it_. DEDUCTION _is the art of subsequently reasoning out and extracting the meaning from the points observed_.

_When once observation and deduction have been made habitual in the boy, a great step in the development of "character" has been gained._

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