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,
therefore 1 points to the south.

An easy way to get the direction of the sun without looking directly at
it is by means o