Who needs a compass anyway? FIELDCRAFT FROM THE PAST CAN HELP GUIDE YOU IN THE BUSH BY CRAIG MACARTNEY An 1887 issue of the Shawville Equity came into our family recently and had a story with tips it said made compasses redundant. Quoting an old frontiersman guide, the publication recycled pioneer wisdom about finding your way in the woods. Don’t junk your map and compass just yet, but the
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Equity’s story was more than just “old woodsman’s tales,” and more than a century later nudged me into reviewing my own directional observations. The paper said, “There is no need of a compass while travelling through the woods … for there are ways of getting your bearing without one. Firstly, three-fourths
of the moss of the trees grow on the north side; and secondly, the heaviest boughs on spruce trees are always on the south side. Remember these things and you will never get lost.” Note that the writer wasn’t talking about sun navigation. In sunny conditions anyone can get a rudimentary bearing from the sun,
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