‘We have been like hunters who have lost the points of the heavens and from whom the sun has been held for days,’ said Hawk-eye, turning away from his companions. The Last of the Mohicans. J. Fenimore Cooper.

Had Hawk-eye been able to obtain a compass he would have rated it second only in value to his famous rifle “kill-deer.” In the Leather Stocking Tales, Cooper’s scouts are represented as telling directions, when the sun was obscured, by observing on which side of a tree of the forest the moss grew thickest. As a youngster playing at scouting I made many attempts to put this little gem of scouting lore into practice without any success, and have long since learned to depend on the magnetic compass for direction. The sun is a dependable guide, but there is no assurance that it will be visable when the need to determine a proper course is an immediate necessity.

A simple incident proved to me the value of a pocket com pass. With a companion, I was hunting birds on a day in late November over terrain which was relatively flat, and made up of abandoned farm lands owned by a mining company. The day was overcast but the sun was visable through the haze. We were hunting over land with which we were well acquainted and knew the general direction to hunt in order to return to a summer camp where we had parked our car. About three in the afternoon the wind increased in force, and suddenly it began to snow. As the snow flakes increased in numbers, it became increasingly difficult to see for any distance. We had enjoyed a good day and the biting wind was rapidly making us feel un comfortable. We started to return to the car, and in the interval of time that it took to walk about 1oo yards, large flakes of snow blown almost horizontally across our front completely obliterated the familiar landscape and confined our field of vision, at most, to a few rods. While not unduly alarmed, the prospect of spending any considerable time, under such condi tions, in the open was not pleasant to contemplate. Even the two setters were satisfied to remain at heel and did not have to be admonished at intervals to remain there. Archery Equipment - Read More.