It is remarkable, on taking a long
half-day's walk, and subsequently returning, after resting some hours,
how long a time the earlier part of the return journey seems to occupy,
and how rapidly different well-remembered points seem to succeed each
other, as the traveller draws homewards. In this case, the same cause
acts in opposite directions in the two journeys.
To Walk in a Straight Line through Forests.--Every man who has had
frequent occasion to find his way from one place to another in a forest,
can do so without straining his attention. Thus, in the account of Lord
Milton's travels, we read of some North American Indians who were
incapable of understanding the white man's difficulty in keeping a
straight line; but no man who has not had practice can walk through trees
in a straight line, even with the utmost circumspection.
After making several experiments, I think the explanation of the
difficulty and the way of overcoming it are as follows:--If a man walks
on a level surface, guided by a single conspicuous mark, he is almost
sure not to travel towards it in a straight line; his muscular sense is
not delicate enough to guard him from making small deviations. If,
therefore, after walking some hundred yards towards a single mark, on
ground that preserves his track, the traveller should turn round, he will
probably be astonished to see how sinuous his course has been.
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