ensible as
it may appear to persons accustomed to the use of fire-arms, recruits
are very prone, before they have been drilled at target practice with
ball cartridges, to place the ball below the powder in the piece.
Officers conducting detachments through the Indian country should
therefore give their special attention to this, and require the
recruits to tear the cartridge and pour all the powder into the piece
before the ball is inserted.

As accidents often occur in camp from the accidental discharge of
fire-arms that have been capped, I would recommend that the arms be
continually kept loaded in campaigning, but the caps not placed upon
the cones until they are required for firing. This will cause but
little delay in an action, and will conduce much to security from
accidents.

When loaded fire-arms have been exposed for any considerable time to a
moist atmosphere, they should be discharged, or the cartridges drawn,
and the arms thoroughly cleaned, dried, and oiled. Too much attention
can not be given in keeping arms in perfect firing order.

TRAILING.

I know of nothing in the woodman's education of so much importance, or
so difficult to acquire, as the art of trailing or tracking men and
animals. To become an adept in this art requires the constant practice
of years, and with some men a lifetime does not suffice to learn it.

Almost all the Indians whom I have met with are proficient in this
species of knowledge, the faculty for acquiring which appears to be
innate with them. Exigencies of woodland and prairie-life stimulate the
savage from childhood to develop faculties so important in the arts of
war and of the chase.

I have seen very few white men who were good trailers, and practice did
not seem very materially to improve their faculties in this regard;
they have not the same acute perceptions for these things as the Indian
or the Mexican. It is not apprehended that this difficult branch of
woodcraft can be taught from books, as it pertains almost exclusively
to the school of practice, yet I will give some facts relating to the
habits of the Indians that will facilitate its acquirement.

A party of Indians, for example, starting out upon a war excursion,
leave their families behind, and never transport their lodges; whereas,
when they move with their families, they carry their lodges and other
effects. If, therefore, an Indian trail is discovered with the marks of
the lodge-poles upon it, it has c