I knew the clouds were coming from the southeast, but Icould see no break in the clouds to verify their direction.
I sat down with my back to a tree, my elbows on my kneesand my face in my hands for steadiness of vision. I sightedover the dead limb of a tree for a base of observation andwaited for some irregularity in the cloud formation. Finally, Idetected a slight rift and watched it move very slowly past thedead limb. I scratched a mark on the ground indicating thecloud direction. I was so confused that I had to scratch theface of a compass on the ground and, from the then knowndirection, mark the positions of North, East, South and Westbefore I could establish the direction that would lead back tocamp. I had to make myself believe that I had been travelingin a direction exactly opposite to that of camp. I reversed mydirection, and it was not long until I was in familiar territory.
