Table Of ContentALSO BY TRISTAN GOOLEY
The Natural Navigator
The Natural Explorer
How to Connect with Nature
For Sophie, Benedict and Vincent
THE LOST ART OF READING NATURE’S SIGNS: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the
Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals—and Other Forgotten Skills
Copyright © Tristan Gooley, 2014
Image p. 136 top © Shutterstock.com; All other illustrations © Neil Gower
First published in the UK as The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs by Sceptre, 2014
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online
reviews, no portion of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any
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trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and The Experiment was aware of a trademark
claim, the designations have been capitalized.
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Excerpt from What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young.
Copright © 2012 by Jon Young. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Company. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gooley, Tristan.
The lost art of reading nature’s signs : use outdoor clues to find your way, predict the weather, locate
water, track animals--and other forgotten skills / Tristan Gooley ; illustrations by Neil Gower.
pages cm
“First published in Great Britain in 2014 as The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs: Their
Meaning and the Art of Making Predictions and Deductions by Sceptre.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61519-241-0 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-61519-242-7 (ebook) 1. Outdoor life--Handbooks,
manuals, etc. 2. Orienteering--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.
GV200.4.G648 2015
796.5--dc23
2014041221
ISBN 978-1-61519-241-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-61519-242-7
Cover design by Sarah Smith
Manufactured in the United States of America
Distributed by Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
Distributed simultaneously in Canada by The University of Toronto Press
First printing July 2015
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
CONTENTS
A Note to Readers
Introduction
1. Getting Started
2. Ground
3. Trees
4. Plants
5. Mosses, Algae, Fungi and Lichens
6. A Walk with Rocks and Wildflowers
7. Sky and Weather
8. Stars
9. Sun
10. Moon
11. A Night Walk
12. Animals
13. A Walk with the Dayak—Part I
14. City, Town and Village
15. A City Walk with Invisible Snakes
16. Coast, Rivers and Lakes
17. Snow and Sand
18. A Walk with the Dayak—Part II
19. Rare and Extraordinary
20. The Breakthrough
21. Your Invisible Toolbox
Appendix I: Distances, Heights and Angles
Appendices II–IV
Sources, Notes and Further Reading
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
A NOTE TO READERS
I
HAVE SPENT MORE THAN TWO DECADES walking the woods and towns and
countryside and coast near my home and throughout the rest of England, where
I’m from. On my journeys I’ve collected notes on hundreds of nature’s signs
hidden in plain sight—the sun, moon, stars, sky, plants and animals that, upon
closer inspection, often reveal clues to a deeper understanding of the
environment.
A good deal of the things I’ve seen can be found in many places in the US,
but, inevitably, I’ll refer to some plants and animals that the reader may not be
familiar with. Where possible, I’ve enlisted the help of Marc Williams, an
ethnobotanist from North Carolina and someone who, like me, spends much of
his time carefully observing nature, to incorporate signs and species that
American readers may find in their own backyards.
I should also mention here that some of my very favorite outdoor clues are
the ones I’ve learned far from home. I’ve traveled to places as remote as Borneo
and the Sahara, where I’ve walked among the Dayak and Tuareg to learn their
ancient customs for reading the land. I come away with a better understanding of
concepts and principles that will change the way I look at the land back home,
and with a deeper sense of how the world around us offers up her secrets to those
who take the time to look, in ways I’d never imagined.
Lastly, a note on species identification: to get the most out of this book, I
recommend readers carry one or more field guides as they venture outdoors, as I
do on most of my walks. The Internet is proving a wonderful resource in helping
with identification too. There are countless specialist websites that will help you
as you build your collection of clues, and I am always adding new images and
material to my own website, naturalnavigator.com.
INTRODUCTION
T
EN YEARS AGO I WAS WALKING along a beach in Brittany, relaxing after a tiring
journey. A young couple emerged from what appeared to be an upmarket hotel
and crossed in front of me. From their choice of swimwear, their hairstyles and
their body language, they gave the impression of being Continental Europeans.
The few words of conversation I overheard confirmed them as Italians.
The couple paused as the first wave washed over their feet and then they did
what a lot of people do at this point: they subconsciously checked their valuable
items of jewelry. Both their right hands moved to the fingers on their left hands
and it was this that drew my attention to the wedding rings. It did not take a huge
leap from there, given their age and the luxuriousness of the hotel, to surmise
that they were probably on their honeymoon.
I had built a limited picture of this couple in less than ten seconds, using very
basic techniques of deduction that are fairly familiar thanks to the countless
detective stories that rely on this type of observation and logical thought. These
simple thought processes have earned the nickname “Holmesian,” after the
fictional detective who exemplified the art of analyzing strangers in this way.
Toward the end of the day, I saw the same couple again. They had started
building a fire on the beach. Using the clues I could see on the beach, including
the birds, the lichens on the rocks, the insects, the clouds, the sun and the moon,
I worked out that the sun would set in forty minutes, the sky would cloud over
shortly after that, rain would follow soon after and the tide would extinguish
their small bonfire half an hour after sunset.
If the couple had plans of a night of stargazing by the fire, then the sea and
sky had other plans. They’d be forced to retire early, which in the circumstances
would probably be no great tragedy. A pair of astronomers may have been
disappointed by the passage of events that night, but a pair of honeymooners
might well be delighted.
