John St. John

᾽ΙΟ. JOHN ST. ]ΟΗΝ οί weather, fog, blizzard, blight, by night or day, I know within 5" (usually within 2°) the direction in which I faced when I left that tent or hut. And if I happen to have observed its compass bearing, of course I can deduce North by mere judgment of angle, at which I am very accurate. Further, I keep a mental record, quite unconsciously, of the time occupied on a march ; so that I can always tell the time within five minutes or so without consulting my watch. Further, I have another automatic recorder which maps out distance plus direction. Suppose I were to start from Scott’s and walk (or drive; it’s all the same to me) to Haggerston Town Hall (wherever Haggerston may be; but say it’s Ν.Ε.)͵ thence to Maida Vale. From Maida Vale I could take a true line for Piccadilly again and not go five minutes walk out of my way, bar blind alleys, etc., and I should know when I got close to Scott’s again before I recognised any of the surroundings. It always seems to me that I get an intuition of the direction and length of line A (Scott’s to Haggerston bee—line ; in spite of any winding, it would make little odds if I went via Poplar), another intuition of line B (Haggerston to Maida Vale), and obtained my line C (back to Scott’s) by “ Subliminal trigonometry.” In this example I am assuming that I had never been in London before. I have done precisely similar work in dozens of strange cities, even a twisted warren like Tangier or Cairo. I am worse in Paris than 63