IX

PRACTICAL HINTS--ADVENTURE ON THE SABIE--NORTH OF LYDENBURG


Experience teaches us. The knowledge that we have gained in this war we
must pass on to the coming generation. It may be of use in a war of the
future, or on some other occasion. Therefore Oom Dietlof will take this
opportunity to give his nephews in South Africa some practical hints
that may be of use to a burgher in his travels or in a war. If anyone
loses his way in the same way that I have just described, he must
remember the following way of finding the four quarters of the wind:

The small hand of a watch describes a circle in twelve hours, while the
apparent movement of the sun round the earth is in twenty-four hours.
The movement of the small hand is therefore twice as fast as that of
the sun. If one points the small hand of a horizontal-lying watch to the
sun at twelve o'clock, then the hands and the figure XII. lie in the
meridian as well as the sun.

In the northern half-circle the sun and the hands move in the same
direction. In one hour's time the small hand goes a distance of 360°/12
= 30°, and the sun goes a distance of 360°/24 = 15°. If at one o'clock
one points the small hand of a horizontal-lying watch to the sun, the
line that divides the acute angle between the figures I. and XII. lies
in the meridian. So one can always find the meridian.

In the southern half-circle the sun and hands move in opposite
directions, therefore one must point the figure XII. to the sun, and