By Gillcraft
Daniel Defoe, who lived two hundred years ago, wrote in Robinson Crusoe:
"It happened one day, about noon, going toward my boat, I was exceedingly
surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very
plain to be seen in the sand. . . . I went to it again to see if there was any
more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for
that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot - toes, heel, and every
part of a foot."
We can see the same effect for ourselves if we step out of the bath on to the
floor or on to a cork mat. We might not be so surprised to see it, but we might
be surprised to know that on the average two feet in every million might be
similar.
The study of human footprints is a very interesting one, and is not used so
much as it might be for the purpose of observation practices and tracking in
general. An evening in winter can very profitably be spent in comparing the
footprints made by two different Scouts. All the materials required are some
water and a flat surface, for which a floor will suffice.
Good and permanent footprints can be taken by using ordinary printer's ink.
The person making the print should step on to a metal slab covered lightly and
evenly with ink, and then step on to a piece of white, thick paper stretched on
a flat board. It is best then for him to make another step into a bath of
turpentine without delay!
Good boot makers now record a customer's Foot-Chart in the following way. A
thin rubber sheet (1/16 inch) is stretched in a frame which resembles a
photographic printing frame. Before stretching it in the frame the lower side of
the sheet is marked with ordinary "rubber- stamp" ink spread with a
rubber roller. The chart is fixed on the bed of the frame which is 'A in. below
the rubber sheet when in position. The customer steps on to the frame in
stocking foot and off again. When he does so the rubber sheet is pressed against
the chart below, and leaves a fairly accurate representation of his footprint,
while the stocking remains quite unaffected.
A collection of the footprints of each member of the Troop will prove of
great interest and afford scope for much comparison and a certain amount of
deductive reasoning. Incidentally, but none the less important, such a
collection may tell the Scouter that some of his Scouts need more care taken of
their feet than is being given them. Some may be flat-footed, some may have
deformed feet, some may have other kinds of foot trouble. It is a fact that a
great deal of suffering and permanent injury is caused by boys wearing
ill-fitting boots, more especially in families where boots are passed down from
one to another without any consideration being paid to the fact that the shape
of the second wearer's feet may differ entirely from those of the first wearer.
The value of the science of fingerprints has now been accepted, and it is a
matter of commonplace knowledge that a man can be traced by his fingerprints,
and that the characteristics of these prints remain constant throughout his
life. One cannot advance the same claim in regard to footprints with the same
degree of accuracy, but there are several instances on record of people being
traced by their footprints.
I remember a case of murder in which a footprint was the only clue. The
village headman had been brutally murdered. Alongside the body on a clean cloth
was a dusty footprint. The man who made the footprint, a close relative, was
found some hundred miles away, and the print was the only thing which connected
him at all with the crime, which he subsequently admitted.
A real professional tracker learns in time to be able to recognize a person
from his foot impression as easily as he can from his face.
In a certain Indian village there was an old Mohammedan who was much
respected, and reputed to be both devout and strict in his interpretation of the
Mohammedan law and practices. Early one morning the village tracker was
wandering idly down the street through the bazaar. Half-sleepily he said to
himself: "I wonder what Ram Bux," for so we will call the old
Mohammedan, "was doing out so late last night." Still half-asleep he
wandered on to awake with a start in front of the village wine shop, for he saw
that Ram Bux's footprints led therein. "And what is more," he said to
himself sorrowfully, "Ram Bux has not only entered the wine shop, but he has drunk therein, for lo! do I not see his footprints
coming forth from the shop like unto those of a drunken man?" And so Ram
Bux's prestige was lowered in the eyes of the whole village, for a devout
follower of the Prophet does not drink wine.
To show that it is not impossible to distinguish one person's footprint from
another I will describe the twelve chief features which go to make up the print
made by a human foot. (See p. 73.)
It is difficult to distinguish these features unless there is a fixed axis
and perpendicular to guide the eye, and so these have been placed in the
illustration. The true axis of the foot is a line that passes through the centre
of the heel to the centre of the big toe. From this axis the best perpendicular
is the line that just touches the lowest edge of the little toe. As a further
help a third line has been drawn from the tip of the big toe to the tip of the
little toe.
Having considered the illustration, it is now possible to make an analysis of
the particular features. First come the toes. The average person possesses five
toes, but I have seen people with three, four and six. Under each toe there is a
pad which is the only part of the toe that normally comes into contact with the
ground when walking. It can be easily seen how it is possible for the positions
of the toes of two different footprints to differ. Some are long; some are
short; some are missing in the impression, which is not an infrequent occurrence
due to a toe being doubled back by wearing ill-fitting boots. In some cases all
three inside toes are above the diagonal line; in some cases one or other or all
of them fall on this line. In some cases the second toe is longer than the big
toe. In some cases the third toe is furthest from the diagonal line; in other
cases the fourth is. In some cases there is a space between the second and third
toes, in others there is a larger space between the third and fourth. And so one
could go on, but that is sufficient to show the number of different pictures the
five toes alone could give.
In order to follow the other distinguishing features it is best to consider
the illustration geographically, and to imagine that the axis of the foot lies
due north and south, the toes being towards the north.
Behind, and separated from, the impressions of the pads of the toes lies the
edge of the impression of the sole of the foot. The only name I know for this
line is the Indian trackers' term zanjeri, so let us call it the north coast
line. Just as one coast line differs from another so does this line in one foot
differ from the similar line in another foot. Sometimes there are four convex
promontories; sometimes four concave bays. Sometimes there are three
promontories, or two; sometimes there are two, or three, bays. Sometimes there
is a gradual slope from behind the big toe to the back of the little toe;
sometimes there is a sharp descent which runs down below the perpendicular line,
and so on.
Keeping to the same terminology, and continuing our travels, we come to the
east coast formed by the outer side of the sole of the foot. I trust that it is
unnecessary to say that the illustration shows the print of a right foot!
Usually this line is fairly straight, but some feet have a bulge towards the
north, and others a bulge towards the south. Some even have four slight
promontories, some a promontory about midway down the line, and some a shallow
curved bay.
And so we travel round to the south cape, which is of course the heel. Here
we may find a nice delicate oval cape, or a bluff one; it may be long, or it may
be short; it may be pronounced, or it may be rather an indeterminate feature of
the landscape.
The west coast has, as a general rule, a longer coast line than the east, for
it marks where the inner side of the foot touches the ground. It is noticeable
for the great bay caused by the instep. If the foot is properly arched, this bay
is deep. If there is a tendency to flat-foot, the bay is correspondingly
shallow. Occasionally there is hardly any trace of a bay at all.
It will be noticed that in the illustration the axis crosses the bay, and the
length of this line from shore to shore is an important feature, which together
with the five islands lying off the north coast (the toes), and the three coast
lines, north, east, and west, and the south cape (the heel), give ten
distinctive features. There are still, however, two others given by the
impression of the sole of the foot.
One is the mainland, the ball of the foot, which varies greatly in size and
shape.
The other is the isthmus that connects the south cape to the mainland, and is
formed by that part of the instep which does touch the ground, the western bay
being formed by that part of the instep which does not touch the ground. This
isthmus can be short and broad, or long and narrow; it can be parallel to the
base line, or at an angle to it.
So when we consider these twelve main distinctive features of the human
footprint, and the differences that can exist among them, it is more easy to
comprehend the possibility of a trained man being able to recognize one person
from another by their footprints. If there were only three common types of each
of the features, and there was nothing else to go upon, the total possible
number of different types has been computed at 531,441!
In point of fact there are more than three common types of each, and these
twelve features are not all we have to rely on. Two very important features are
given by the length and breadth of the impression, that is, the length of the
axis from the tip of the big toe to the back of the heel, and the length of the
perpendicular from the outer edge of the little toe to the inner edge of the
ball of the foot. It is to be remembered that these measurements will not be the
same necessarily as similar measurements of the foot itself, and that it is
impossible to compare a footprint with the actual foot; another impression has
to be made and compared with the first.
Again many feet have creases, cracks, scars, and other peculiarities that all
show in a clear impression, and afford extra evidence for purposes of
identification.
When two impressions are being compared with each other in order to find out
if both have been made by the same foot, it must be clearly understood that, if
they have been made by the same foot, they will agree in all essential points.
If there are points of disagreement, and these have not obviously been caused by
an irregularity in the ground, then the two impressions cannot be attributed to
the same foot, even if they are alike in certain particulars.
It should be obvious too that a man's footprint will not look the same when
he has been standing still as it will when he has been walking, but I will leave
till later the consideration of that question.
Take for instance the murder of the village headman; when the murderer was
traced his connection with the crime was not clearly established until he had
walked unconsciously over a similar cloth placed in a similar position, and
under similar conditions in regard to dust, etc. The word unconsciously needs
emphasis because a man can alter the appearance of his footprints if he is
thinking of what he is doing. A shuffle as he walks, or the placing of the foot at a different angle to his line of walk, or a slight twist as the foot
meets the ground, will make all the difference to the impression his foot makes.
Training in Tracking
Outdoor Skills
