The black soil showed that the tract of land had been burned over.

On the banks of a babbling brook which wound its way through this open space, the hunter found tracks which brought an exclamation from him.

Clearly defined in the soft earth was the impress of a white man's moccasin.
The footprints of an Indian toe inward.

Those of a white man are just the opposite.

A little farther on Wetzel came to a slight crushing of the moss, where he concluded some heavy body had fallen.
As he had seen the tracks of a buck and doe all the way down the brook he thought it probable one of them had been shot by the white hunter.