The Lost Art of Finding Our Way

The idea to write this book came to the author after a tragic accident in which a couple of young women lost their lives while kayaking on a foggy day. They didn't know how to find their way back to the beach. The book covers a very wide field of navigation both throughout history, across a variety of geographical locations and cultures.

We did not always have GPS, and we did not always have smartphones, and we did not always know where we were. It still happens that people get lost. At the beginning of _The Lost Art of Finding Our Way_ (Harvard University Press), physicist John Edward Huth tells how there is still danger out there. He once found himself beset in fog, kayaking off Cape Cod. It had happened before, and this time, before setting out, he had noted the waves, wind, and more. He was able to use these clues to get home even in the fog, but two other kayakers were in the same fog and were not so lucky, and he subsequently read about their disappearance in the newspaper. They didn't have his ability to read the signs, and when the fog descended, they probably were completely lost and paddled seawards. His book is dedicated to them, and if Huth has his way, there will be far fewer lost hikers and sailors. There are many primitive and refined methods of land and marine navigation described here. This entertaining book is not just a summary of such techniques, but an appreciation of the pre-smartphone cultures (Arab traders, Vikings, Pacific Islanders, and those scientific types from Europe, too) that used and developed them, and a call for us to lift our eyes from our screens. Huth encourages us to leave "the bubble" of electronic positioning and take a good look around. He has lead courses to train students in primitive navigation and it works. "I have found that students can become adept at reading star patterns, following the arc of the Sun across the sky, and predicting the weather. But to acquire these skills you absolutely must leave the bubble and look at the stars, the clouds, and the Sun."What do people do when they are lost? Lost people wander out in loopy, ineffective paths that cross back on themselves. If they are observant enough to realize that they are back where they started, panic can increase. Sometimes they use folk advice to rescue themselves, like walking downhill until they find a creek that will lead downstream to civilization; if the stream goes into a swamp, they are worse off. There's a whole list of other ineffective behaviors which lost people perform besides random walks, like following any game trail or track they come across or obsessively attempting to head off in one absolute direction. Some tactics can be effective, like getting to a high point to get an overview of the territory. Huth allows technology to intrude here: a high point is better for cell phone coverage, too. Basic land navigation starts with "dead reckoning," which was good enough for Lewis and Clark. Huth says you can gain skills in dead reckoning, but that even with a compass an experienced pathfinder can expect a precision within five or ten degrees at best. Estimates of distance covered, based on speed, similarly are subject to distortion due to terrain or fatigue. Especially interesting are corrections navigators have known for centuries they had to make. Light from a star bends as it goes through the atmosphere, for instance, and is especially bent from stars that are close to the horizon; these are just the stars a navigator will be looking for, since the job in sighting with the sextant is to measure the angle between a star and the horizon below it. Navigators are not restricted to looking at the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets. If you know something about prevailing waves, tides, currents, and winds, you might be able to pick up clues to location; the Pacific Islanders were adept at this sort of wayfinding. If you are stuck at sea and don't know where you are, you might look to the sky to see land-based birds that are fishing but will soon return to land, and they can point the way. Take care not to confuse them with pelagic birds that spend all their time at sea except for nesting. In the old days, when ships and life were slower, a sailor might take a jaunt at sea with no provision for navigation except to ask passing ships about location. Readers of _Moby Dick_ will remember that it was fairly common for ships stop and have a social "gam." Even now, a navigator can get clues from spotting ships in their traffic routes, and Huth explains how even seeing airplanes in the sky can give navigational information.Huth's book is sizeable, with good diagrams and maps. He is an inspired teacher, and obviously loves his subject, one that includes cosmology, physics, meteorology, history, legends, and psychology. You may not have a chance of using any of the techniques here. Huth warns, "All of these techniques are matters of habit. Reading about them can be a curiosity, but they need to be practiced." I'm not in mind to practice them, and chances are I am never going to need them, but Huth's guide to guides is fun to read, and is a little monument to human cleverness.

I agree with the other reviews that this is a terrific book. That said, you should know that its conversion to Kindle is pretty sloppy. It looks like the print edition was scanned and run through a character recognition process but then not checked for accuracy. For example, in the formula on pages 58 and 59 of the print edition for estimating the distance to an object there's a "division sign" character -- the one that looks like a dash with a dot above and below it. In the Kindle edition this is rendered as a "+". This is worse than wrong since it makes the author look like he doesn't know what he's talking about.Sadly, in my experience this sort of careless conversion is more typical than not for Kindle editions. I wonder why Amazon cares so little about the quality of its Kindle editions. And I wonder why authors and readers silently put up with it.

I bought this book on the suggestion of the Backyard Meteorology class I took online from Harvard in the midst of the pandemic. I, too, am a lover of the outdoors, having spent my life in the north country and many years working in the wild. The images the author describes brought me back to those places. I learned a lot from reading it and find myself watching the sky a bit more often.

Years ago my sister-in-law bought this book for me, perhaps not realizing that I have a whole library of books waiting to be read. Also, the odds are heavily against other people knowing what I like in books. To my surprise, this was one of the best books I've ever read--well-written, thoroughly researched, fun to read and useful. I liked it so much that--I bought a copy for a friend! Since his passion is sailing, I think it's a pretty sure thing that he'll find it worth reading.

Professor Huth really outdoes himself with this book -- rivals for layfolk his work on the Higgs hoo-hah at the Large Hadron Collider. It's a fascinating collage of historical, theoretical and practical material. Anybody with an interest in one or more of those areas of navigation will find lots of things they can use and many nuggets to interest them in the other areas. For example, "the tidal bulge is, effectively, a very long wave" -- who woulda thought! And from there to "You can think of a partly trapped body of water as a bell that rings with a distinct pitch of frequency if you hit it... water will slosh back and forth with a unique frequency...", and "The two areas with the highest tides on the planet are in Ungava Bay in Northern Quebec and the Bay of Fundy...".Who could resist!

I am a firm believer in evolution, which is essentially based (with some other minor participants) in fossils and the genetic code (same coding triplets for aminoacids from beginning to the end). I think Haldane said he would not believe in evolution if they found a rabbit fossil in the Jurassic. The author of this book mentions the fossils (rapidly) but then takes off on all the problems that beset the proponents of intelligent design, and worse, even those people who believe in the Bible's story. At one point, I was not sure I was still an evolutionist.... I am an evolutionist, but I do not need the contortions of the present author. And in too many places, he makes statements that he does not support, behaving in this respect like a very religious person, who is contented with the truth of the Bible story. Evolution does not need these kinds of defenders, it is proven and if you want to put in its middle a God, you have to explain why, as far as I am concerned, evolution is real and can do without any God to explain it. It is immaterial if God sill exists, he is not needed to explain evolution. Period. Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta.

Whilst searching for various books on Amazon came across this brilliant one by John E Huth: The Lost Art of Finding Our Way - accidently and as someone who has done global overland travel in the days befoe the advent of Global Position System(GPS), Smart-phones and Google etc. The book covers 'primitive' navigation techniques such as reading Star Patterns, following the arc of the Sun across the sky, and predicting the weather which includes (Arab Traders, Viking and Pacific Islanders). The book mentions the example of the world famous Muslim Polymath/Scientist: Abu Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Biruni (c AD 973-1048).The book refers to Al Biruni's "Dip-Angle method, even using a large astrolabe as a dramatic prop, and illustrate the technique, giving the dip-angle formula. He (Huth) concludes: "with this formula, Biruni's able to arrive at a value for the cirumference of the earth that is within 200 miles of the exact value we know it to be today, about 25,000 miles. That's to within an accuracy less than one per cent; a remarkable achievement for someone a thousand years ago" (Jim al-Khalili, Science and Islam, Episode 2, Power of Reason, BBC 4, Jan 12, 2009).In a nuthshell, the book has excellent diagrams and maps. The Huth's background in Physics comes into play and is very inspirational and his labour of love of subjects including Scientific, Meteorological, Cosmological and Psychological. Huth powerfully argues that reading about them can be a curiousity, but they need to be practical.A highly recommended book and a must have for those interested in the great outdoors and travelling. Also, worth reading Tristan Gooley paperback -The Walkers Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs: Explore Great Outdoors from your armchair.

I took a free online course called "Backyard Meterology". This book was recommended on that course. Chapter 12 "Red Sky at Night" is its basis. The book is a compilation of science fact, experiences and homespun sayings that our forebears relied upon to get them from one place to another. I would recommend this book to anyone to ignite their sense of adventure and awaken their curiousity about how things work in the natural world.

Já anteriormente dei opiniões sobre livros que comprei e foi-me sempre dito que a minha opinião não estava em condições de ser publicada, por isso não valerá a pena manifestar a minha opinião outra vez

I purchased this book to provide backgroung to a meteorological course that I was studying. I was pleasantly surprised to find that although there were some pretty technical aspects it was also an interesting read with explanations of how different civiliations learned to find there way around the world, fascinating stuff. Vry readable.

Okay, all techniques he culls from common sense, history, innovation and maybe a blind stroke of luck, but the way that he stacks these together to form an aegis really blew my mind. This book is for anyone who likes to look back in time in order to see the future.