Before getting into how to walk on a bearing it is important to touch on the subject of the purpose of a compass.

Seeing as it is one of your best friends out in the wilderness you want to be able to identify as much about this nifty gadget as you possibly can.

For starters, the purpose of a compass is to show you where magnetic north is.

The Compass works of the planets natural magnetic field to show you where north is. By locating north you can quickly figure out where E S W is also.

A good way to remember where E, S, W, on the compass, is to compare it to an analogue watch and the first letter in the alphabet out of the 3 is E, then S followed by W.

Just follow the clock around and at 15 min intervals place the letters alphabetically. Obviously without starting with the letter N.

Now that you know the basic purpose of a compass find out how to take a compass bearing

Take your compass point it in the direction you are intending to walk towards, turn the dial with degrees on it so that the orienting arrow houses the Magnetic Needle and add or subtract the magnetic deviation (check out on your map to find out what the Deviation is).

Once you do that walk towards your destination making sure that you continuously keep the magnetic needle in the housing of the orienting arrow.